Dental health services research: What does it want, what can it do?

Health services research develops, describes, clarifies, and evaluates health service processes, outcomes and relevant factors that impact on service provision. A consumer/patient focus, contextual relevance and population-relevant pa-rameters in addition to individual-level assessments as well as multidisciplin-arity and multiprofessionalism are characteristic features of health services research. The relevance of health services research in Germany is increasing. Dental health services research should aim to (1) develop innovative, cross-disciplinary care concepts and to implement them, (2) consider the common risk factor approach and dentistry's role in medical services, (3) focus on consumer/patient preferences, and (4) target social and regional health inequalities. To allow methodologically robust and thematically broad evaluations, dental health services research in Germany needs to professionalize and to link with relevant actors in the healthcare system. Keywords: effectiveness, evidenc-based medicine, healthcare policy, methods, public health, research levels