Wicked problems: policy contradictions in publicly financed dental care.

OBJECTIVES: To review two policy issues that define publicly financed dental care as a "wicked policy problem."
METHODS: Historical review.
RESULTS: By demonstrating how governments have shifted their funding focus from direct delivery care, to public third-party financing arrangements in private dental offices, and by their willingness to fund composite restorations in public fee schedules, it is clear that the logic and sustainability of public programming needs reconsideration.
CONCLUSIONS: The current contradictions in public dental care programs speak to the need for policy makers to reassess their goals, and ask whether decisions are based more on political necessity than on a logical evidence-informed approach to the delivery of publicly financed dental care.