tips on dental fees

Katykat

Sons dog has pet insurance with More Than. They told him that only emergency dental work is covered ( accidents etc). Willow is in pain with an abcess and also needs 5 teeth removing that are growing in odd places - one is in the roof of her mouth. The vet said that abcess is an emergency- but the insurers says its not an accident. Also, willow is covered for " incidental teeth removal" & we dont understand what this means. The vet indicated that she would be willing to "fill the forms in to get the best settlement", but I'd like a few tips please if there is any way to get the fees paid by the insurers. The total cost will be around £550.

rising_from_the_ashes

Insurers are notorious for excluding dental work - IMHO we cover our pets in case they need treatment and dental work is just as important as other treatment so they should pay up but, they've got us.

Although the abcess is an emergency, it's unlikely they will pay out for this as it's not arisen from an emergency (as you rightly say in the example of an accident).

As for "incidental teeth removal" - not 100% sure but I think this may mean that if a tooth has to be removed as a result of something that has happened during another procedure eg if the breathing tube dislodged a tooth and it had to come out as a result.

Good luck

spincandy

In my experience More Than are actually one of the better companies for paying out on insurances! Abscesses are emergencies and they do cause a lot of pain and they are by no means always caused by poor dental hygiene. I guess it all depends on how they're defining 'emergency'.

Your vet/ a respresentative of the vet will have to fill out the claim form and provide a clinical history. If your pet goes for annual check ups the history should show that its teeth have been checked and shown to be healthy at every visit, further highlighting that this isn't something that has been going on for a while.

You don't mention (unless I'm being particularly blind today ) whether Willow has had the treatment already or not. If she hasn't, most insurances can provide, in conjunction with your vet, a pre-authorisation, which helps a lot with the reassurance that finances are covered.

FYI, if the insurance doesn't work and finances are an issue, this is something that I would think the PDSA and the RSPCA will view as necessary treatment, so that may be worth exploring.

Katykat

Willow hasn't had the operation yet, booked in for wednesday. There is no question that she will have it done, we will pay for it if needed ( son & DiL a bit strapped as they had a baby 4 days ago) but its a bit annoying when they are responsible owners and they pay for pet insurance and take her for regular checks, but this isn't covered.

rising_from_the_ashes

It's very frustrating - my old boy needed his teeth "done" as many animals do when they get older and it was excluded. They also wouldn't pay for a veterinary diet which was to help control his kidney problems but paid for the medication - I just don't understand the logic (especially as the diet was to help control the condition = less treatment = less cost to the insurer).

spincandy

It is very annoying and I totally sympathise! Get your vet on the case of writing a letter to the insurance company! Most companies dental policies were written on the back of owners ignoring vet's recommendations for dental tx and the problems getting worse and therefore more expensive, but now it seems the companies are using this as an excuse to stop paying out for genuine cases like yours. It's definitely not fair!

(Congrats on the grandbaby btw )

elsien

Do you have the policy document, to check what it actually says? I've found that sometimes whether payment is made depends on how the vet words the claim form, so it would be helpful for them to see exactly how they've written any exclusions.
And don't forget if you're unhappy with the final result there's always the insurance ombudsman.