Dental Insurance - Too good to be true?

flammable999

Quentin wrote: »

NHS max charge is £219 for a course of treatment (including crowns)


A number of dental cash plans don't preclude pre existing conditions - eg Simply Health Simply Cash Plan covers you from the date you take the plan out (which can be the date you visit the dentist and have a bill!)

They said: I can confirm that there is no overall limit as to how much you can claim for. There is however a limit per treatment type (you would receive the NHS equivalent cost of any treatment you have).

Thing is I took the policy out in June but I only went to see the clinic and got the quote five days ago. but like i said, its not as if I myself did not know I had bad teeth and needed work doing and thats the grey area.

flammable999

Quentin wrote: »

NHS max charge is £219 for a course of treatment (including crowns)


A number of dental cash plans don't preclude pre existing conditions - eg Simply Health Simply Cash Plan covers you from the date you take the plan out (which can be the date you visit the dentist and have a bill!)

Just had a look at the nhs charges myself. It is a bit ambigious. Like are the prices per tooth or per course of treatment? Because altho my quote says £200 per crown for example, the nhs band 3 charge as you have pointed out is £219 for crown work but say I need 12 crowns?

Quentin

NHS charge is per course of treatment not per item.

stator

flammable999 wrote: »

Just had a look at the nhs charges myself. It is a bit ambigious. Like are the prices per tooth or per course of treatment? Because altho my quote says £200 per crown for example, the nhs band 3 charge as you have pointed out is £219 for crown work but say I need 12 crowns?

Definitely per course of treatment. I had 7 fillings done on the NHS for one payment of £50

Toothsmith

In Scotland they still have a Fee-per-item fee scale - but there is a maximum course fee somewhere in the £300s I think.

So it depends ~which~ NHS you're using!!

flammable999

So I need 14 crowns doing, as well as band 2 and band 1 workwithin those teeth. If I can get allthat done for two or three bunches of £219, God bless the NHS!

Quentin

No. All you pay is the £219 to get your mouth put right. Assuming you need the treatment.

flammable999

Quentin wrote: »

No. All you pay is the £219 to get your mouth put right. Assuming you need the treatment.

succinctly stated!

Toothsmith

flammable999 wrote: »

So I need 14 crowns doing, as well as band 2 and band 1 workwithin those teeth. If I can get allthat done for two or three bunches of £219, God bless the NHS!

If you need that much work doing, it's unlikely the NHS would allow such advanced work on someone who's mouth is in such a state.

It is more likely that extractions and dentures would be the prescribed route, or at the very most, temporary fillings whist the 'issues' surrounding the poor state are addressed (Poor diet, poor oral hygiene).

Indeed - even with the private treatment plan - I would hope that there is a big push on educating you into why your teeth are in such a state, and it should begin with intensive preventative work.

If you don't know how your teeth have got into their current poor state, then you might as well flush all that money (be it yours or the insurance companies) down the toilet. The dental work will also fail, and you will be in an even worse situation in a very short space of time.

brook2jack

It sounds as if you are planning to have your treatment done in Eastern Europe. If this is the case then your insurance may well not pay out for treatment done abroad.

It should also be said that wherever you go in Eastern Europe the fees will be way more than NHS fees. The maximum you would pay even in Scotland or NI for a course of treatment is £300 odd.

For so much high value treatment most insurance companies would want to pre authorise and will not authorise treatment abroad.