This additional dental insurance is the most worthwhile

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Lerato Khumalo

A visit to the dentist can be painful – first during the drilling, then in your wallet. Insurance protects you from unpleasant surprises.

Anyone who wants to take out additional dental insurance can choose between dozens of good and very good tariffs. This is what Stiftung Warentest discovered in a study of 287 tariffs. The crucial point, however, is the question of which insurance you want and can afford. Consumers should take out their policies as early as possible: while their teeth are still healthy.

With private supplementary insurance, patients can also afford expensive implants, crowns or bridges. The testers from “Finanztest” came to the conclusion that expensive is not always better.

Of the 287 tariffs tested, almost two thirds received the Warentest grades “good” or “very good”. The top grade of 0.5 was given to a whopping 35 tariffs from the following insurers:

A 43-year-old model customer pays an average of 9 to 12 euros per month for good or very good rates from the customer type group “health insurance standard is sufficient”. These additional dental insurance policies cover the co-payment for standard care.

In the middle group “good and cheap” you have to pay 14 to 30 euros. Here the contributions to the supplementary insurance remain within reasonable limits, but higher quality dental prostheses are still possible.

In the highest group, “all-round carefree”, the model customer pays 40 to 77 euros per month. Here, the additional dental insurance reimburses almost everything.

Pay attention to the amount of which an insurer will reimburse 80 percent, for example; there are different methods of calculation here.

It is good if the annual reimbursement amount and material and laboratory costs are not limited. Also check whether the number of implants is limited and consider whether this protection is sufficient for you.

The doctor’s fee should be 3.5 times the fee schedule for doctors, i.e. the maximum rate.

No. In order to be fully entitled to all contractual benefits, customers usually have to pay premiums for several years – usually three to five. In the first few years after the contract begins, insured persons are often subject to maximum limits on the reimbursement of costs.

In addition, almost all insurance companies do not pay for treatments that are already underway at the time of signing. And treatment does not only begin when an operation begins, for example. Instead, according to the insurers, it often begins the moment the doctor first informs the patient of a problem, explain the product testers.

If you already have supplementary insurance and want to either increase the benefits or pay less premiums, you should ask the same insurer for a different tariff. If you switch to a new provider, you would have to wait a few years for the full benefits.