Dentist

[LisaWebster87]

I need help.

 

How much is dental care?

Am I entitled to claim dental treatment through medicare?

Is there dentist which are cheaper which are just as good?

 

How does it work... I just want a check up and a nice little clean but have no idea how to go about it

 

 

xxx

[Guest Nick11]

Basically you pay for everything and get nothing back from medicare.

Aclean, polish and check up costs us about $150 each, but with extras cover it goes down to about $45 dollars.

My cleans and polishes normally take about 45 mins..not like the 10 minute cleans and polishes in the uk on the national health. My teeth are so much better and healthier now thanks to my ozzie hygienist.

A filling can cost anything from $100 plus.

One filling I had a couple of years ago came in at about $300 but with extras cover came in round the $100 mark.

My friend is having bridgework and root canal work doing and is costing over $1000!!!!

[sunnyside]

We are on a temp visa and have private insurance with Medibank. We took our son to the dentist at All Care Centre on Edward Street and he charged us as follows:

1) Oral examination - $45.50

2) scaling / Cleaning - $90.50

3) Adhesive Restoration (filling 1 tooth) - $142.00

 

Total bill was $278 but we had to pay only $124 and $154 was paid by medibank.

 

Hope the above helps

[Guest kangomik]

medibank extra's comes in handy. Not only for dental, if yoy want physio or back work then this can work out really cheap.

[LisaWebster87]

thanks everyone will check out medi bank

[Guest Pam777]

I just wanted to add that if you join private health insurance for extras then you could be best off seeing one of their reccomended dentists.

I manage a dental practice and as we are preferred providers for medibank and mutual community, that means that they tell us what to charge (keeping our fees low) and they pay a higher rebate back for you.

so if we charge $50 for something they could pay 60% of that or you go elsewhere and they might charge $70 and of that your rebate might only be 40% paid by your health insurance.

Also with medibank on most of their extras cover you are entitled to 2 free check ups and cleans each calender year. Mutual community have an offer that if you have certain hospital cover and extras then children up to the age of 25 that are on your cover will have no gap for their dental treatment (at one of their provider dentists)

Pam

[Guest Guest6899]

My son was due to have braces in the UK, we have been on the NHS waiting list for nearly 2 years so dont think they will be able to be applied now as would like to move around Sept time. Is something like this covered or is he just destined for bad teeth, lol.

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

A clean, polish and check up costs us about $150 each, but with extras cover it goes down to about $45 dollars.

 

Nick, would you mind letting us know (or PMing me if you don't want it public knowledge! ) How much roughly ish you pay for extras cover? Do you just have the extras cover, or ontop of 'normal' private health insurance?

 

We are still going through the budgeting etc thing, and trying to work out whether for the two of us (adults) it is better to pay insurance for extras, for the few times we will need it, or just pay the bill as and when we need work doing...? (Ie if we are paying $1000 a year for insurance, and only need a clean and polish each each year, we're better off just paying the dentist direct for that really).

 

Many thanks

[Guest Nick11]

Nick, would you mind letting us know (or PMing me if you don't want it public knowledge! ) How much roughly ish you pay for extras cover? Do you just have the extras cover, or ontop of 'normal' private health insurance?

 

We are still going through the budgeting etc thing, and trying to work out whether for the two of us (adults) it is better to pay insurance for extras, for the few times we will need it, or just pay the bill as and when we need work doing...? (Ie if we are paying $1000 a year for insurance, and only need a clean and polish each each year, we're better off just paying the dentist direct for that really).

 

Many thanks

 

Not at all.

We have extras and hospital cover for 2 adults and 2 children. It was $183 til this month and gone up to $193 due to government cutting back on its funding. From memory extras cover was about $75 a month..maybe $80.

 

Hospital cover isn't a necessity as medicare is on the whole pretty good..but for various reasons we opted for hospital cover as well as we will definately need it in the future.

[Guest Pam777]

extras cover is only worth having if you are actually going to use it, if you dont think you'll use it often then dont bother, just pay as you go.

I pay $55 a month for a fairly low level of cextras over with mutual community for a family.

ortho treatment is only covered after a 12 month waiting period. depending on what treatment he requires you are prob looking in the region of $5-6000

the treatment here is far better than the NHS so you do get what you pay for.

I have been in the dental industry for 20 years.

[Guest Pam777]

also just to make things slightly more complicated, for those people that have a chronic illness such as diabetes, asthma or heart issues etc, then there is a scheme where you could get a referal from your doctor and receive $4250 from medicare over 2 calender years towards dental treatment. your doctor decides if you are eligible and you need to have a care plan in place.

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

Many thanks guys its all mega helpful - we probably will go for the extras, as we both have pretty ropey teeth (just unlucky like that, despite a lifetime of *perfect* care they tend to just die on us!), and both wear glasses (at the moment - I might look into laser or those squishy contacts for overnight wear), but whilst its just us don't think we will bother with hospital, as we are both pretty healthy individuals and from what people say with the rebates etc don't really add up for us (after we have little ones we might reconsider though...). Oh, and of course ambo cover, but thats a given isn't it really?

 

Thanks once again, really helping

[Toni]

I find extras cover useful. I am with Mutual Community and I have used it a lot this year with glasses, physio, podiatrist and I probably need to go to the dentist.....I am a physical wreck! I personally don't have hospital cover but probably should. Medicare does cover you but you can't choose your own doctor although you do generally get good care in a good public hospital. The thing with hospital cover is that if you don't get it by the age of 30 then the rates go up by 2% each year you are over 30 - so if you are 40 when you first join up then you will pay 20% more than the recommended amount. This was done quite a few years ago now as an incentive (or penalty) for people to take out hospital cover.

[Guest Johnlee5757]

Well I don't know about Medicare but if you go for other dental care centres the price list varies from different location to location and even dentists these are too expensive.