Summary
A visit to the dentist can cost a fortune. We discuss here what the average costs are and how best to insure against astronomic dentistry bills.

Going Private - What It Costs

We may all be forced to go private eventually which will mean some benefits, but, with the charges of private dentists scaling the dizzy heights we will have to brace ourselves to pay for it. At a private dentists' an examination, scale and polish costs around 60 pounds and a filling costs around 40 pounds and some charge a registration fee of 50 pounds before you have got into the chair.

You would be sensible to think that private dental cover would help but unfortunately it does not. Most insurers have stopped selling traditional insurance for dentistry because they were not profitable. They were left with rather large bills from people who had neglected their teeth for years then signed up with a dentist on a plan to salvage their teeth.

Insurers have put in place 'capitation' plans designed to spread the cost of dental payments and the most popular one at present is one called Denplan, underwritten by Axa PPP Healthcare.

A third of practising dentists (6,000) are members of Denplan and 1.5 million patients are registered with them.

Denplan Care costs on average 16 pounds per month and the customer pays in 6 installments which will cover any work from just a check up to having a crown fitted.

A prospective Denplan member will be assessed by a dentist and then be categorised into one of five from A to E. A person with healthy gums and no fillings will go into category A and a person with a history of teeth/gum problems would be in the E category.

A Denplan dentist can draw up their own scale of charges dependant on their overheads, which puts London dentists right to the top of the charges range.

There are two different scales of cover available - Denplan Care covers all treatments and procedures but nothing cosmetic. And Denplan Essential, which is the cheaper option, covers for routine checks, hygienic treatment and x-rays.

WPA has a providential plan that covers standard dental procedures up to 250 pounds per year or in the case of acute pain and swelling, up to 1,000 pounds. They charge 18 - 49 year olds 127 pounds and 96 pence and 50 - 69 year olds 162 pounds and 89 pence for this annually, and, on top the policyholder has to pay up to a quarter of the bill which is capped at 500 pounds.

There are also various cash plans in place to help to spread the costs. You can pay a small premium weekly and claim back cash lump sums up to a fixed annual limit. Cash plans are an alternative way to spread the costs. The Hospital Saturday Fund offers cash plans and is possibly one of the bigger operators. Their plan costs 2 pounds per week and entitles the payee to claim up to 70 pounds in expenses per year for dental work and includes check-ups, another 70 pounds for optical expenses and cash for other treatments, for example physiotherapy.

However, a plan like this is only really likely to be profitable if you claim for all the benefits and not just the dental one. The ceilings that are set by these sorts of plans for payouts on treatment tend to be less than the premium costs.