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Dental Treatment Costs
Dental treatment cost: Essentials
- Statutory health insurance funds in Germany cover only basic dental care and dentures, leaving you to cover the costs of any additional dental services.
- You must expect high additional costs for high-quality treatments according to modern dental procedures—for example, ceramic fillings and implants, but also for professional dental cleanings.
- Private supplemental dental insurance can be a valuable addition to statutory dental care in Germany. Depending on the plan, it can cover up to 95% or 100% of your dental treatment costs, providing a significant financial safety net.
- For expats in Germany, we particularly recommend dental insurance from the digital insurance companies ottonova, Feather, and Getsafe. They offer high-quality dental insurance policies and bilingual German and English services at favorable conditions.
How does health insurance in Germany work?
The two pillars of the healthcare system in Germany are statutory and private health insurance. Statutory insurance is significantly more important, with around 90% of all insured individuals covered.
As an employee, you can choose private insurance if your annual gross income exceeds the compulsory insurance threshold of €69,300. Freelancers and the self-employed can decide between the statutory and private systems without income thresholds.
Statutory health insurance in Germany — cost-effective standard benefits
The benefits of public health insurance are identical for all insured people. Public health insurance providers only cover standard benefits. Medical necessity and cost-effectiveness are the reimbursement criteria for treatment costs.
The contributions for statutory insurance are income-dependent. They increase gradually up to the compulsory insurance limit.
Private health insurance in Germany — individually agreed benefits and tariffs
Private health insurance offers a range of benefits agreed upon in the individual contract, allowing you to select a tariff that best meets your needs.
The premium you pay depends on the tariff’s scope of benefits, your age, and your state of health at the start of the insurance. Deductibles can reduce your insurance costs.
Private policies usually offer a broader range of benefits than the German public system, providing comprehensive coverage for your health needs. You can also use the services of private doctors who are not licensed by the statutory system.
With private insurance, you also benefit from comprehensive dental coverage. Depending on the tariff, up to 100% of dental costs are reimbursed.
What dental costs are covered by public health insurance in Germany?
Public health insurance covers the costs of dental treatment and dentures, provided they are part of standard dental care in Germany. You must pay for all other dental services and many modern dental procedures.
The cost coverage limits for dentures are particularly tight. A bonus system shall ensure that insured people use preventive dental care. For bonus benefits, you must have your teeth examined at least once a year and document the examinations in a bonus booklet. The following bonuses are available:
- Standard subsidy without bonus: 60%
- After 5 years with complete documentation of check-ups: 70%
- After 10 years: 75%
- Hardship regulations for people on low incomes: Reimbursement of up to 100% of the benefits of standard care
In addition, the allowances for treatments are defined by standard care. In principle, public insurance only covers the most economical treatment option. If you want more expensive treatment, you will have to pay the costs privately. In short, the public healthcare system only covers basic dental care.
Dental services without public health insurance cover
Various dental services are generally excluded from public health insurance coverage, meaning that you cannot receive any subsidies for them. These include:
- Ceramic fillings
- Full veneers made of plastic or ceramic
- Inlays and overlays
- Dental implants
- High-quality alloys for crowns or bridges
- In-depth functional diagnostics
High additional costs in public dental insurance plans
Even with subsidized treatment, the dental benefits provided by statutory health insurance are limited. If you would rather not pay for additional services, you must accept qualitative, functional, and aesthetic restrictions in your dental care. Such additional services are a high-cost factor without supplementary private insurance, as statutory insurance only covers the standard benefits. Here are some examples:
- Professional dental cleaning: In Germany, professional tooth cleaning costs between €80 and €100. It is an important preventive measure for lasting dental health and an aesthetic appearance of the teeth. However, statutory health insurance companies only pay for professional dental cleaning if there is a medical necessity. This means, you must already have periodontal symptoms.
- Dental fillings: Public health insurance covers only composite fillings. They cover €50 to €70 for posterior teeth and €100 to €250 for anterior teeth. Ceramic inlays cost between €350 and €1,000 per tooth.
- Bridges: Public health insurance only covers bridges made of simple metal alloys and up to €460 (without bonus). However, today’s dental standard is represented by ceramic bridges, which cost at least €1,500.
- Dental implant costs: A dental implant can cost up to €3,000 per tooth. However, your public health insurance company will only cover the €460 estimated for a simple bridge. Therefore, you will pay €2,450 out of your pocket. If you have taken out private supplementary dental insurance covering 90% of the treatment costs, your contribution for a dental implant will only be €300.
- Root canal treatment: These treatments cost more than €1,000 per tooth. Statutory health insurance only covers root canal treatments if the affected tooth is deemed “worth preserving” or the treatment preserves a previously intact set of teeth. Otherwise, you will have to accept tooth extraction.
What does private supplemental dental insurance cover?
Private supplemental dental policies offer comprehensive dental coverage, including all the benefits agreed upon in the dental insurance contract and the chosen tariff.
Private reimbursement and public insurance subsidies
If you have taken out a private dental policy, you will also receive public health insurance subsidies beside the private reimbursements. Your dentist will issue you an invoice for services outside standard care, which you submit to your private health insurance provider for reimbursement.
Waiting time and dental scales
As with comprehensive private insurance, waiting periods of up to 8 months also apply to private dental tariffs. However, tariffs without waiting periods are increasingly being found on the market.
Private insurance also provides so-called dental scales for its tariffs: In the first 4 to 7 years, treatments, and dentures are only covered up to certain amounts, with coverage increasing yearly.
After accidents, neither dental scales nor waiting periods apply.
How to find a high-performance dental insurance in Germany?
You can find an insurance policy that best meets your requirements by comparing different providers and tariffs.
For expats in Germany, we recommend the dental insurance policies of the digital insurance companies ottonova, Feather, and Getsafe. Their advantages include comprehensive benefits at favorable conditions and full digital service in German and English. Their insurance policies do not include waiting periods or age limits.
ottonova dental insurance
Our editors’ recommendation for a particularly high-performance dental insurance policy is ottonova’s 3 dental tariffs. This insurance provider has regularly received top marks for its dental insurance and service quality from the independent consumer organization Stiftung Warentest over the past 5 years.
ottonova Dental 70
ottonova Tooth 85
ottonova Tooth 100
Feather dental insurance
Feather offers 2 monthly dental tariffs: Basic (from €10.90) and Advanced (from €28.55). Its benefits include:
- Professional cleaning: Basic — €150 per year, Advanced — unlimited
- Dental treatments and prevention: 100% (Basic: dental scale €150 per year in the first 2 years)
- Dentures: Basic — up to 60%, Advanced — flexible choice of 80%, 90% or 100%
- Orthodontic treatments: up to the age of 21, in addition to statutory health insurance subsidies of up to €2,000; dental scale in the 1st and 2nd year €150 each, in the 3rd year €1,700
- Teeth whitening: €200 every 2 years, in the Advanced tariff
Getsafe dental insurance
The insurance provider Getsafe offers a monthly dental insurance tariff of €9.38. It covers:
- Professional cleaning: up to €80 per year
- Dental and periodontal treatment: 100%
- Dentures: 75%
- Treatment by private dentists: fillings 70%, dentures 45%
- No orthodontics
- Dental discount in the first 4 years
Conclusion
If you have public insurance, you should consider taking out additional private dental insurance. This protects you against high dental costs not covered by statutory insurance.
Good plans cover 70% and 100% dental treatment costs, dental implants, and other dental prostheses. Current dental standards are the benchmark for cost coverage.
Frequently Asked Questions — FAQ
Please ensure that your plan has no upper limits for the annual reimbursement of dentures or material and laboratory costs. Calculating such expenses in advance is impossible, so you must expect high financial burdens despite having insurance.
It is ideal if your supplementary private dental plan reimburses you for the actual treatment costs without considering subsidies from public health insurance. Some health insurance providers only include statutory subsidies for certain treatment categories.
No. Comprehensive dental coverage is also included in private comprehensive health insurance. Supplementary dental insurance is aimed exclusively at people with public health insurance.
The extent to which costs are covered depends on the chosen tariff and deductibles.
Costs for treatments started before the contract was concluded, which fall within the waiting period or exceed the dental scale limit in the first few years, are not covered.
