Dental care

Checkups 

Healthy teeth have a direct effect on our sense of well-being and on the whole of our physical health. Consequently, regular check-ups of the oral cavity are absolutely vital, as gum diseases such as periodontitis and tumoral diseases can in this way be detected and treated in good time. Dentists recommend check-ups twice a year.

If anyone is worried about dental treatment, they should make sure that they inform their dentist of this before treatment. The dentist will sympathetically endeavour to make sure that any dental treatment is as free of pain as possible.

Regular dental care is the most important way of avoiding tooth disease. Everyone should allow three minutes to make sure that he cleans his teeth carefully at least twice a day.

Bonus book

Having check-ups at the dentist is worthwhile financially in the long term. People with statutory health insurance who are able to record at least one check-up a year in the bonus book are legally entitled to receive up to a 30% higher allowance with regard to the fixed allowance if they require dentures.

You can obtain a bonus book from your dentist. If someone wants to have more expensive care than the statutory medically necessary care, e.g. he would prefer a plastic filling in a molar rather than an amalgam filling, he should discuss this with his dentist before the start of the treatment. In these cases, the dentist enters into what is known as an additional cost agreement with the insured person. In this agreement, the insured person declares that he is willing to bear any additional costs of treatment himself.

Dentures

If a tooth is lost, it will need to be replaced with an artificial tooth. Dentures are regarded as

• crowns,
• prostheses and
• bridges.

Before dentures can be provided, the health insurance fund will need to give its approval. For this purpose, the dentist produces a cost and treatment plan which includes the bite and treatment stages:

• The cost and treatment plan is submitted to the health insurance fund.
• The health insurance fund checks the need for dentures and calculates the allowance for the insured person.
• The health insurance funds pay fixed allowances regardless of the kind of denture which you decide to have.
• For this reason, let your dentist know what services your health insurance fund will pay for. You will assume a proportion of the costs yourself.
• You will also have to pay for additional services which differ from necessary care yourself.

If you visit a dentist regularly, you will receive a higher fixed allowance. If the bonus book is kept for five years without any gaps, the fixed allowance will increase by 20% and, after ten years, it will increase by 30%. This allowance can amount to up to 65% of the costs of the necessary care. For these reasons, it is necessary to make sure that the bonus book is kept without any gaps. Patients with a lower income will be exempt from paying their share of the costs. The health insurance funds will only assume the costs of necessary care. Find out about the regulations governing hardship in the case of dentures from your health insurance fund.

Freigabevermerk

Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Soziales und Verbraucherschutz; Quelle: Health Guide for Migrants in the Free State of Saxony 17.04.2024