Dental Insurance: Why it doesn’t work…
- Alex Huszti
- Apr 1
- 2 min read
Dental diseases are 100% preventable.
Yes, I know that’s a bold statement. However, having been a dentist for the last 35 years, I know how to create dental stability (see examples below).
Strangely, the majority of my new patients are coming from either health fund dental clinics or practices that have a financial association as a preferred provider with one or more health funds. The majority of these patients have never experienced dental stability in their lives. And this story is a common one.
It starts with a filling (which often doesn’t work or breaks or needs to be replaced soon after it is placed). Repeated interventions result in a toothache. A root canal therapy is started, but either it doesn’t work, or the tooth is always niggling with pain (making it difficult to build confidence in the root canal therapy). Or worse, the tooth fractures in a catastrophic way and is extracted.
Invariably, the tooth is lost, and the cycle frequently repeats itself with another tooth.
Maybe you’ve experienced this cycle. These patients enjoy lower gap fees at these other clinics, yet they end up paying a price that’s much more than the money they save through lower gap fees.
These patients are literally paying through their teeth!
Any clinic that has structured its services around health fund rebates and being a preferred provider, is essentially structuring its treatments for the short term. This is because the patient’s health fund rebate starts anew each
year. There is no incentive to create outcomes that last 20 years – because next year is a new year, and with it comes a new allocation of rebates to be spent by the patient. So there is no incentive to plan for the long term.
This is why Belledental strives to deliver “teeth for life”.
Teeth for life is a long-term strategy. It is grounded in dental stability and utilises innovative, in-house, tooth-conserving treatments that save valuable tooth structure and are durable and repairable. If you’re sick of the health fund rebate merry-go-round, book an appointment at Belledental and enjoy the ‘dental boredom’ that long-term dental stability provides.
