Reading and understanding the treatment and cost plan

The treatment and cost plan is the paper you receive before the treatment and submit to your health insurer. It is not a quotation in the usual sense but a form with a fixed structure – and anyone who has read one reads every further one in two minutes.

Part 1: findings and restoration

At the top are your teeth as abbreviations: what is missing, what is crowned, what is planned. Below that the findings, from which the fixed allowance follows – and the planned restoration, which may differ from it.

Part 2: the costs

Separated into the dentist's fee, material and laboratory costs. The laboratory costs are the item that varies most between two practices. Right at the bottom: the fixed allowance and your expected own share.

Part 3: the insurer

You submit the plan, the insurer approves the allowance. That is a formality as long as the findings are correct – refusals are rare, and when they happen they come with reasons. Only after approval should the work begin.

When a second opinion is worthwhile

Always when several thousand euros are at stake, when the extent seems too great to you, or when something has not been explained to you. More on this under second opinion.