this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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Not in Europe etc.
Edit: But ok teeth are not 100% covered here ( Germany ) either. Of course, the health insurance companies also choose the cheapest methods. So that a private dental insurance is worthwhile. But you should take one that really covers everything later on.
This is just my experience, and I really hope and suspect it’s not indicative of German dental care generally, but it’s so audacious that I have to share it.
I got fucked as a new (edit: privately insured) arrival in in Germany. I went in to get a checkup, they wanted to fill a cavity, which is fine by me, but I had a minor allergic reaction to the numbing agent, which was only obvious afterwards. Not a big deal, I called them to ask what was used and they told me to swing by the next day and pick up a sample to give to the allergenist. That’s way more than I was expecting, but could be helpful, so sure. I go there, she apologizes and asks how I’m doing, and I told her not to worry, it couldn’t have been predicted, and itchy. The whole interaction was less than a minute.
She billed me for a visit, a phone consultation, and an “in person consultation” the next day, the latter two of which were each around €100. I called to complain, and got a “I don’t know how they do it in your country, but here dentists are respected” type response and they were unwilling to budge.
Two weeks later, I got billed for another phone consult, but I had notes this time. I sent them a letter with my notes from the phone call, noting that there was no dental conversation, and unless they’d like to provide me with their notes, I wasn’t paying it.
Then they billed me for the sample of numbing agent out of spite.
That is of course very bad. My argument was also more related to the population born here or long-term insured. I've also never heard of the cost of a telephone consultation. It depends on the personal consultation, but actually I only know costs from the actual treatment and the high costs depend on how long you have been insured (bonus). I am currently undergoing treatment (top quality with a correspondingly high price) which costs the equivalent of around €10,000, of which my health insurance covers around €5,000. However, I only have to pay the other €5,000 myself because I don't have any additional dental insurance. Otherwise I wouldn't have to pay anything myself.
But you also say privately insured, did you mean normal health insurance or supplementary dental insurance? Either way, I have to agree with you that you've unfortunately been left out.
Oh yeah, I suspect I was paying the foreigner tax, but I’m still a little mad, lol. I had a plan with dental included, but they didn’t cover anything except for the first visit, because I didn’t actually receive any treatment for the other billings.
I probably could have made a giant stink about it and either had the bills reduced/dropped by the provider or covered by the insurer, but I was new in the country and didn’t want to cause a fuss if it was in fact normal.
I can understand that. I'll be honest and say that I wouldn't know what to do in such a situation at first and would have to find out everything I could.
I had saved up a lot of money for the transition, and it was worth it to me to not have to fight another bureaucratic battle at the time. I honestly considered buying a fax machine because of all the paperwork I had to fill out in the first couple years, which I guess is not that surprising for immigrating to Germany. I began to understand Kafka a lot better, lol.
Fax... modern Germany 😁