Turns out dental isn't covered the way I assumed, and one filling cost me a small fortune. Nobody warns you that 'healthcare' and 'dental' can be two completely separate worlds here. How do you budget for teeth — private dental insurance, a treatment fund, or flying home for the big stuff?
Got a separate dental plan after an almost identical shock bill. Paid for itself within the year for me.
Same shock, wish I’d known before rather than after.
I fly home for major dental work specifically — in my case it works out cheaper even accounting for flights, though that obviously depends heavily on where “home” is for you.
Does a dental plan actually cover routine cleanings too, or just the expensive emergency stuff?
Mine covers routine cleanings and a portion of bigger work, though the exact split varies a lot by provider — worth reading the specific policy rather than assuming.
OP here — signed up for a plan after this thread, wish I’d asked the question here sooner instead of learning it the expensive way.
Following, dental has been sitting on my worry list for a while now.
Paolo, I'll offer a slightly happier dental story, since this thread is otherwise making me clench my jaw.
I arrived in Portugal with a crown that had been giving me trouble for a year, fully prepared to fly back to England to deal with it. A neighbour sent me to her dentist, a very calm woman who spoke better English than I do and had a small practice above a pharmacy. She explained everything, showed me the X-ray, gave me a written quote before doing anything, and fixed it over two appointments. The quote was exactly what I paid, which is more than I can say for my old dentist in Reading.
What I took from it:
The trick, I think, is to treat dental as its own line in the budget rather than as a surprise.
The kids' check-ups were covered through a government scheme here, but adults are on their own. We budget it as Ben says.
Written estimate before anything. Always.