Dental surgery is hospital treatment for surgery to the teeth and gums.

Hospital cover: That means you’ll need the right type of hospital cover if you want us to help with the bill for the hospital costs (like accommodation fees). Waiting periods apply to dental surgery, and you can check these in your product guide. For dental surgery required in hospital (or day surgery), this is 2 months if there are no pre-existing conditions, and 12 months where there’s a pre-existing condition. A pre-existing condition is one that, in the opinion of a Medical Practitioner appointed by ahm, the signs or symptoms of which existed at any time in the 6 months leading up to the day you became insured.

It’s also good to understand that even though your hospital cover can help with the hospital and aneasthetist bills, your extras cover will help with the dentist’s fees (if you have it included). There are different waiting periods for each service, which you can check in the product guide.

Extras cover: Separate to dental surgery included on some hospital cover, there are other dental services that are included in our extras cover too. Waiting periods apply to these as well – for general dental services (such as fillings) the waiting period is usually 2 months (however, refer to your product guide to confirm if this applies to you) and for complex and major dental the waiting period is 12 months.

Major dental is included in some Extras cover and includes treatments like indirect restorations, crowns, veneers, bridgework, implants and dentures. Some of these treatments can be done at the dental clinic or as an admission to hospital or day surgery. On our Extras cover, wisdom teeth removal is included under ‘general dental’ not ‘major dental’.