ROUTE
Dental Top-Up Insurance
The public fund pays 60 percent of the basic option — an implant costs you €2,000–3,500. How the top-up closes the gap, and why to sign before any diagnosis.
✓ Checked: 15/08/2026
Statutory health insurance covers teeth far less generously than new arrivals expect: it pays a Festzuschuss — a fixed share of roughly 60 per cent of the CHEAPEST standard treatment. On a €2,500 implant that often means €400–500 from the fund and €2,000 out of your own pocket. Closing that gap is what dental top-up insurance does, for €10–40 a month.
COSTS AND DEADLINES
What you pay for on this route
- Implant without a top-up€2,000–3,500 out of pocket
- Dental top-up€10–40 per month
Amounts follow official fees as of each step’s verification date. Your city may charge a different rate — check the step itself.
› More about this route
The route runs through three steps: understanding the size of the gap and using the free options fully, choosing a tariff while nothing hurts, and running the treatment by the reimbursement rules. Step one matters more than it looks: the Bonusheft is free insurance built into the system. Five years of unbroken annual check-ups raise the fund's share from 60 to 70 per cent, ten years to 75. One appointment a year, fifteen minutes.
The decisive constraint is timing. Tariffs come with waiting periods of three to eight months and annual caps in the early years, and treatment already recommended or started is excluded everywhere. What is insured is the future, not the present — so the right moment is the one when nothing is bothering you.
WHERE PEOPLE MOST OFTEN LOSE MONEY AND TIME
- Taking out the policy after the dentist has recommended a crown. Recommended treatment is excluded by every insurer, and concealing it is grounds to void the contract without paying.
- Letting the Bonusheft lapse. One missed year drops you back to 60 per cent instead of 75 — on dental prosthetics that is thousands of euros for a single skipped appointment.
- Starting treatment before approval. The Heil- und Kostenplan goes to the fund and the insurer BEFORE work begins; the insurer usually replies within days with the exact reimbursement. Start earlier and you have given away your right to that review.
- Chasing a 100 per cent tariff. The price gap between 90 and 100 per cent is large, while the difference on a crown is a few hundred euros. For most people the optimum is 85–90 per cent including professional cleaning.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ROUTE
What do you actually end up paying yourself — in real numbers?▾
A typical implant case: treatment plan of €2,680, statutory fund pays €487, the top-up insurer confirms €1,973, leaving about €220 for you. Without the top-up, the same €2,680 minus the fund's €487 would have meant close to €2,200 out of pocket.
How long from signing up to an actual reimbursement?▾
Waiting periods are typically three to eight months, plus the caps of the early years: often around €1,000 in year one, rising thereafter. Once the policy is running, approval of a treatment plan takes only a few days. That is why you sign up early — the policy is a tool for later, not for today's toothache.
Treatment is due now and I have no policy — what can still be done?▾
No policy will help with the tooth in question, but three levers remain. The Bonusheft, if your check-ups were kept up: it raises the fund's share. The Heil- und Kostenplan, which you can discuss with your dentist — there is often an equivalent, cheaper item. And signing up for the future, because a first expensive tooth is usually followed by a second.
What matters more — the reimbursement percentage or the early-year caps?▾
The caps. A 100 per cent tariff with a €1,000 limit in year one is useless if an implant is planned, while an 85–90 per cent tariff with a limit from €2,000 will carry the real case. The percentage decides hundreds of euros, the cap decides thousands.