What happens to the child dental benefits schedule if you take your child to a private dentist?

If your child is eligible for the child dental benefits schedule provided by medicare dental, you won't have to pay for your child's dental work as long as the dentist is associated with this schedule. This is the case with most public dentists, which means you always have an option for where to get free dental service regardless of where you live. However, maybe you've chosen the option of going to a private clinic. Maybe you've always gone to this dentist who makes you feel comfortable; maybe it's just the most convenient option. Regardless of reason, you should know that many of these clinics are also associated with the child dental benefits schedule, but to make sure you're not losing any benefits with the schedule, there are a few things you should think about before booking an appointment for your child at a private dental clinic.

Practices for bulk billing

The major advantage with the child dental benefits schedule is that dentists associated with it uses it to bulk bill you. This means that as long your child has money left on their medicare accounts, the dentist won't charge you for the dental services they perform. They will give you an estimate of the cost before your child's check-up and then you'll need to sign a consent form to agree to the cost. However, if they bulk bill, it won't matter if the child needs extra work done, the bill will still sum up to one. This is the major concern if you take your child to a private clinic that is not part of the medicare schedule. The private dentist might not be able to bulk bill you, and this will mean that you'll have to pay for any additional dental work your child needs.

In the case they don't bulk bill

You should ask them about their ability to bulk bill you before you book an appointment. If they are unable to do so, you'll have to evaluate if you still want to go to this dentist with your child. If you still want to, as they might have been your family dentist for years and you trust them, you should ask them for an estimate of their different services. If your child doesn't have any particularly complicated dental health issues that'll require elaborate procedures or surgeries to fix, it might not be too expensive for you to pay for things yourself. You should also be able to pay things through medicare for most services, but you'll still have to put out with the money yourself. 


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