As Christmas approaches, many of us are busy preparing for the festive season—thinking about when to put up the Christmas Tree, buying gifts in the shops or online, planning holiday trips, and catching up with family. However, there is one crucial item on your end-of-year checklist that shouldn't be overlooked: your private health insurance extras cover.
For the vast majority of Australian health funds, unused dental benefits expire on December 31st. If you don’t use your remaining allowance before midnight on New Year's Eve, those benefits reset to zero—you lose them completely.
Why Do Dental Benefits Expire on December 31?
Most major private health insurers—including Bupa, Medibank, HCF, NIB, Teachers Health, and CBHS—operate on a calendar-year cycle (January 1 to December 31).
Each year, your health policy allows a set amount for each area of dentistry, like:
- General dental check-ups and cleanings
- Preventative fluoride treatments
- Dental X-rays
- Major dental work (e.g., crowns, root canals,dentures, Implants)
Because unused limits do not roll over into the new year, any remaining limit simply vanishes on January 1. You continue paying your monthly premiums, but the benefit allocation for the passing year is gone for good.
How to Check Your Remaining Dental Benefits
Before booking an appointment, take five minutes to review your account balance:
- Log in to your Health Fund App: Most providers (such as the Bupa or Medibank apps) allow you to view remaining annual limits instantly.
- Call Your Insurer: Speak directly to customer service and ask: "What is my remaining annual limit for general and major dental?"
What to do now?
If you are due for a check-up and clean, give us a call or book online sooner rather than later. We will make sure we fit you in before the end of the year. Power Dental Practice is open 6 days a week for your convenience.
If you have any fillings, crowns, dentures or implants you were thinking about getting done, don’t put it off any longer. Some procedures take numerous appointments and some also require outside dental laboratories to do part of the work. This takes extra time, and these dental labs all have a cut-off date in early December to receive the work if we want it back before Christmas. Calling us too late can invite disappointment.
Special situation - dental implants
If you are planning a dental implant, it is especially important to get the ball rolling this year. Dental implant treatment involves 2 stages:a) placing the physical dental implant; and b) placing the crown (most commonly) on top of the implant. These stages need to be several months apart. If you are wise, you can place the dental implant this year and make a claim, then place the crown next year and make a second claim.
The take-home message is to get something going before the end of the year or you may be missing out on good and beneficial treatment AND missing out on using the health insurance rebates that are available to you. As they say, “use it or lose it”. Why not contact us now to schedule an appointment ?