I got dental insurance!

When I first arrived in Switzerland a couple years ago, I was told (can't remember where from, but I must've deemed the source reliable at the time) that if you've had some filings in your teeth, then getting dental insurance in Switzerland is going to be a very difficult task - aka, it would be close to impossible to get dental insurance approved.

Anyhow, I've always had private/supplementary insurance from Visana since I moved here. And while I was bored the other day, I started reading the description of the various add-ons Visana offers in addition to the supplementary insurance. Dental coverage is one of these possible add-ons. I can't remember what I was thinking, but I somehow decided to send them an email asking for dental insurance. The CSR replied and said that I should be eligible as long as there is no foreseen work to be done at the time when I take out such insurance. I will, however, need to go to my dentist and get a form filled out along with some x-rays showing that everything has been taken care of. Great new, I thought, so finally completed the dentist visit which was very easy since I don't need anything done. And I got the letter from Visana for the dental coverage as well ... now just waiting for the premium slip, I guess once I pay, then I'll be 100% sure

I am so happy about this given how much money I've spent paying the dentists here and back in the states . My dental insurance in the states has always paid off and was perhaps the best investment I've ever made!

All in all, just want to tell others on EF who might be interested that dental insurance in Switzerland is not impossible to get even when you've had lots of filings, crowns, etc. already.

There are various waiting periods for the different procedures, but preventive work doesn't have waiting periods.

Hi, health insurance remains a mystery and complicated to me after 18 months of paying. I have Sana24 for basic and Visana for supplementary. Thinking of cancelling Visana as I can't see the benefit. Never received any benefit but reading your thread suggest there is some possible small return to be had on all the premium expense.

Did you have to ask specifically for dental cover or having Visana meant you are are covered ?

Do you have to go to specific dentists ? I much strongly prefer to go to a UK dentist for lower prices and easier communication.

Would a checkup be covered ?

A clean ? I would class these as preventative.

Whitening (pretty sure not) ?

What would these cost roughly?

Thanks for any pointers.


...Still searching forum tonight, maybe I will find some answers.

Generally dental for adults here is pretty limited. As alread mentioned there are usually waiting periods before your cover is effective on certain treatments and that there is also an upper limit each year to the cover which in some cases is easily reached.

This is not uncommon here and the most likely cover is that children are covered to around 18-20years of age.

What you will then find is that a fund will say yes you can take out the insurance but read the small print first since it may also mean you will have a qualifying period before your cover is effective of 12-24months. This may limit you if you want to change insurers in a year for cost reasons that you will face the same qualifying period again. Take a closer look at the conditions since dental cover does not mean 100% cover straight away.

If you only want to cover the preventative better off skipping across the border or using a dental hygenist. Dental hygenist will cost 100-200CHF depending on city or away from city as the rate charged by dentists is based on the tax rates where they are based. In germany expect to pay 30-50% less then the swiss rates.

For these reasons we don't have the cover and while I am not from the UK any one with NHS type entitlements in the UK is better to keep using those. It is also the case here that dental hygenists are much more affordable option and skipping across the border to germany is significantly more affordable then using a swiss dentist besides most of them are german trained in this area anyway.

language is usually not an issue with dentists in the german speaking locations as most dentists being well educated have strong english however having reasonable german yourself is also useful as your correspondence will not be english (but heh there is always google translate) and receptionists vary.