Introduction
If a root canal treatment is pending to preserve a tooth, one is often uncertain and does not know exactly whether the costs of this procedure will be covered by health insurance or whether one has to pay for the procedure out of one’s own pocket. The preservation of one’s own tooth has a different significance for each person. In principle, it is hardly possible to make general statements about the costs of a root canal treatment, since it depends on the anatomy and the disease state of the tooth, the technique and materials used for preparation and root filling.
What does the health insurance cover for root canal treatment?
In some cases, the statutory health insurance covers the complete costs of root canal treatment. As a rule, the following criteria must be met in order for the treatment to be free of charge for the patient: the treatment must make sense and ensure that the tooth can be preserved. This means that if the treatment is not carried out, the tooth would be lost and the tooth can be safely saved by the intervention.
However, this requires that the dentist is able to make a tight filling up to the tips. For this purpose, an X-ray is taken beforehand, since the course of the roots is not always the same and straight, but the root tips can be bent, especially on the molars. A root canal treatment on the incisors is usually a little less complicated.
An x-ray provides information about this and the dentist can judge whether he thinks this is possible. However, it may also be that it is only during the procedure that he notices that it is more difficult to work on the canals than previously thought. If the tooth in question is a molar, there are three further restrictions imposed by the health insurance company, at least one of which must be fulfilled.
If the health insurance company does not cover the treatment costs, the treatment is billed as for private patients.
- The tooth must not yet be root canal treated
- The tooth is a front tooth
- The tooth still has 2 adjacent teeth worthy of preservation (the row of teeth remains closed)
- It is possible to receive a subsequent treatment (filling or crown)
- There is no critical prognosis for the tooth
- Thus, the first condition is that in the row of teeth in which the molar is located, the remaining teeth must be healthy so that the row can be preserved. If several teeth in the same row of teeth are severely damaged by caries, the condition is not fulfilled.
- The second condition is that if the tooth already has a denture, it will be preserved by the root canal treatment.
For example, if the tooth serves as a pillar for a bridge, the root canal treatment would preserve the bridge and the tooth. If the procedure were not performed, the complete bridge construction would have to be removed.
- The third condition is that the treatment must avoid a free-end situation. The tooth should represent the last tooth in the row of teeth, and thus not shorten the row.
