Travel medical insurance covers many unforeseen medical incidents and emergencies, but does travel insurance cover dental? Dental emergencies can make traveling uncomfortable and they’re often not something that can be put off until returning home. As with your general domestic healthcare insurance, dental insurance will unlikely cover you when you’re out of your home country. If you experience sudden tooth pain while abroad, you might be wondering if there’s such a thing as travel dental insurance or if a travel medical insurance plan may cover these expenses.
Does Travel Insurance Cover Dental?
There are a handful of visitors insurance plans that do offer limited dental coverage, but typically only for emergency dental care. Most comprehensive travel insurance plans offer dental coverage for acute emergency dental treatment such as broken teeth or an accidental tooth injury to an otherwise healthy, natural tooth if such emergency occurs while traveling abroad and after the effective date of the insurance plan.
However, it is important to note that travel insurance typically does not cover dental procedures related to routine dental care such as teeth cleanings, dental fillings, or dental checkups. Additionally, most benefits for travel dental insurance only offer coverage for eligible emergencies related to natural teeth.
What Does Travel Dental Insurance Cover?
Travel insurance with dental benefits typically covers emergency dental injuries that occur while the insured is abroad and that require immediate attention. Dental coverage may include some coverage for sudden, emergency situations like:
- Unexpected tooth injuries
- Sudden painful dental emergency
- Broken teeth
- Necessary prescription medications, anesthesia, and X-rays up to your travel insurance policy’s dental coverage limit
Each travel medical policy will differ in dental coverage offered, so it is important to review a plan’s description of benefits to understand what type of dental treatments are covered and any possible exclusions.
Travel Dental Insurance Coverage Restrictions & Limitations
Like other medical benefits, dental coverage may be limited depending on your travel insurance policy. The following restrictions regarding dental coverage may apply to your travel medical plan:
- Travel medical insurance plans usually only provide limited dental coverage, ranging from $100 to $1,000 for dental emergencies.
- Routine care, dental bridges, false teeth replacement, and damage to braces and dentures are typically not covered by travel insurance policies.
- Some plans may not cover teeth pain that is not related to an injury incurred while abroad.
- With some travel insurance policies, dental treatment must be completed before the traveler returns to his or her home country.
If you have a travel medical insurance plan that covers dental care and you receive dental treatment while abroad, you may have to pay for your treatment upfront and then subsequently file a claim for reimbursement. For this reason, it’s important that you save all documents, receipts and bills related to your treatment to submit during the claims process.
Keep yourself protected abroad in the event of an emergency dental or medical occurrence with a travel medical insurance plan through VisitorsCoverage. Get a travel medical insurance quote for your next trip today!
