Dental treatment and costs

Many people moving to France to live are concerned about health costs and rightly so. The health service here in France is generally accepted to be one of the best in the world and it can come as a bit of a surprise how quickly you can get an appointment for specialists etc. I have recently had a course of dental treatment so I thought I would share with people what the actual costs are over here from a first hand experience

Photo attributed to Irina Patrascu

up to date as to July 2013  and also to show what can be claimed back from the health service If you are registered here.

I have had quite an extensive course of treatments involving 5 fillings one extraction and 3 crowns including quite a number of xrays.

The fillings extraction and clean came to a total of 798 euros and the 3 crowns were 327 euros each making a total of 981 euros so 1779 euros in all. I opted for metal crowns as they were on molars out of sight but If I had ceramic ones they would have totaled over 2000 euros for the 3.

At the end of the treatment I had to pay the full amount due on the spot, however as is normal once you are registered here and on the health system a percentage repayment is made direct to your bank within a few days. I received a total repayment of 784 euros made up of 558 euros being 70% of the 798 euros plus 225 euros off the crowns.

The 225 euros was based 70% of a figure of 322 euros rather than the 981 as presumably this is classified as being partly cosmetic.

In addition, I have a private health care plan which allows me up to 250 euros a year for dental work. There are many health care plans at a variety of costs and cover so this will change depending on what you take out.

So in total I will have been repaid a total of 1034 euros from the total of 1779 euros I paid.

I hope this is helpful to others to give some idea of what to expect