FAQs

Brisbane Prosthodontics has the Hicaps system installed to process your health fund rebate at the time of consultation or treatment. This means that if you have private health insurance with dental cover, you only need to pay the difference that applies following your treatment. For specific information relating to your health fund cover, you will need to check your health fund policy or contact your health fund provider. Health fund rebates are unlikely to cover the entire cost of your consultation or treatment, and the amount that they do cover seems to be dropping more and more each year. The Australian Dental Association produced an animation that illustrates what has been happening with your insurance rebates for dental cover over the last few years. You can view that 60 second video here.
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For more information about the declining value of health insurance rebates for dental care, please visit the Australian Dental Association website: www.ada.org.au/rebates

The term "preferred provider" refers to a relationship entered into beween some dental practices and some health funds whereby the health fund will try to direct its members to that dental practice on the proviso that that dental practice will charge the patient a certain fee on certain services. The fee is typically very low and in some instances may not meet the actual cost of delivery of the dental service in the normal manner. This may then force the practice to use a cheaper dental material or dental laboratory or decrease the amount of time available to undertake the procedure. In some instances, there are also some procedures that the health fund will not provide any rebate for, and this may limit the treatment options available for the Dentist and the patient.

Brisbane Prosthodontics is not in any contractual arrangement with any health fund to provide any services at any fixed or negotiated prices. You can be assured that your treatment at Brisbane Prosthodontics will always be the treatment that is actually the best for you and your teeth, and that the best materials and finest dental laboratories will always be used, and that the appropriate amount of time will be allocated to the procedure to ensure it is done correctly and without compromise. That probably means we are preferred by our patients, but "not preferred" by most Health Funds !

Sometimes it would be easier if a Prosthodontist was just called a “Prosthetic Dentist” – afterall, that’s what we specialise in. But if you wanted to be able to say the word properly, then it is pronounced as “Pros-tho-dont-ics”.

Our professional fees are determined according to many factors including the cost of dental materials, Laboratory charges, infection control compliance costs, Practice Accreditation compliance and of course our fixed overheads. Dentistry is a clinical profession and we essentially have to set up many of the same elements of a small hospital, in order to be able to safely and correctly provide our services to our patients. However, unlike a hospital, we do not receive any Medicare or other government payment, and hence the entire cost of the operation is paid for by the patient. We also have some additional safety and diagnostic equipment in our practice for the benefit of our patients, so you can rest assured that you are always receiving the very best of dental care at all times.

We go to great lengths to ensure that every visit you have with us will be as pleasant and pain free as possible. Whilst our procedures are performed under local anaesthetic (so you should not feel anything), we understand that sometimes people can be very apprehensive about the whole process. As such, we are pleased to be able to offer several options to help you relax both before and during your treatment.

We often have queries about what we can do to make a smile look better for wedding photos or other special occasions. It is true that almost anything is possible with modern dental procedures and materials and improving smiles is what we do best. However, depending on what is required, it can take time to provide the treatment you require. So if you want to whiten your smile or correct that crooked tooth in time for your big day, please try to give us as much time as you can beforehand, to ensure we can give you the result you are hoping for.

The Dental Laboratory (The Lab) is where crowns, bridges, and dentures are actually made. If your treatment involves the fitting of a dental prosthesis (like a crown), then our Dentists will perform all of the clinical work to prepare your teeth for the prosthesis, make the necessary impressions, and then fit the prosthesis for you. However, the actual prosthesis will be made by a Dental Technician and/or Dental Ceramist, working to our prescription. This person works off-site in their own studio or laboratory, and will follow our guidelines to produce the exact crown, bridge, veneer or denture that you require. Each prosthesis is custom made either by hand, or more often now, by a combination of a CAD CAM computer aided process followed by hand refinement by the Ceramist. However, for the utmost aesthetics, nothing beats a crown or veneer made 100% by the hand of a skilled ceramist.

At Brisbane Prosthodontics, we use the services of several Dental Laboratories as each Lab tends to have specialised skills in specific areas of Dentistry. Therefore, we will always work with the best Labs in their respective areas of expertise, to enable us to provide you with the very best treatment outcomes. The labs we use are located in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney, and Perth. Our Labs are not cheap, and they only use high-gold content (noble) alloys for our crowns. Although we sometimes request certain precision milled laboratory components from Sweden, Japan or the USA, we never otherwise outsource any of our Labwork to overseas laboratories.

At Brisbane Prosthodontics, we will normally provide the entire implant service for our patients. This means that we provide the implant surgery and restoration, unless other clinicians have been specifically requested to assist, as may happen in the most complex of multidisciplinary cases. As we are involved in all aspects of the treatment, we will select the best implant system for each particular case. Our patients can always rest easy in the knowledge that we will only ever use implants from the most reputable implant manufacturers (including but not limited to Nobel Biocare and Dentsply Sirona Implants - which are the Astratech and Ankylos systems), and the restorative components we fit to the implants will similarly be of the highest quality and come from reputable companies and laboratories. We DO NOT use cheap imported implant systems or components, and our patients can thus be assured of product quality and ongoing support for their implant restorations.

Unfortunately, no dental restoration will last forever, whether it be a filling, a composite build-up, an implant or a crown. However, some restorations are likely to last longer than others and we will always give you treatment options where they exist, to enable you to select the type of treatment that best suits your needs. Also, at the time you are given your dental treatment plan, we will give you an approximate expectation of how long your treatment may last.

Once your treatment is finished, we believe that the ongoing care and maintenance of your new teeth is a shared responsibility. We would ask that you clean your teeth regularly and well, maintain an appropriate diet, and ensure that you return to see us each year for an examination and any continuing care that may be required. In return, we will guarantee that your treatment will last as long as it possibly can before it is due for replacement. Thus, if a restoration fails in the first few years of service, it is possible that there may have been a fabrication fault or flaw, and in a shared care arrangement as described above, we would undertake to replace a faulty restoration for you at little or no out-of-pocket cost. For the full Terms and Conditions of Treatment, we would ask that you read the download link at the bottom of our website.

Modern dental procedures are relatively safe for most people who are fit and healthy. However, there are always some risks and pregnancy brings its own possible concerns and complications to treatment. In most instances, whilst there are no drugs or medications that would be administered to a pregnant person that are likely to cause harm to the mother or baby, it is advisable to defer all elective treatment until after pregnancy, to ensure that there is no possible risk incurred. Also, a heavily pregnant person may find lying in the dental chair for a prolonged period to be very uncomfortable, and for this reason we would advise against any non-urgent dental treatment at Brisbane Prosthodontics.

At Brisbane Prosthodontics, we have been able to provide treatment to some of the worst "gaggers" in existance !  Whilst not every procedure can be performed in all instances, we have been able to assist patients who have previously had difficulty obtaining appropriate dental care. If you feel that you have problems gagging during dental procedures, then please let us know during your consultation.

You may be able to claim some of the costs of your dental treatment as a tax rebate depending on your own personal circumstances. The rules for this continually change and this comment does not purport to offer financial or tax advice. We would thus recommend that you consult with your Financial Advisor to explain if a rebate exists and if it may apply to you.