Top dental insurance compared

About Top dental insurance compared

Dental insurance looks simple until two plans sit side by side and the difference in what they pay across a year of treatment becomes obvious. This ranking covers dental plans from 45 brands, a mix of insurers, brokers and comparison sites working across Europe and the Americas. The trade-off readers weigh is cost against what a plan really pays: a low premium with a low cap can cost more over a full year of treatment than a higher premium with a higher cap, and the median starting premium in this category sits at €14.42. The second question is who carries the risk, because a broker or a comparison site places you with an underwriter and leaves the dental terms to them. The third is the practical one: how you pay, who you call when a treatment bill arrives and how a claim is filed. Every brand here is written up on the same basis, with the fee, the cap and the claim route taken from the brand's own terms.

How we picked

Each brand is scored on three things, and the weights are published so the order can be argued with. Trust carries the largest share at 40%, cost counts for 35%, and the offer counts for 25%. Trust looks at who stands behind the contract, how long the company has traded and how a claim is actually made. Cost reads the starting premium on file rather than a promotional headline. The offer looks at the breadth of cover, the caps applied to it, the excess and the support and claims routes. Every entry is drawn from the brand's own published material, which is why the wording of a limit or a fee follows the source. Data on 45 brands sits behind the comparison, of which 32 are licensed. Partners are listed first where a commercial relationship exists, and this ranking has 0 partners, so every brand here is ordered on score alone. Pricing runs on a monthly model for 100% of the ranked brands, and 60% of them are insurers rather than brokers or comparison sites.

Our top picks

1. 4. ERGO Group Deutschland

   ERGO Group Deutschland is in this ranking as an established insurer with dental inside a broad book covering auto, home, life, health, travel, motorcycle and income protection, backed by ERGO Group AG. Premiums start at €3.90 on a monthly model, and claims can be raised by online and phone. The trade-off is self-service: support runs on email, chat and phone, which leaves out a help centre, so answers on a dental claim lean on email, chat and phone rather than written guidance. Against DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG, next in this ranking, the choice here is range rather than focus.

   • Premium from: €3.90
   • Insurance types: Auto, Home, Life, and 5 more
   • Provider type: Insurer

   Pros

   • Premiums start at €3.90 on the Smart home policy, below the site median of €8.37
   • Monthly payments are available, so the cost spreads across the year rather than landing in one bill
   • Support runs on email, chat and phone, so you can reach a person on chat, email or phone
   • Cover spans auto, home and life under one legal entity, ERGO Group AG

   Cons

   • The starting premium of €3.90 belongs to the Smart home policy for a small flat, so it reads as an entry point rather than a price for a larger home
   • The age band shown is Under 36 (13% start bonus for young people), so the starting price applies to a narrower group
   • Support runs on email, chat and phone only, with no branch or broker option listed
   • Business cover is limited to public liability, cyber and property, so a company needing professional or employers liability looks elsewhere

2. 5. CHECK24

   CHECK24 takes the next slot in this ranking as the longest-running comparison operation on the list, trading since 1999, and it offers dental alongside auto, home, life, health, travel, pet and gadget cover, so dental can be priced next to a wider policy from the same screen. A starting premium of €0.69 on a monthly model keeps the entry point low, and support runs on chat, email and phone, the widest help set among the members here. The counterweight is that CHECK24 is a comparison site rather than an insurer, so the dental terms shown are set by the underwriter you are matched with. die Bayerische, next in this ranking, underwrites its own dental cover instead.

   • Premium from: €0.69
   • Insurance types: Auto, Home, Life, and 7 more
   • Provider type: Comparison site

   Pros

   • One account reaches auto, home and life, so several kinds of cover can be arranged in the same place.
   • Monthly payments are the model on offer, monthly, which spreads a policy charge month by month.
   • Support runs on chat, email and phone, so a question can go by chat, email, phone or the help centre.
   • Registration sits with the German chambers: D-UC2S-PFVJD-82, D-FPD7-IQZPB-00 and D-I6KJ-85T6H-31.

   Cons

   • comparison site places CHECK24 outside underwriting, so the cover limit, the wording and the payout are set by the insurer you choose.
   • The claim route follows the insurer too: CHECK24 Versicherungscenter online claim form, insurer online claim form and post means the form sits with the site's insurance centre, with the insurer, or goes by post.
   • Monthly payments are the only model listed, monthly, so nothing annual is shown beside the monthly figure.

3. 8. Getsafe

   Getsafe is in this ranking for what a digital broker looks like on paper. Dental sits with home, life, health, travel, pet and income protection under Getsafe Digital GmbH, the company is based in Germany and has traded since 2015. The account runs monthly, premiums start at €2.90, and excess of €0 means nothing comes off a claim at the entry level. Support runs on email, phone and chat, and claims can be raised by app, phone and chat, putting an app at the front of the dental process. It is built for expats and seniors. ERGO Group Deutschland, next in this ranking, is an insurer with a shorter support list.

   • Premium from: €2.90
   • Insurance types: Home, Dental, Life, and 4 more
   • Provider type: Broker

   Pros

   • Premiums start at €2.90, below the site median of €8.37.
   • The excess starts at €0 on liability cover, so a claim need not reduce a payout.
   • Monthly payments are available, and monthly lists monthly as the only payment model.
   • Support runs through email, phone and chat, and claims can start in the app, by phone or by chat.
   • Covers home, dental, life, health, travel, pet and income protection in one place.

   Cons

   • Getsafe is a broker, so you buy cover from an insurer and the policy terms sit outside this site.
   • home, dental and life does not list car, renters or landlord cover, so you would need a second provider for those.
   • Monthly payments are the only option in monthly, with no annual payment to cut the cost.
   • The Up to 4x the official German vet fee rate applies to pet health cover, so other lines carry limits set elsewhere.

4. CH10. Cigna Healthcare: best for Cigna Healthcare

   Cigna Healthcare offers health insurance plans including medical and dental to individuals and employers, and international health insurance.

   • Insurance types: Health, Dental

What to look for

What the premium looks like

Premiums in this ranking run €0 to €319.60, the median sits at €14.42, and the lower and upper quartiles are €3.65 and €23.31. The spread between the quartiles is where the real decision sits, since anything above the upper quartile is priced for heavier treatment.

Who underwrites the plan

60% of the ranked brands are insurers, with brokers at 28.9% and comparison sites at 11.1%. An insurer carries the dental risk on its own books and pays the claim; a broker or comparison site shops the market and places you with an underwriter, which widens choice but leaves the terms with that underwriter.

How the money leaves your account

Monthly is the norm: 97.1% of ranked brands can be paid monthly and 100% run on a monthly model. Spreading the cost keeps the cash flow even and makes cancelling straightforward, which usually matters more to readers than a small discount for paying a year up front.

Who you reach when a bill arrives

Phone support is close to universal here, at 100%, with email at 71.1%, a help centre at 71.1% and chat at 51.1%. What separates the brands is the claim route: whether a bill is submitted by you or sent straight from the dental practice.

Who the plan is written for

70.6% of the ranked brands target older customers, so entry terms are worth reading closely: No entry age limit for DFV-ZahnSchutz at DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG, while Guardian's entry terms are 18 and over. Gettingsafe is built around expats and seniors, which suits a different reader again.

What the plan pays for

Dental is the one line every ranked brand sells, at 100%, so the caps are what separate them. A yearly ceiling decides whether a plan stretches: Aetna Dental Direct PPO $1,000-$2,000 annual maximum; DMO no maximum and USD 1,000 yearly max (Advantage Starter 2.0) both work this way, while a broker's range can run Sum insured USD 1,000 to USD 10,000 (Plan 1 to Plan 4).

Frequently asked questions

Top dental insurance compared by country

• Canada
• China
• France
• Germany
• India
• Ireland
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV