Your Child’s Hospital Visit

The actual time of your child’s operation is decided 10 days prior to the treatment date and you will be contacted at this point for confirmation and will be notified of the time you will be required to arrive at the hospital with your child.

The actual time commencing the operation/treatment is usually determined by the age of the child. As a general rule, the younger the child, the earlier they get treated.

You will be required to arrive no later than 60 minutes prior to your child’s operation time. Please arrange childcare (including dropping off and picking up from school) for your other children (if applicable) as you will need to be with your child for most of the time.

• eat any food
• drink any milk (including breast milk)
• suck on any lollies, chew any chewing gum

Your child may sip water only up to two hours before arrival time. Please DO NOT drink carbonated (fizzy) drinks or juice.

Please note if your child has not fasted, the operation will be cancelled, a cost will be incurred if the treatment has to be cancelled due to failure to fast your child. We understand it is not easy to fast young children, but it is very dangerous to anaesthetize a child that has not fasted, and hence cancellation is necessary. We hope you adhere to our instructions and contact us if you have any queries about the fasting time.

• When your child has sufficiently returned to a normal state, is comfortable, is eating and drinking small quantities safely and you are comfortable with aftercare advice, you will be able to take your child home. The standard recovery time is usually 1 – 1.5 hours after the treatment.
• It is not advisable to go home with public transport after a general anaesthetics.
• Your child may feel a little drowsy the following day, but should quickly return to normal activities within 48 hours. For most dental work, paracetamol (eg. Panadol) should provide sufficient pain relief.

• You would have received a deposit receipt initially at the time of booking via email/post
• The payment will be referenced on the final receipt for your pre-payment that is due one week prior to treatment
• You are unable to use receipts to claim from your health fund, unless treatment is completed/NIL balance.
• We are unable to provide an itemised invoice until all treatment has been finalised, an invoice and receipt will then be emailed/posted to you 1-2 days after treatment.

An item/code break down cannot be given because we do not charge for each individual item number we are charging for a set amount of time reserved e.g. 45 MIN, 90 MIN, etc.

Your treatment proposal outlines the item codes for the proposed treatment which have been discussed and agreed between parents and our dental Specialist.

These codes are what we propose will be completed on the day however at the time of treatment these codes may change or more/ less item codes may be added. This is why we charge a time-based fee to alleviate the stress of added costs on the day if more treatment is required.

Your Health fund has a maximum rebate that they pay for each item code so they should be able to advise you what your out of pocket cost will be without an individual item code break down.

• Which Item numbers will I be covered for? – see our treatment proposal for a detailed list of all item numbers to ensure you ask about each item code.
• Which Item numbers are considered general and which are considered major or specialist cover? – each fund generally has two levels of covers general dental item numbers which have no limit and major / specialist item code numbers which will have a dollar limit for the year. it is best if you can identify not only the item numbers that are covered by your health fund but also if you have a maximum number or maximum rebate for each item number
• What is the total amount of dental coverage I have for the year or until the anniversary date? – Some Health funds have limits on total amounts they will pay for dental treatments
• Do I have any waiting periods for Dental Extras? or any of the listed item numbers? When you join a health fund you normally will have a waiting period applied of 3, 6 or 12 months – if you have recently joined or changed health funds it is best to ensure these waiting period are not applicable
• Am I covered for these items if having them completed in a Private Day Surgery – General Anaesthetic. Please confirm that your fund has an agreement with your chosen location as each fund has separate agreements with all facilities.
• Provider Numbers for the following Specialists and Locations are listed on the following page – some funds will ask you for the provider number of the treating dentist – Each dentist has a different provider number for each location that they work from. The provider number is the provider to you in the hospital confirmation pack upon booking your treatment

Under The Australian Schedule of Dental Services and Glossary Australian Dental Association Twelfth Edition the description for item code 949 is:

949: Treatment under general anaesthesia/sedation

The treatment of a patient under a general anaesthetic/sedation administered by another registered practitioner in a suitably licensed facility. This may require the provision of additional equipment, instruments, materials, and staff by the practitioner[s] providing the dental service[s]. The dental treatment provided should be itemised separately.

This item code is approved by the Australian Dental Association but not always recognised and paid by every health fund.

The item code 949 for Kiddies Dental Care covers the cost involved towards travel offsite for our Specialist/nurses/administration team – Equipment and Materials transportation, and admin time into organising your child onto the next available hospital list.