By Rebecca Styles
Research Lead | Hautū Rangahau
The latest New Zealand Health Survey found that 43% of New Zealand adults had avoided going to the dentist in the previous 12 months because of cost.
We’ve come up with a few options that could help pay for dental work – from subsidies and community organisations providing cheaper care, through to putting the charge on a finance card or payment plan.
It can be hard to estimate how much a visit to the dentist will cost because different dentists charge different fees based on where they are, whether they are a specialist or general dentist and what equipment or techniques they use in their treatments.
You can get a steer about what dentists charge around the country here.
Payment options explained
1. A Work and Income hardship grant
If you can’t afford dental treatment, you may be eligible for a hardship grant from Work and Income. You don’t have to be on a benefit to apply for this grant.
The grant pays up to $1,000 in a 12-month period for help with essential dental treatment.
Whether you’re eligible for the grant will depend on how much you and your partner earn and the assets you own (excluding your house and car).
The current weekly income limit for a couple (with or without children) is $1,426.10.
To apply for the grant, get in touch with Work and Income and ask about the options for help with dental treatment.
2. ACC cover in case of accidents
If you need essential dental work because of an accident, sporting injury or an injury caused as the result of medical or dental treatment, ACC may foot the bill.
You can call ACC on 0800 101 996 for more information about what dental work it may cover.
3. Health insurance cover
Standard dental care isn’t generally a feature of most health insurance policies.
Most health insurance policies cover oral surgery under their surgical benefits, but some only do so after you’ve had a policy for a year. Other policies exclude the extraction of poorly maintained teeth and implants.
4. Community organisations providing dental health care
The New Zealand Dental Association, in conjunction with Aotearoa Charity Hospital, offer dental treatment grants. The grants are for people who typically need full-mouth restoration or major dental procedures, like dentures, but are in severe financial hardship.
Dentists and dental assistants offer their time for free. You must have a community services card to apply for this service.
Revive a Smile is a charitable organisation based in the Waikato region that runs a mobile clinic delivering free dental care. To find out more, see its website.
Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust also offers free dental care to community services card holders and those on a very low income. However, you must be referred to the service via your existing dentist.
For more information, call 03 360 2266 or email [email protected].
Trinity Koha Dental Clinic provides free dental services to people in pain who have limited access to dental care. The areas it serves stretch from South Waikato through the Bay of Plenty to Tairāwhiti. You can apply through your local hauora or other community services provider to get on Trinity Koha’s waiting list. You’ll need a community services card to apply. The initiative is part of YWAM Ships Aotearoa, which provides free health and dental care to isolated communities in the Pacific.
Some dentists also offer discounts for people with a community services card or gold card (for selected treatments).
5. Putting the dental work on credit
Most dentists offer options for paying for treatments via credit cards or payment plans with finance cards like Q Mastercard or Q Card and buy now pay later services.
These credit options can help smooth out unexpected costs, like emergency dental work, but there can be drawbacks if you can’t keep up with the required repayments or can’t pay off the balance within the interest-free period.
Credit cards have several ‘free days’ before interest starts accruing. For a standard card, this can range from 44 to 90 days. (Most sit at 55 days.) Low-fee credit cards also have 55 free days.
However, if you can’t pay the balance in full before the ‘free days’ are up, interest will start accruing.
Interest fees vary depending on the credit card. Low-rate cards’ interest fees range from 9.95% to 13.90%. You can check our online guide to compare the interest rates and fees for different credit cards across providers.
A standard credit card interest rate can be as high as 29.49%.
Finance cards generally offer a longer interest-free period, which can give you more breathing space to pay off the balance before interest starts being added. We’ve seen 3-month and 12-month interest-free deals with finance cards at some dentists.
However, be aware that these cards also have establishment fees, annual fees and late payment fees, and if you don’t pay off the balance within the interest-free period, the interest rates can be as high (if not higher) than those for a credit card.
Some finance card deals may have “no payments and no interest for 12 months” available, but once the 12 months is up, the interest rate will be applied and can be hefty. These deals generally work best for people who intend to pay off the loan within the interest-free period.
Buy now pay later (BNPL) options work in a similar way to interest-free deals. Most work by dividing the full cost into four or six equal payments, which you usually pay weekly or fortnightly. You make the first payment up front at the time of purchase.
While BNPL services don’t charge interest, they do charge late fees if you don’t make your repayments on time. For example, Afterpay has a late fee of 25% (up to a maximum of $68) for purchases costing $40 or more.
All those late fees add up quickly.
If you used Afterpay to pay for an examination, and you were late making your repayment on that $90 treatment cost, the maximum late fee would see you end up paying a total of $112.50 ($22.50 late fee).
Zip, another BNPL provider, caps its late fee at $40.
Other pitfalls with BNPL is that clients don’t have to be assessed as to whether they can afford to take on the debt.
Despite a law change in 2024, BNPL services can side-step checking a customer can afford to take on debt, like other financial services must do, by getting a credit check.
However, a recent assessment of the new regulations for BNPL providers, by Consumer NZ in partnership with FinCap, found BNPL services are not legally required to use the information in the credit check to see whether the client can afford the loan. Furthermore, the information in the credit check isn’t enough to carry out an affordability assessment.
The report recommends BNPL providers are obliged to undertake an affordability assessment.
If you want some help with budgeting advice, get in touch with Money Talks 0800 345 123. The Money Talks helpline advisors can put you in touch with a free financial mentor in your area who will talk with you and help you make a plan.
