Dental Practice Insurance

With nearly one million people employed and an industry revenue of over $125 billion in the United States, dentistry is a big business—but it’s also a vulnerable one, because a single slip of the hand could cause damage that’s not easily fixed. As a dentist, you’re susceptible to issues like leaks of patient information, forgetting to properly update the patient’s medical history, failing to adhere to standards of care when you’re rushed, and failure to detect diseases when they first occur.

Dental practice insurance can help protect your practice from the high costs of malpractice suits and regulatory fines. In addition to the basic coverage that every dentist should have, consider the following and whether or not you might need extra coverage:

• Do you substitute for other Dentists? Most policies only cover one dentist at one location. If you perform work outside your normal office, you’ll need to be sure your policy covers you at that location.
• Have you incorporated? Many dental practices incorporate after several years of operation, but don’t realize they need to be insured using a corporate malpractice policy. If a lawsuit occurs, these practices often have no coverage when they thought they had enough, leaving them to pay all costs out of their own pocket.
• Do you perform high risk procedures? Some elements of dentistry—such as implants—are considered riskier than normal operations and require correspondingly higher coverage.