Free Dental Benefits

Auckland Region Dental Services

We understand that the world is going through some hardship and our economy has encountered many COVID-19 impact stories.  At Dental Wellness Centre, our team would like to do what we can to help our patients both new and existing as much as we can.

The most frequently asked question is:
“Can my child’s treatment cost be covered under public dental care at your clinic?”

ELIGIBILITY:

  • Can your treatment be covered under Dental Public Funding? Below are a summary of requirements to have your consultation/treatment covered by ARDS

Public Funded Dental Care
Some basic dental services such as consultations are covered when your child is either enrolled, transferred, or referred to us by the Children’s Community Dental Clinics.  This is age dependant and also the type of treatments required for your child.

Children from birth to Year 8

The ARDS School Dental Service provides free dental services to children from birth to Year 8 who have been enrolled with the service.
All babies born in Auckland’s main hospitals are automatically registered with the Auckland Regional Dental Service. Your child will be invited to a dental appointment when they are about 1 year old.

Our dentist Dr. Jolin is highly experienced and well trained with children’s dental care.

We accept referrals from Children’s Community Dental Clinics.   

For SPECIAL CARE REFERRAL please click here.

For more information about child dental care or to find a list of children’s community dental clinics near you please check here or phone 0800 TALK TEETH (0800 825 583)

*Children under Year 8: To have your child’s dental consultation covered under public funding, a referral letter from children’s community dental clinics is required.

Adolescent Dental Care – From Year 9 to 18th Birthday

Free dental care is provided for adolescents from Year 9 until their 18th birthday by contracted dental practices. Regardless of whether adolescents are at school, in paid employment or not, they are still entitled to free dental services.

As a contracted dental practice, you can enroll or transfer your child to the Dental Wellness Centre to receive free dental care covered by public funding.

The enrolment is easy, first, you need to check your eligibility by clicking here

If your child is eligible: Call 09 975 0333 to arrange an appointment with us and fill in the enrolment form.

*Please remember to bring the necessary documents according to your eligibility on your appointment date.

 Free services include:
  • Regular checkups
  • Cleaning
  • X-rays
  • Preventative treatments like fluoride or fissure sealants
  • Fillings and extractions.

You’ll need to pay for orthodontic treatments, like braces to straighten teeth. But children with special medical needs, eg cleft palates, can get free treatment.

WINZ Benefit Dental Treatments

If you’re on a low income or on benefit WINZ may be able to help pay towards the cost of dental treatment, especially if it’s urgent.

  • WINZ may not be able to cover the full cost of treatment.
  • You don’t have to be on a benefit to qualify for this help.
  • You may have to pay some of the money back depending on your situation.

Before contacting us, we highly recommend you to contact your nearest Work & Income centres or your WINZ agent to check if the dental issue you are having can be covered or not.  If your social service agent asked to provide a dental treatment quote, we are happy to help.

For more details:

Special Needs Grant

Emergency Dental Treatments

Call us to arrange a consultation/examination with our dentist and please let us know that you’re applying through Work and Income and we’ll fill out an ‘Emergency dental treatment information’ form which will have the quote on it.

At Dental Wellness Centre, we are here to assist the best we can to have your dental issues resolved with the help of public funding.

Our primary mission is to guide our community to better self-manage your dental health.

A dentist consultation and examination is the first step towards healthy gums and healthy teeth.