Paying for it: the superannuation question.

Why this comes up on almost every Australian call

Because major dental work in Australia is priced beyond what most people have sitting in an account, and private health extras do not close the gap. In public forums Australians describe cover that pays a small annual maximum on crowns against premiums that cost more than the benefit, and quotes for full mouth work running well past what any extras policy would touch.

Published Australian ranges are A$20,000 to A$40,000 per All-on-4 arch and A$3,000 to A$7,000 per implant. Against that, superannuation is often the only pool of money large enough, and people ask about it long before they ask about a clinic.

The shape of the process, in general terms

Early release of superannuation on compassionate grounds is an application process run by the Australian Taxation Office, and if approved the fund releases the money. Applications of this kind typically ask for evidence of the treatment and a written quote from the provider who would carry it out. Rules, eligibility and evidence requirements change, and they are set by the ATO and your fund, not by us.

1. Ask your super fund first. Funds differ in what they require and how they release. Yours is the first phone call, before anything else on this list.
2. Check the ATO's current rules. Compassionate release criteria and the evidence required are published by the ATO and change over time. Read the current version rather than a forum post.
3. Get the written quote. The application asks for a quote from the provider. That is the part we can help with.
4. Understand the cost of using it. Money taken out of super now is money that is not in super later, and there may be tax consequences. A licensed financial adviser is the right person for that conversation.

We have deliberately not published dollar limits, processing times or eligibility criteria on this page. Those are the ATO's and your fund's to state, and a figure copied from a third party site is exactly the kind of thing that is wrong by the time you read it. [SAMPLE]

The one thing we supply

A written quote from your matched clinic, at the clinic's own price, itemised with the treatment plan, the appointments across both trips, the materials and the warranty terms. That is the document the application asks for, and getting it costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.

You get two of them, from two verified clinics, usually within hours of your X-rays reaching the clinics, and you can take either one to your fund.

Where to be careful

• Anyone who offers to "help you access your super" for a fee. Your fund and the ATO are the process. There is no shortcut that is worth paying for.
• A clinic that markets the super route to you before it has shown you a licence, a laboratory and a written plan. The funding conversation is not the vetting conversation.
• Committing to travel before your funding is confirmed. There are no deposits with us, ever, so there is nothing to lose by getting the quote first and the money second.
• Treating any figure on any website, including ours, as the number your fund will release.

The other ways people fund it

On our call we ask how you intend to fund treatment, because it changes the timing rather than the plan. The common answers are savings, superannuation, and finance arranged at home. We do not offer finance, we do not take a commission on any funding route, and we do not have a preference between them. What we care about is whether the timing is real, so the clinic dates we hold are dates you can actually keep.