An American couple was enjoying the best of Tuscany: strolling through Florence, climbing the towers of San Gimignano, and savoring glasses of Chianti. At dinner one night, the husband bit down on an olive pit and cracked a molar. The pain was agonizing, and they weren’t sure what to do. Were there any local dentists who spoke English? Would they be able to get an appointment the next day? Should they just cancel the rest of the trip and head home?

Luckily, their Allianz Travel Insurance plan included emergency dental benefits—and so their vacation was saved.

What kind of emergency dental care can travel insurance cover?

If your travel insurance plan includes emergency medical and dental benefits, then you can be reimbursed for the reasonable costs of medical care for a covered dental emergency during your trip (up to the limit in the plan). Covered emergencies include:

• A dental injury, such as a dislodged tooth or knocked-out tooth
• A dental infection, such as an abscess
• or lost crown
• A broken tooth that requires treatment
  
  

What should I do if I have a dental emergency while traveling?

Get emergency dental care as soon as you can. If your tooth gets knocked out, for instance, you have a short window of time—as little as 30-40 minutes—in which the tooth may be able to be put back in place.¹

The Allyz® app can help you find a recommended emergency dentist (or any other medical provider) near you! Under Services, choose I need a hospital. Enter your location, then tap the funnel icon to filter results by distance and specialization, including dentistry.

You should also contact 24-hour assistance, whether by phone or with the Allyz® app. Your assistance coordinator can arrange advance payments to the dentist, if possible, and provide interpretation services.

If you can’t get to an emergency clinic or dentist right away, you can try some basic first aid and over-the-counter remedies for your tooth pain and/or injury. Store any dislodged tooth in milk, and keep any tooth fragments.²

Pain relievers and ice packs can help with toothache. Temporary dental cement or adhesive can replace a lost filling or hold loose crowns, caps or inlays in place for up to 48 hours. Dental dressing is a type of surgical dressing that sticks to the inside of the mouth to protect a wound.

You may want to bring a small dental emergency travel kit along with you that contains things like floss, a dental mirror, oral numbing gel, and clove oil for toothache.

Which Allianz Travel Insurance plans include emergency medical and dental benefits?

Single-trip plans with emergency medical and dental include:

• OneTrip Basic, an economical plan with limited post-departure benefits
• OneTrip Emergency Medical, a flexible plan that includes only post-departure benefits (not trip cancellation/interruption)
• OneTrip Prime, our most popular pick for international vacations
• OneTrip Premier, which doubles most of OneTrip Prime’s benefit limits and includes more reasons for trip cancellation

If you’re planning two trips or more in the next 365 days, you can save money with an annual travel insurance plan:

• AllTrips Basic, an annual travel insurance plan that provides emergency medical benefits for frequent travelers, as well as baggage benefits, travel delay benefits and more
• AllTrips Prime, which offers the same travel protections as AllTrips Basic plus trip cancellation/interruption benefits
• AllTrips Executive, an annual plan with extra protection for business travelers
• AllTrips Premier, which protects world travelers with multiple tiers of benefits

Wondering which plan is right for you?   Get a quote for your next trip.

Key things to know about travel insurance with emergency dental benefits

• Your travel insurance plan will not pay for non-emergency care or services. Teeth cleaning, teeth whitening, dental exams, root canals, etc. are not covered.
• Your travel insurance benefits only cover dental emergencies that require urgent treatment. Let’s say you chip a front tooth while traveling. It doesn’t hurt; it just looks a little odd. Emergency dental benefits don’t cover cosmetic repairs, so you would not be reimbursed for work performed to fix it.
• Each travel insurance plan has a maximum limit for covered dental expenses. For example, OneTrip Prime (our most popular pick for international vacations) includes up to $50,000 for emergency medical, and the limit for dental care is $750.
• Some travel insurance plans have primary emergency medical benefits, which means that travel insurance pays for your covered care before a claim is submitted to your regular health/dental insurer. Other travel insurance plans have secondary benefits, which means you would submit a claim to your primary insurance first.
• Injuries must occur during your trip in order to be covered. If you lose a filling the week before your trip, for example, your emergency dental benefits can’t reimburse you for a new filling.
• Damage to dentures is not covered.
• Make sure you read the exclusions in your travel insurance policy! Losses resulting from certain situations and activities aren’t covered. For instance, if you damaged your teeth while participating in a high-risk activity like rock climbing, hang gliding, bungee jumping or boxing, that wouldn’t be covered. Injuries related to the use or abuse of alcohol or drugs are also excluded.
  
  

A note on travel insurance and dental tourism

Because dental work can be so expensive in the United States, some people choose to travel to other countries to have pricey procedures done for less. This is sometimes called dental tourism.

It’s important to know that dental tourism—or any kind of medical tourism, period—is not covered by travel insurance. If you’re traveling with the intent to receive health care or medical treatment of any kind, travel insurance can’t protect your trip.

Planning to live and work abroad for an extended time? Consider getting an international health insurance plan instead.

Related Articles

• Emergency Medical Travel Insurance: Primary vs. Secondary Insurance
• Will Travel Insurance Cover a Missed Flight?
• Is Cheap Travel Insurance Worth it?