Good dental care – in Basel-Stadt
and Baselland

Switzerland has had a nationwide scale of dental fees based on transparent cost calculations that first took effect in 1976. The fee scale comprises over 500 individual services.

Today, more than 20 years since it was introduced, this fee scale no longer reflects the status of modern dentistry and has been revised. A new scale of dental fees was thus introduced in Switzerland as of 1 January 2018. It was drawn up by the social insurance partners (SNAIF accident insurance, disability insurance, military insurance) together with the Swiss Dental Association (SSO). The new fee scale provides patients and insurers with greater transparency in the billing process.

In the fee scale, each of the 500 dental services is based on a defined number of points. These points reflect the grade of difficulty and the average time required to perform the service

The costs of the treatment are calculated based on the number of points multiplied by the “point value” of the dentist in question. In Switzerland, each dental practice defines its own tariff point value. This provides an indication of the operating costs of the practice (rent, furnishings, staff), the location of the premises, the qualifications of the dentist and the urgency of the service provided. This system is usual in the field of medical services in Switzerland and is prescribed by law for insurance cases.

In addition to dental services, the dentist indicates specific costs separately on the bill as third-party costs. These include, for example, any expenses incurred at an external dental technician’s laboratory or the cost of medications or special materials. As all services are listed individually on the bill, the patient has a transparent overview of what he or she is paying for.

Anyone interested in the tariff calculation and the individual tariff items can find them on the Internet at https://www.sso.ch/tarif