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As a dental student, there’s a lot to think about when it comes to the next steps after graduation.   

Are you going to go into the NHS? If/when will you make the move to private dentistry? What about pursuing a specialism or a role in secondary care? How do you see your career pathway? 

We get it, we’ve been there too.  

Craig, the founder of iandi (I&I), also put in the years at dental school before qualifying and becoming a practice owner.  

We know just how excited you are to get out there and start using your skills to deliver quality patient care. And we know exactly the kind of things that you’re thinking about as you get ever closer to becoming a fully-fledged GDP. 

That’s why we also know that what kind of dental indemnity to get and who to take out a policy with is probably not one of the most exciting – or pressing – considerations you have. 

But it really is something you need to think about. Not least because it is necessary for your electives while you’re still studying and also a requirement of your GDC registration.

To put it simply, indemnity for dentists is really important. 

Protect yourself and your patients 

A dental indemnity policy protects you from any legal or regulatory challenges. It also helps patients to be compensated for any injury or loss of income, which can still sometimes happen despite all your best efforts. 

We’re not trying to scaremonger, but the reality is that we do live in an increasingly litigious society. So, protecting yourself is the smart thing to do.  

Just like with your travel insurance or car insurance, there are lots of different providers out there offering different types of indemnity policies.  

One key thing to consider when looking at these policies is whether they offer claims-occurred or claims-made cover.  

What’s the difference between claims-made and claims-occurred? 

Claims-made cover means that you’re only covered for claims that are made while that policy is in force. Once you’ve stopped paying for the policy and it expires, you’re not covered for any claims made against you – even if they’re for something that happened while the policy was in place.  

Claims-occurred cover means that you’re covered for claims made while the policy is in force and even if it runs out, you are still covered if it relates to treatment that happened while the policy was in place.  

This is an important distinction to look out for when choosing your policy. Especially when you consider that ‘over 45% of dental claims are brought more than two years after the date the patient was treated and almost a quarter are brought more than five years later’. 

For a more in-depth look into indemnity and the difference between claims-made and claims-occurred policies, we can recommend this article in the BDJ. 

Choose the right policy for you 

Just like with your car or home insurance, you hope that you will never need to actually use your indemnity policy.  

But it is important that if you do need it, you have chosen the right one for you.  

We know it’s a pain to trawl through all the different indemnifiers’ websites, and that’s exactly why we set up I&I. To make it quick and simple to compare the various dental policies out there – just think of us as the meerkats of the dental indemnity world! 

You can start comparing providers and finding the right policy for you right now, just by registering here.