Last updated: September 2026
Teachers Health has one of the more genuinely useful dental benefits among Australian funds, and a fair number of members never use the whole of it. If you hold Extras cover, the preventative side of your dental care may cost you nothing at all, provided you attend a dentist in the fund's network.
Divine Dental Care at 59 Wicklow Avenue, Croydon is a preferred provider for Teachers Health.
Teachers Health states that members with Extras cover can receive up to two fully covered preventative dental check-ups each calendar year from providers in its dental network. The number depends on your level of cover. Its Top Extras and Mid Extras products list up to two a year; Basic Extras lists one.
A preventative appointment normally means the examination, the scale and clean, and the preventive items that accompany them, such as fluoride and X-rays where they are clinically indicated. It does not extend to treatment that the examination uncovers. If a filling is needed, that filling is claimed separately against your general dental limit.
The distinction matters because it is where people get caught out. The check-up being fully covered does not mean the visit is, if the visit turns into treatment. We will tell you the cost of anything beyond the examination before it starts.
You can claim at any dentist in Australia. What changes is the benefit. The fully covered preventative appointment applies at network providers, and Teachers Health notes that even within some network practices, individual dentists may choose not to participate. That is an unusual and honest caveat, and it means the sensible thing is to confirm rather than assume.
We are in the network, so the network benefit applies here.
HICAPS is at the front desk. You present your card after the appointment, the claim goes through immediately, and you pay only the gap if there is one. On a fully covered preventative appointment there generally is not. What you avoid is paying the full fee up front and waiting on a reimbursement, which for a family of four across a year is a meaningful amount of money to have sitting with the fund rather than with you.
Most extras limits reset on 1 January. Anything unused on 31 December disappears rather than rolling over. This is why December is the busiest month in dentistry and why the last fortnight of the year is close to impossible to book. If you have not used your check-ups by about October, book then. There is more on this in our guide to benefits expiring at the end of the year.
Where a treatment plan is larger than one year's limit, it can often be staged so that part falls before 31 December and part after, which means two annual limits apply instead of one. That is not always clinically appropriate and we will say so where it is not, but where the sequencing is flexible it is worth asking about. Our guide to making the most of your cover goes through it.
Your Extras cover applies to everyone on the policy. Separately, children aged 0 to 17 may be eligible for the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, which is a Medicare entitlement rather than a fund one, and which we bulk bill. Some families end up using both across a year, and the two do not conflict. Details are on our CDBS page.
Ten dentists practise here, and the practice is open Monday to Friday 8:30am to 6:00pm and Saturday 8:30am to 5:00pm, which tends to matter for anyone working a school timetable. There is parking on site, and Croydon Station is on the Lilydale line.
Call (03) 9725 8040 or book online. Mention that you are with Teachers Health and we will confirm your entitlement before the appointment rather than after it.
Our health fund page lists the other funds we are preferred providers for.
This article is general information. Benefit levels, limits and waiting periods depend on your particular policy, and your fund is the authority on what you are entitled to. Confirm your cover with Teachers Health or ask us to check before treatment.