Our Warranty on Restorative Work

The short answer

We stand behind the restorations we place. If ceramic or composite work we did fails within the period below — fractures, debonds, or comes out — we repair or remake it at no charge for our time, materials or laboratory costs. Two conditions: keep your six-monthly reviews, and wear the nightguard if we prescribed one. That is the whole arrangement.

Ceramic onlays & crowns
5 years
Composite fillings
2 years
Implant fixtures
10 years
Cost to you
Nil

What is covered, and for how long

Ceramic onlays, inlays and crownsFive years against fracture or debonding. Designed and milled in the clinic, so we control the whole process and are willing to guarantee it.
Composite (white) fillingsTwo years against fracture or loss. Composite is a shorter-lived material by nature and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.
Implant fixturesTen years on the fixture itself — Straumann and Hiossen, both of which carry their own manufacturer cover behind ours.
Implant crowns and abutmentsFive years, on the same terms as any other ceramic restoration.
BridgesFive years against fracture or debonding of the bridge itself.
DenturesOne year against fracture in normal use. Relines to accommodate normal gum change are not a warranty item; they are ordinary maintenance.
Root canal treatmentNo warranty on the outcome, and we will not pretend otherwise — biology decides. If a tooth we root-treated needs retreatment within two years, we do it at half the published fee.
Whitening and orthodonticsNot covered. Both depend on how they are maintained after treatment, which is not ours to guarantee.

Periods run from the date the work was completed. Cover applies to the specific restoration, not to the tooth or to teeth around it.

What you need to do

  1. Attend reviews at least every six months, with us. Cover lapses after eighteen months without a review, and resumes once you have been seen again.

  2. Wear the nightguard if one was prescribed. Grinding is the single commonest cause of restoration failure, and a guard is what makes the guarantee reasonable for both of us.

  3. Complete the treatment as planned. A restoration placed as one part of a plan you then stopped is not covered against the consequences of stopping.

  4. Come back to us. Cover ends if another dentist adjusts, repairs or replaces the work — not out of possessiveness, but because we can no longer account for it.

What is not covered

Accidental injury — a fall, an elbow, a road accident. New decay elsewhere on the tooth or on other teeth. Gum disease and bone loss. Failure where a prescribed nightguard was not worn. Teeth we identified in writing as high-risk before treatment, where you chose to proceed and we agreed it was reasonable to try. Work altered by someone else. And anything where the fee was not settled.

The distinction we are drawing is between our workmanship, which we control and will guarantee, and the biology of your mouth, which we do not. Anyone guaranteeing the second is selling you something.

How to claim

Call 6443 9509 or WhatsApp 8948 9515 and tell us what has happened. We will see you, assess it, and tell you whether it falls inside the warranty before doing anything. If it does, we repair or remake it and there is no fee. If it does not, we will explain why and quote it at the published fee like anything else. There is no form and no adjuster.

Questions

What is actually covered?

The work we did: fracture, debonding or failure of a restoration we placed, within the period for that type of work. It covers our labour, materials and laboratory costs to repair or remake it.

What is not covered?

New decay in a different part of the tooth, gum disease, accidental injury, and failure caused by grinding when a prescribed nightguard has not been worn. Nor anything altered or repaired by another dentist, or teeth we told you in writing were high-risk at the time.

Do I have to keep coming for check-ups?

Yes, and this is the one condition we hold to. Six-monthly reviews are what make a warranty meaningful: it lets us catch a problem while it is small, and it is how we know the work has been cared for. Miss reviews for more than eighteen months and cover lapses.

Is this an insurance policy?

No. It is our own undertaking, given directly by the clinic, with no premium and no third party. It is not transferable if you move to another dentist, and it does not cover treatment you have elsewhere.

What if the tooth needs a root canal later?

A root canal becoming necessary is not a restoration failure — it is the tooth’s nerve responding to damage that predated our work. It is not covered. If the restoration has to be cut through to do the root canal, we replace the restoration at no charge.

Why offer this at all?

Because we place adhesive ceramics that we design and mill ourselves, we know their failure rates, and we would rather commit to them in writing than talk about quality in the abstract. It also keeps us honest about case selection: a warranty is a good reason not to attempt a restoration that should be something else.

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