Dentist in Berlin: What the Krankenkasse Pays and the Stamp to Get Before December

The letter from the dentist does not look like a bill. It is a two-page form called a Heil- und Kostenplan, it lists a crown or a bridge in numbered codes, and near the bottom sits one figure: your own share. Most people in Berlin see it once every few years, sign it, and pay whatever it says.

That figure is not fixed. The same crown can leave you with a very different bill depending on one small booklet, the Bonusheft, and on whether your dentist stamped it once in each of the last five or ten calendar years.

My advice: find that booklet this week, and if this year has no stamp yet, book a check-up before 31 December. I have let a year slip before, and one missed autumn appointment sits in the Kasse's window for the next five years.

Kurfürstendamm 117 in Halensee, where a dental practice hangs a giant molar over its corner entrance.

Dentist in Berlin: what public insurance already pays

If you have public health insurance with any Krankenkasse, the everyday part of going to the dentist in Berlin costs you nothing at the counter. You show your insurance card and the practice bills the Kasse directly.

That standard cover includes:

• Two check-ups a year, one in each half of the calendar year.

• Tartar removal once a year, the quick scrape at the end of a check-up.

• Fillings in the standard material. Amalgam has been banned across the EU since 1 January 2025, and the insurance now covers a tooth-coloured self-adhesive filling for back teeth with no extra charge (GKV-Spitzenverband).

• Gum disease screening every two years, and treatment when it is needed.

What it leaves out is the professional cleaning, the Professionelle Zahnreinigung or PZR. It is a private service in most practices, and many Krankenkassen pay a yearly allowance towards it, so check what yours refunds before you book (Verbraucherzentrale). If you are still choosing a Kasse, this is one of the extras worth comparing, and my guide to health insurance in Berlin walks through the rest.

A standard treatment room: the check-up and the tartar scrape in this chair are fully covered.

Crowns, bridges and dentures: the fixed subsidy

Everything that replaces part of a tooth, a crown, a bridge, an implant or a denture, runs on a different system. Here the Krankenkasse pays a fixed subsidy, the Festzuschuss, for each diagnosis, and you pay everything above it.

The subsidy is worked out from the price of the plain standard treatment for that diagnosis, the Regelversorgung. The law sets the base at 60 percent of that standard price (§ 55 SGB V). The amounts are set nationally and were raised on 1 January 2026 (KZBV fixed subsidies).

Two examples from the current table:

• A crown on a badly damaged back tooth: €239.03 at the base rate, €278.87 with the five-year bonus, €298.79 with the ten-year bonus.

• A bridge for one missing tooth: €552.96, €645.12 or €691.20. An implant in the same gap gets exactly the same subsidy.

The key point is that the subsidy does not grow with your bill. Choose a ceramic crown or an implant and the Kasse still pays the same fixed euro amount, so every extra euro lands on your share.

A zirconia crown for a front tooth: the Kasse pays the same fixed subsidy whether you choose this or plain metal.

The Bonusheft: five years, ten years and one free year

The Bonusheft is the small booklet where your dentist stamps each check-up. It is what raises the subsidy:

• 70 percent if you had a check-up in each of the five calendar years before the treatment starts.

• 75 percent if you had one in each of the ten calendar years before it, without a break.

• Under 18, the rule is one check-up in each half-year, so a teenager's booklet needs two stamps a year.

2020 never counts against you. The law exempts that year because of the pandemic, so a missing 2020 stamp does not break either chain.

There is also a softer rule for a single gap. Your Krankenkasse may still grant 75 percent if your ten years have exactly one missed year and your teeth show regular care (KZBV on the Bonusheft). It is a discretionary decision, which means you have to ask for it.

The Bonusheft cover: the practice fills in your name once, then stamps the inside every year.

If the booklet is lost, all is not lost with it. The practice keeps your patient records and can fill in a new booklet from them, stamping the years it can prove. If you have changed dentists, ask each old practice for the years they saw you.

The inside pages: one numbered box per check-up, with the bonus rules printed on the left.

Why 31 December is the date that matters

The Kasse counts calendar years, and it counts backwards from the year the treatment starts. That makes the end of the year a hard edge.

Say your dentist tells you in November that a crown will be due next spring. The Kasse then looks at the five years from 2022 to 2026. If 2026 has no stamp, you drop to the base 60 percent, even if you went every single year before it. One appointment in December would have kept you on the bonus.

The same gap stays in your ten-year window for a decade, so a skipped year keeps costing money on every crown and bridge that follows.

The ledger below does the counting. Tap the years that have a stamp, pick the treatment and step the total up to the figure on your plan. It shows which subsidy level you reach, what stays on your bill, and what an open 2026 would change.

The treatment plan comes before the drill

For every crown, bridge or denture, the practice sends a Heil- und Kostenplan to your Krankenkasse first. The Kasse approves the subsidy on that form, and only then should treatment start.

A few things to check on it:

• The bonus box. The practice ticks whether your Bonusheft qualifies. Bring the booklet to that appointment, not to the last one.

• Your own share. The plan shows the estimated total and your part. It is fine to take it to a second practice and ask for their price for the same work.

• The hardship rule. If your gross monthly income is at or below €1,582 as a single person in 2026, the Kasse can pay the full standard treatment, and slightly higher incomes get a partly raised subsidy. You have to apply with proof of income.

My advice: sign the plan only once you know which bonus level it assumes. A plan written at 60 percent when you qualify for 70 costs you money for nothing.

When it hurts on a Saturday

Toothache rarely waits for Monday. Berlin runs a dental on-call service through the Kassenzahnärztliche Vereinigung, and the hotline 030 89004-333 tells you which practice near you is open (KZV Berlin on-call dentists).

• Weekends, public holidays and bridge days: in every district one dentist is on duty from 9:00 to 12:00 and another from 15:00 to 18:00.

• Evenings: the Charité dental clinic on Aßmannshauser Straße in Wilmersdorf runs extra emergency hours, until late on Saturday.

The 116117 line that books doctors' appointments does not handle dentists at all, which I covered in the guide to getting a doctor appointment in Berlin. For painkillers late at night, the pharmacy guide shows how the on-duty rota works.

The Charité dental clinic on Aßmannshauser Straße in Wilmersdorf, which covers emergency evening hours.

My advice

Open the drawer and find your Bonusheft. Count the stamps for the last five calendar years, and if this year is still empty, call your practice now, because the December slots fill with everyone else who had the same thought.

If you have lost the booklet, ask the practice to rebuild it from your records at that same visit.

That one appointment is the cheapest thing you will do for your teeth this year. If you want reminders like this before the date passes, my weekly newsletter is where I send them.

Image credits

Source and licence details for the 3 photographs used in this article.

A dental treatment room: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A zirconia crown for a front tooth: James Roback, UticaDentalLab, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Charité dental clinic on Aßmannshauser Straße, Wilmersdorf: Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.