Insurance for dentists
When it comes to insurance, we don't want you to simply go with the flow. Which is why at Guild, we're constantly evolving to reflect the real-life needs of dentists like you.
Join Guild Insurance today and choose to be protected by an insurer that's worked hand in hand with ADA NSW, ADA SA, ADAVB and ADATAS for over 25 years.
Professional indemnity and liability
Protects you for what you do as a dentist.
Business
insurance
Protects your dental practice and items in it.
Professional indemnity insurance covers you for your civil liability when a claim arises from a breach of your professional duty. For many professional policies at Guild Insurance combine professional indemnity, public liability, and product liability to cover more of your professional duties. Business insurance, on the other hand, is a broader category that encompasses various types of coverage designed to protect businesses from a wide range of risks. This can include property damage, theft, and liability claims from third parties.
For professionals providing advice or services:
- Assess your service risk: Evaluate the potential risks associated with your professional advice or services. Consider the possibility and implications of your advice or actions leading to a client's physical, psychological, or financial detriment. Reflect on the likelihood and consequences of a situation where an error or omission on your part could lead to legal action.
- Understand legal requirements: Familiarise yourself with the legal and regulatory landscape relevant to your profession. Is holding professional indemnity insurance a legal requirement or an industry standard in your field?
For certain contract positions and many allied health professionals regulated under Ahpra require professional indemnity and/or public liability insurance. - Consider your financial exposure: If faced with a legal claim, could you afford the legal defence and potential damages out of pocket?
For business owners protecting their operations:
- Identify your business assets: Determine which physical assets are crucial to your business operations, such as property, equipment, and inventory. Consider the consequences if these assets were damaged, stolen or lost.
- Evaluate liability risks: How likely is it that someone could be injured or their property damaged because of your business activities? This includes both public liability and product liability.
- Consider business interruptions: Think about the resilience of your business in the face of unforeseen events that might force temporary closure. How would such interruptions impact your financial stability?
If you are unsure of the cover you require, please contact us on 1800 810 213 to speak to an insurance specialist.
Key Product Features
Discover the limits and coverage built in to every Guild dentist liabilities policy.
Renewal FAQs
See the latest frequently asked questions and information for renewals in 2025.
Association Endorsed
Find out more about our long standing partnership with several branches of the ADA.
Hear from other dentists
01/09/2024
The support and guidance is very good. They helped me through it with patience.
01/07/2024
Simple and comprehensive. I wouldn’t choose anyone else for insurance.
01/01/2025
I have compared you with few other insurances but yet to find a good company like Guild!
Working with over 130 associations
Insuring Australians for over 60 years
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Learn how Dentists avoid claims with RiskHQ
Dating patients - is it ever okay?
Health professionals might sometimes question if it’s ever ok to date a patient. Most would say the answer to that is a straight-out no. Then there are variations to that question — “What if I end the therapeutic relationship first?”, “What if they were my partner before my patient?”, “Can I date my patient’s parent or child?" and “Is it ok if the patient asks me out?”. Unfortunately, these additional questions show that this area can be complex, and not straightforward to navigate.
The information below will provide you with suggestions for how to handle these situations appropriately and professionally.
Treating family members
Treating family members doesn’t usually feature in people’s thinking when they consider the complexities of dating a patient. However, whether that patient is the spouse, parent, or cousin, there’s still a personal relationship with the patient. Treating family members isn’t ideal and there are potential complications that need to be considered.Practitioners can feel obliged to treat their family members when asked to. Yet practitioners shouldn’t feel they have to say yes. If you would prefer to not treat your family members, think about why not and how you’ll explain this to them if asked. Having a response ready will assist when dealing with a potentially awkward situation appropriately.
When practitioners treat family members, professional standards and expectations can drop away. Informed consent processes may not be followed as they should be, and clinical records can be lacking in detail. All health practitioners should understand the importance of and reason for informed consent and detailed clinical records – and professional expectations and requirements regarding these must always be met.
Treating family members can blur personal and professional relationship boundaries that may impact the care provided. Will that family member be completely honest about their health history and symptoms with you, especially if somewhat personal? Will you be able to be as objective with them as you should be with all patients?
If you do treat your family members, you should only do so in your clinic. Keeping treatment to the treatment room helps to maintain the professionalism of what you’re doing and lessens the likelihood of professional boundaries being blurred. Also, treating in a clinic room makes it easier to maintain usual standards with informed consent and record keeping.
Most private health insurers don’t allow for rebates to be paid when treatment has been provided to a family member, and they have strict rules regarding who’s family. Both the practitioner and the patient need to be aware of the financial implications before treatment commences and should check with the insurer to be sure.
When deciding whether to treat a family member, it’s best to think about what could go wrong before it does. If treatment doesn’t provide the patient with the outcome they were anticipating, this could complicate not only the treating relationship but also the personal family one.
Forming relationships with patients
Practitioners who form personal or intimate relationships with patients can face severe penalties from their regulator due to unprofessional conduct. These relationships breach professional boundaries which can affect the quality of care provided as well as a practitioner’s professional reputation.
Some practitioners would state they’d never begin a relationship with a patient yet have done so with a family member of the patient, such as a parent or a child who’s attended appointments with their relative. However, these relationships still contribute to blurring the professional relationship with the patient. The family member is attending appointments as part of the care team and a personal relationship beginning under these circumstances may impair objectivity and decision making.
Ending a treating relationship to begin a personal one can also be viewed as professionally inappropriate, especially when there’s little time between the two relationships. Practitioners need to consider the vulnerability of the patient and the power imbalance of the treating relationship.
A patient asking out the practitioner, rather than the other way around, doesn’t make a personal relationship appropriate or acceptable. Patients often don’t understand the professional expectations placed on health practitioners, and it’s always the responsibility of the practitioner to adhere to these. Practitioners should consider the possibility of being asked out by a patient and how they’ll respond before it occurs, to be prepared to deal with a challenging situation.
Forming friendships with patients can be as problematic as intimate relationships. There’s still a blurring of the professional relationship and professional boundaries, plus the friendship can be impacted by the power imbalance of the treating relationship.
Practitioners who work in small remote locations often point out that many of their patients are friends or at least acquaintances in some form. While maintaining a separation between patients and people you’re in personal relationships with is more challenging in some locations, it’s important to remember that your location doesn’t negate the need to adhere to professional obligations.
To better understand obligations regarding relationships and boundaries, it’s recommended all health practitioners make themselves familiar with their relevant Code of Conduct. You can also contact your professional association for further advice and support.
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FAQs
The law governs that any professional exercise the required skill to an appropriate level expected by that profession. A professional may be liable for financial loss, injury or damage arising from an act, error or omission of fault if the professional has not acted to the required level of skill deemed in that profession. Failure through this may result in the claimant (person who suffered the loss) be awarded for that loss, damage or injury.
Many professions require you to hold a professional indemnity insurance policy by law, such as Ahpra registered professions, but can be for other industries such as financial institutions also. Please check with your registration body or associations of your profession to know if it is required by law to have professional indemnity insurance. It is often also required by companies who take on contract workers that are not governed under the companies own insurance policy. It is acceptable for a company to ask you as the professional contractor to provide evidence of cover for professional indemnity before starting the contract period.
As stated above professional indemnity insurance covers you for breaches in relation to your professional duty. Liability insurance covers you for activity that results in personal injury or property damage as a result of your business activities that do not relate to your specific profession. An example may be someone who trips and is injured from spilled water within your office may be covered under liability, because it is your duty of care as business person to provide a safe environment. Whereas a person who suffers a loss or injury because of your professional treatment in relation to your job has caused it would usually be consider as an indemnity breach.
Generally business insurance is to cover the physical assets of your business for material damage loss and options for theft cover. It can also include cover for financial loss due to business interruption. Usually basic insurance does not cover breach of duty or flood cover, but if you speak to an insurance specialist it can often be added to your policy for a nominal fee.
Depending on the policy you are taking out, covers will often vary. At Guild insurance we specialise in making a policy to suit your business so that you are not over paying for covers you wouldn't normally need. The best thing to do is call 1800 810 213 to speak to an insurance specialist, they can find out what activities and structure your business is in to then provide you with adequate cover for you.
A certificate of currency (or COC for short) is a written document that confirms that your insurance policy is current and valid at a specific date and time. At Guild we provide easy access to your COC at any time within a few clicks of our online portal PolicyHub. If you are a new customer we can provide you with one post purchase.
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