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
100% Australian owned
Learn how Dentists avoid claims with RiskHQ
Understanding social media risks
Social media is an ever increasing form of communication for many people in both their personal and professional lives. It presents people with many benefits in allowing them to communicate a variety of messages to many people with great speed and efficiency. However, those benefits need to be balanced with the many risks social media presents.
Social media is a very broad term which includes any websites and applications which allow users to interact with other people as well as create or share information (text, photos, videos etc.).
There are endless examples where people appear to have not stopped and thought before they’ve posted on social media. Poorly considered social media posts can and do affect the personal and professional reputation and image of individuals as well as a businesses; even if the post isn’t directly related to a business.
The following tips will assist individuals and businesses manage their risks when using social media.
1. Have a business plan for how and why social media is to be used
When deciding whether or not to create a business social media presence, it’s very easy to think ‘if everyone else is doing it, so should I’. However there needs to be greater thought put into this decision. The decision to use social media should be well thought out and based on a company’s needs and business plans; the benefits and risks need to be considered.
2. Business social media should be based on business requirements, not personal views
Business owners and managers need to be sure that when they make a decision on whether to use social media for their business, this decision is based on the needs of the organisation, not the owner’s/manager’s personal views of social media. For example, a person who chooses to not use Twitter for personal use may still decide it’s a great tool for them professionally. Business decisions and personal decisions regarding social media use should be separated.
3. Create clear business guidelines and processes regarding who is able to post on social media and how this is to be done
Due to the risks associated with social media interactions, it’s very important that businesses have a clear process for who is responsible for posting on social media. The person undertaking this role needs to understand when social media is an appropriate form of communication and what sort of messages are to be shared using social media. This process should also provide guidance on how often social media is monitored and responded to and how to respond to negative comments.
4. Consider training for those staff responsible for social media
It’s often assumed that young people are well versed in social media use however this isn’t always the case. Also, not all users of social media understand appropriate business use and its associated risks. Therefore it’s worth considering training in social media communications and its risks for the responsible staff members.
5. Understand the social media site you’re using
There’s a wide variety of social media sites available to businesses, all providing similar yet different benefits. When a business is using any of these sites, it’s very important they understand the various functions within that site. Not fully understanding how a site works is going to increase the risks of using it.
6. Consider what messages should be shared using social media
All businesses have various ways in which they communicate with their customers and clients. Social media is generally designed for short sharp messages, yet not all information suits this style of communication. When businesses are communicating with their customers, they need to carefully consider how that particular message should be shared.
7. Carefully consider the implications of engaging with clients on social media
Professionals and businesses should consider if social media is an appropriate forum for them to be communicating with clients, both through business or personal accounts. Engagement through personal accounts can blur professional boundaries. When using business accounts, some conversations may not suit social media, especially if the conversation appears in a public setting. It’s important to consider what conversations are best had away from social media and when to take a discussion off line.
8. Your business social media use must adhere to the Ahpra Advertising Guidelines
Ahpra regulated professionals need to adhere to Ahpra’s Advertising Guidelines with all of their advertising. This includes any advertising or promotion done using any social media site.
9. Understand that you can no longer separate personal and professional use
Unfortunately many people hold a view that what they write within a personal social media account in their own time will have no bearing or impact on them professionally. However this is not the case. Whether fair or not, professionals are always representing their profession and professional self; personal social media posts can be considered to be representing a professional view. Therefore the professional impact needs to be considered before any personal post is made.
10. Don’t believe that any post is ever private
Too often people post information on social media which they intended to remain private and not be seen widely. However social media can never truly be private. Many online groups claim to be private and state that members require approval. However non-approved users don’t need to be particularly savvy to access these groups and then share or copy information being posted. Professionals need to remember that if they don’t want their colleagues, clients or competitors seeing a social media post, it should never be posted on either personal or business accounts.
11. Never post in haste, all posts need to be carefully considered
As mentioned earlier, social media is designed for quick short messages to be shared widely. This means social media can encourage messages to be shared with little thought or planning which on occasions leads to poorly worded messages which are easily misinterpreted. It’s important to pause and think through a message before it’s shared.
Guild Insurance Limited ABN 55 004 538 863, AFS Licence No. 233 791. This article contains information of a general nature only, and is not intended to constitute the provision of legal advice. Guild Insurance supports your Association through the payment of referral fees for certain products or services you take out with them.
- Acupuncture
- Aged Care
- Associations
- Childcare
- Chiropractors
- Dental Prosthetists
- Dentists
- Dietitians
- Early Learning
- Exercise & Sports Scientists
- Exercise Physiologists
- Exercise Professionals
- Exercise Scientists
- Fitness
- IT
- Medical
- Natural Therapists
- Neighbourhood Houses
- Not for profit
- Nurses
- Occupational Therapists
- Optometrists
- Osteopaths
- Paramedics
- Pharmacists
- Physiotherapists
- Podiatrists
- Psychologists
- Radiographers
- Rehab Provider
- Retail
- Sonographers
- Speech Pathologists
- Sport Scientist
- Tax Audit
- Training Consultants
- Veterinarians
- Business
- Social Media
Login to PolicyHub for all your policy needs
- All-In-One Dashboard: Manage all your policies and documents in one place.
- Easy Updates: Quickly update personal and business details online.
- Enhanced Security: Protect your account with multi-factor authentication.
- Document Access: Instantly access policy documents and tax invoices.
- Claim Management: View current and past claims effortlessly.
- Flexible Payments: Update billing details.
- Policy Renewal & Reinstatement: Renew or reinstate policies with ease directly through PolicyHub.
- Certificates of Currency: Obtain proof of insurance with just a few clicks.
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.
Write a review Average rating: