What PRSI dental benefit actually pays for in Ireland

This guide covers travel, process and cost. It contains no clinical advice.

If you have enough PRSI contributions, the Treatment Benefit Scheme gives you a free oral examination once per calendar year, and a subsidised scale and polish where your own share is capped at €15. That is the whole dental part. It covers being looked at and having your teeth cleaned; it does not cover fillings, crowns, extractions, root canals or implants. Knowing exactly where the line falls is worth doing before an appointment, not after.

What the scheme actually covers

Note the shape of it: the scheme pays for the check-up and the clean, which is preventive care, and stops before anything the check-up finds. That is a coherent policy — catching problems early is cheaper for everyone — but it means the moment you actually need work done, you are paying the full private price with no subsidy at all.

Use the free examination every year even if nothing hurts. It costs you nothing, it is the cheapest early-warning system available to you, and if you are considering treatment abroad later it gives you a documented history from a dentist at home — which is exactly what makes a second opinion and a handover straightforward rather than awkward.

Where the gap starts, and what it costs

Restorative work is entirely private in Ireland, and Irish private fees are broadly comparable with UK ones. We do not yet publish an Irish private price table because we have not found a published price list from a named Irish practice that we are willing to cite — when we do, it goes in this article. In the meantime, the UK figures below are the closest honest reference point, and the destination figures show what the same components cost elsewhere.

Dublin has direct flights to Chișinău, operated by FlyOne, HiSky and SkyUp, and Ireland is generally well connected to the European destinations in this market. That matters more than it sounds: the fixed cost of getting there is the thing that decides whether travelling makes sense, and Irish patients are not at a disadvantage on it.