Festzuschuss: the fixed subsidy explained, with the 2026 figures

Most insurance systems reimburse a percentage of what you spend. Germany deliberately does the opposite for dentures. Your fund looks at the finding — a gap here, three teeth missing there, a jaw with nothing left — decides what a proper, economical solution to that finding costs, and pays a set share of that. What you actually have done is then your business.

The logic is easy to dislike and hard to argue with. It means nobody can inflate the fund’s contribution by choosing an expensive treatment, and it means the fund never has to sit in judgment on your preferences. It also means the answer to “how much will my crown cost me?” always takes the same shape: total price minus a fixed number. Learn to read that fixed number and German dental costs stop being mysterious.

These are the current amounts for finding 2.1 — a single missing tooth in an otherwise complete row:

Read the bottom row again, because it tells you something the other rows conceal: 921.60 € is what the system considers the full cost of the standard solution for this finding. The 60 %, 70 % and 75 % rows are simply fractions of it. So the gap between what you receive and what the standard treatment costs is, at most, a few hundred euros — as long as you choose the standard treatment. The moment you choose something else, the subsidy stays put and the gap is whatever you have added to it.

Other findings have their own amounts, published nationally and updated each year. Your own figure appears on your treatment and cost plan (Heil- und Kostenplan, HKP), so you never have to look it up yourself.

Take a lower back tooth that has to go, in a patient with a five-year Bonusheft — subsidy 645.12 €.

Option one: the standard bridge. The two neighbouring teeth are prepared and carry a bridge across the gap. This is the standard care (Regelversorgung) for this finding, priced by the system at around the 921.60 € mark, so the patient’s share is modest — a few hundred euros, depending on the practice and the laboratory work involved.

Option two: a bridge with better materials. Same treatment, higher specification. The subsidy does not move; the difference is added to your share, and it is agreed in writing beforehand.

Option three: an implant with a crown on top. Across the German market, an implant with its crown, all in, runs at roughly 2,100–4,000 € — that is a general market range in Germany, not our practice’s prices, and it covers diagnostics, the surgical stage and the crown. The fund does not pay for the implant itself, which is a private service. But it does pay the same 645.12 € towards the crown that sits on it. At a hypothetical total of 3,000 €, your share would therefore be roughly 2,350 €.

That third line is the single most misunderstood fact in German dentistry. People are told “the GKV doesn’t pay for implants” and conclude they get nothing. They get exactly what they would have got for the bridge — the subsidy follows the gap, not the screw.

For reference, our own confirmed prices are the first consultation (free), the 3D X-ray (DVT, 178 €) and the surgical part of an implant (from 999 € — the implant and the operation). The crown on top is costed separately, and both appear on your plan before anything begins. What implant treatment actually involves is described on Dental implants – service page (EN).

The percentage is not about your income or your contribution rate. It is about a small paper booklet.

The Bonusheft records one check-up per year, stamped by whichever practice you attend. Five consecutive years without a gap lift your subsidy from 60 % to 70 %. Ten consecutive years lift it to 75 %. On the 2026 figures for a single missing tooth, that is the difference between 552.96 € and 691.20 € — around 138 € on one tooth, and considerably more across a jaw.

The word doing the work is consecutive. A missed year does not cost you one-fifth of the bonus; it interrupts the run. This is the detail that hits internationally mobile patients hardest, and it is the reason the booklet is worth starting at your very first appointment in Germany rather than at the appointment where somebody first mentions a crown — see Bonusheft: why you should start it today.

If you have just arrived, you start at 60 %. There is no way around it and nothing you can backdate. What you can do is begin the clock immediately, keep the booklet with your passport rather than in a drawer, and get it stamped even in years when nothing hurts.

The hardship provision (Härtefallregelung) raises the subsidy to up to 100 % of the standard option — 921.60 € on our single-tooth example — for people whose income falls below defined limits, and for recipients of certain benefits. It is applied for, not granted automatically, and the application is made together with your treatment plan. Do not skip it out of embarrassment: it is a standard administrative route, and Low income and dental care: the hardship provision explains how it is claimed.

Note that the hardship provision covers the standard solution in full — not an implant, not a premium material. Above the standard option, the same arithmetic applies to everyone.

The plan goes to the fund before anything starts. The Heil- und Kostenplan sets out the finding, the standard care for it, the treatment you and your dentist have agreed, the subsidy and your share. Your fund checks and approves it. Starting treatment before that approval can cost you the entitlement to the subsidy altogether — a genuinely expensive piece of impatience.

Allow for processing time — it varies from fund to fund. Plan around it: if you want work finished before a trip home in December, the plan should be with your fund in October, not in the last week of November.

Read it before you sign. The plan contains two numbers that matter — the total and your share — and they are not next to each other by accident. Heil- und Kostenplan: the document you should never sign unread goes through the document field by field.

A draft law (GKV-Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz) passed cabinet on 29 April 2026 and proposes reducing the subsidy rates to 50 %, 60 % and 65 %, while keeping the 100 % hardship provision. It has not been through the Bundestag or the Bundesrat, and until it has, it is a proposal under discussion rather than the law.

Two sober conclusions follow. First, nothing about a plan you submit today changes because of it. Second, this is not a reason to have dentistry you do not need. A tooth is replaced when the finding calls for it, not when a legislative timetable does — and if a plan is already in preparation, the sensible response is to keep the process moving at its normal pace, not to accelerate it artificially.

1. “The fund pays a percentage of my bill.” It does not. It pays a fixed amount tied to the finding, and your bill has no influence on it. 2. “If I choose an implant I get nothing.” You get the same subsidy as for the standard solution — the fund simply does not pay for the implant itself. 3. “The dentist decides the subsidy.” No one in the practice sets that number; it comes from the national schedule and your booklet. 4. “The bonus is per treatment.” It is per finding, and it applies to the whole plan. 5. “I can hand in the plan afterwards.” You cannot, safely: the subsidy depends on the plan being approved before treatment begins. 6. “A cheap price abroad makes the subsidy irrelevant.” The subsidy is portable within the EU in defined circumstances, but the arithmetic, the follow-up care and the guarantee position all change — Should you fly home for dental treatment? looks at it honestly.