Free membership for dental students

Having professional protection may not seem a priority, but now is the perfect time to be part of something big.

Dental Protection has been supporting and protecting the dental profession in Australia for over 40 years. With FREE student membership from Dental Protection you’re joining almost 300,000 members worldwide who trust us with their careers and reputation.

Membership is completely FREE during your time as a dental student.

Join now

What is professional protection and why is it so important?

Once you have completed your dental studies, you’ll start putting into practice what you’ve learned throughout your years at dental school.

Professional protection, including indemnity insurance, can assist you with any dentolegal problems that might arise from your work as a dental practitioner throughout your whole career. This can include patient complaints, claims for compensation or complaints made to the AHPRA or HPCA.

Professional indemnity insurance is a compulsory part of registration for all dental practitioners and is there to protect you and your patients from financial or personal loss if something should go wrong. Without indemnity you could end up being asked to pay compensation, as well as any legal costs.

See our new Student Hub - to help you become the best dental practitioner you can be

What can Dental Protection offer?

Dental Protection membership includes access to an indemnity policy for registered dentists and oral healthcare professionals to protect their career, reputation and financial interests from patient claims or complaints.

Student membership with Dental Protection provides you with access to:

Online learning resources - advice, top tips and more
Access to webinars and podcasts, case studies and articles presented by experienced dentists that can help you build your skills and knowledge
Dentolegal advice phone line to help with challenges arising from your undergraduate clinical practice
Confidential counselling service - support with issues that may be impacting on your ability to study

Once you’ve graduated

Once you have graduated and are registered to practice, you become responsible for your own clinical decision making, quality of treatment, communication with your patients and colleagues, as well as your professional development.

Occasionally patients don’t agree with your advice, and very occasionally patients are unhappy with their treatment outcomes. Some patients will just move to another dental practitioner and take their unhappiness with them. Other patients may be motivated to complain or even litigate. That’s when you need the support of an experienced dentolegal team with the expertise to understand the issues you face. We can help you with the following^:

Complaint support

Help responding to and resolving patient complaints

Advice and support

Guidance on ethical issues, patient safety and consent

Dentolegal advice

Dentolegal advice phone line including out of hours emergency support 24/7

Expert legal team

Access to a dedicated legal team, which may include clinical negligence lawyers, dentolegal consultants and professional claims managers

Advice and legal representation

You can request advice and representation for Dental Board of Australia investigations, disciplinary and regulatory proceedings and criminal investigations related to your professional practice

Help with unwanted media attention

Specialist support including preparing statements and responding to the media on your behalf

Good Samaritan acts

You are covered for your provision of emergency medical treatment where you are in attendance as a bystander and there is no expectation of payment or reward

^For full details, please refer to Understanding your membership.

Experts across the world

Dental Protection experts proudly support and protect members across the globe. We have members in Australia, South Africa, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Caribbean and Bermuda. That kind of expertise matters – especially when it comes to choosing the best protection for the career you’re working hard for