TREATMENT ELIGIBILITY

Who is authorized dental care? If a person in civilian clothes came to your clinic requesting treatment, what would you do? How would you decide the patient's eligibility for treatment? The easiest way is to look at the person's identification card. It will tell you whether the person is active duty, guard, reserve, family member, retired, or civilian, and if the card has expired. All of these categories of patients are authorized some type of treatment. To decide a patient's treatment eligibility, you must verify the eligibility through the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) and know the types of dental care available and priority care authorized.

Verification of the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) 

DEERS is a computer-based enrollment and eligibility verification system. It assists with elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse by unauthorized personnel seeking health care.

Normally the reception desk is responsible for DEERS verification. Some clinics have online computer terminals. Other clinics communicate with the main computer by telephone. The DEERS verification process is outlined in OPNAVINST 1750.2.

Types of Dental Care

There are several types of dental care including routine, emergency, and elective. The person's eligibility will determine the type of treatment that can be provided.

ROUTINE DENTAL CARE.\This treatment includes all the medical, surgical, and restorative treatment of oral disease, injuries, and deficiencies that come within the field of dentistry as commonly

practiced by the dental profession. This service is preventive and corrective and includes:

Dental examinations and advice on dental health.

Restoration of lost tooth structure.

Treatment of periodontal conditions.

Surgical procedures.

Replacement of missing teeth essential to personal appearance, the performance of military duty, or the proper mastication of food.

EMERGENCY DENTAL CARE.\This is treatment necessary to relieve pain, control bleeding, and manage acute septic conditions or injuries to the oral-facial structures. Emergency dental care is authorized worldwide for personnel of all categories.

Dental officers must be available at all times to provide emergency care. All dental commands have duty Dental Technicians and a duty dentist either on board or on call that evaluate all patients requesting care after normal duty hours. These evaluations may be accomplished by the dental officer over the telephone; however, the duty dental officer must provide care for all true dental emergencies.

ELECTIVE DENTAL CARE.\This type of care a dentist may authorize but may also defer. Each case should be evaluated individually based on Navy policy. Examples of elective dental are malocclusion, orthodontics, replacing amalgam fillings with gold crowns, etc.

Priority of Care

Naval Dental Treatment Facilities (DTFs) will provide care to all eligible beneficiaries subject to the capabilities of the professional staff and the availability of space and facilities.

In those instances when care cannot be rendered to all eligible beneficiaries, the priorities in the following chart must prevail. No distinction as to the sponsoring uniformed service will be made when providing care or deciding priorities.

Priority Category

The following priority categories should be assigned as appropriate:

1A Members of the uniformed services on active duty. 1B Members of a Reserve Component of the Armed Forces and National Guard personnel.

² Family member of active duty members of the uniformed services; family members of persons who died while in such a status.

3 Members of the Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

⁴ Retired members of the uniformed services and their family members (including family members of deceased retired members.)

5 Civilian employees of the Federal Government.

6 All others.

The rendering of emergency dental treatment to any person when such treatment is necessary and demanded by the laws of humanity or the principles of international courtesy will always apply. Receipt of payment (in any form) is prohibited by any dental officer or Dental Technician or from anyone for any dental service in a naval dental activity.