Miscellaneous Item Numbers – Part 3 – Item No. 986-999 Post-operative care, Recontour tissue, Other treatment & GST

986 Post-operative care not otherwise included

Most of the time post-operative care following dental treatment is part of the treatment, so usually not an additional charge. However, sometimes a patient requires unforeseen post-operative care which does not fit any item number. This also applies when the patient is not seen by the dentist who provided the initial treatment and another dentist at a different practice provides the care, then this item should be used. Examples of post-operative care include

After an extraction for the treatment of a dry socket.

After a filling for the adjustment of a high spot.

987 Recontour tissue – per appointment

Recontour of oral and associated tissue not described elsewhere in the Schedule. This is sometimes called gum sculpturing for cosmetic purposes. This is where excessive gum tissue is removed for a better appearance of the teeth. This maybe covered by item numbers items 231-238 which are for gum disease surgery.

These item numbers will be covered in a future blog post.

990 Treatment not otherwise included (specify)

An item number used to identify dental treatment not elsewhere described. Adequate written description of the service is needed. This is everything else not quite covered under all the item numbers that exist. This usually occurs when a new treatment technique is being used but it has not yet had an item number created for it. This is the item number of last resort!

999 GST

This item number is for accounting systems cannot calculate GST for nonclinical components.

Some items that attract GST include, would you believe it, mouthguards, and written reports (018) not addressed to a referring practitioner involved in the patient’s care.

They don’t consider these as part of clinical or ‘’appropriate treatment’’ of the patient. Well that’s the tax system.

Virtually all dental treatment is GST free, unless it is not “necessary for the appropriate treatment” of the patient. Well, I won’t comment on that!

Note: Well that’s all the item numbers for now. Every so often new item numbers are made and some items are removed. This is the world we live in, where the only constant is change!

In the future blogs some of the item numbers will be expanded with more explanation and new item numbers will need to be added since the blogs were originally posted. That’s life – a work in progress!

Next week: Dentist at Large – North Island, New Zealand – “The Shaky Isles”