Does Workers' Compensation Cover Dental Injuries?

While there are a lot of potential injuries that Missouri workers may be at risk of at their job, a lot of them are not aware that dental injuries may also be covered by state workers comp laws.

This means that although their dental damage is a direct result of an activity at work, they may assume it is their responsibility to pay for their treatment. But when workers comp laws are specifically designed to prevent that, that can be an unnecessary expense. 

Dental Injuries: How Do They Happen?

Your teeth are some of the strongest body parts you have, but even they are not always safe from injuries. Direct blows to the mouth area, for instance, can cause some dental damage such as:

• Dental fractures

• Tooth chips

• Loose teeth

These injuries often require a lot of medical interventions, such as replacing the affected teeth with implants that can be extremely expensive. When injured workers cannot afford to have their teeth replaced, they often go for the most cost-effective solution, which is tooth extraction, and process that can create additional difficulties:

• Aesthetics issues, which can affect a person’s self-esteem levels and even onset mental health issues

• Dietary issues if the person cannot easily chew/consume certain types of foods

Some injured workers may not even get medical attention for their injuries, which leads to future complications. 

How Do You Get Compensated?

The context in which a dental injury can occur at work is varied, but these injuries are usually a result of a direct blow to the mouth/teeth area. To get compensated for them, you first have to inform your employer of your injury, in writing - without written notice, the process cannot truly begin.

After that, your employer can then proceed to file an injury report with the state, and you can begin your treatment. In most cases, you will have no issues with getting your treatment covered, though it is possible for the insurance company to step in and deny the claim or take issue with some treatments.

This may most likely happen if there is some gray area surrounding the way the accident took place, which may be interpreted as not a work-related accident. For instance, if the injury occurred during your lunch break, the insurance company may argue that you were not technically on the clock, and therefore you did not sustain a work injury. However, if you were still on the premise of your job, you may be able to appeal their decision.

If you’ve sustained dental injuries at work, inform your employer at once that you want to file a workers compensation claim. Then, get in touch with an experienced Missouri workers compensation attorney to help you navigate this process easier, and prevent the insurance company from cherry-picking your case to find something that can allow them to deny the claim. Give us a call 24/7 at (816) 399-3706 for a FREE case evaluation.