Dental laboratories are responsible for producing and creating custom dental appliances like artificial teeth, crowns, retainers, braces, dentures and bridges, as well as customized appliances for the patient. There are risks to the patient, business owner and employees when running a dental laboratory. Such risks include incorrect sizing of a device that causes pain to the patient or radiation from the machines and injury for those working for these dental labs and more. Other risks include litigation and lawsuits, and damage to the business property. If you own or operate a dental lab, be sure to get dental laboratory insurance for protection.
Types of Dental Laboratory Insurance
Choose from the following types of dental laboratory insurance policies. These policies are the most important ones to cover your probable risks.
Dental Laboratory General Liability Insurance
General liability will probably be the first dental lab insurance policy you get. It includes premises liability, product liability and completed operations. If you customize a retainer that later turns out to be faulty, general liability covers charges and claims against you. Premises liability is important because an injury could occur on your premises and the medical costs or legal costs are covered by the policy.
Dental Laboratory Product Liability Insurance
Product liability is often part of a general liability policy but can be a stand-alone policy as well. This will provide your dental laboratory with coverage from lawsuits in regards to your products. To illustrate: if you sell dental accessories to your patients that later cause them pain, discomfort or damage to their teeth, or an infection, they can sue you and you will be liable. The pending lawsuit can be covered with product liability insurance.
Dental Laboratory Commercial Auto Insurance
If you or one of your employees uses your vehicle for business reasons, you should be protected by a business auto insurance policy. This is a commercial auto policy that covers damage to your vehicle or other vehicles involved in an accident, bodily injury as a result of the accident, and you can add theft and vandalism to the policy as well.
Dental Laboratory Business Property Insurance
Your business property is important and without it, you couldn’t conduct business. For this reason, you need to protect it with a business property insurance policy. If there is a fire, windstorm, or other natural disaster, you probably won’t see it coming. The damage caused by the event will be covered if you have business property insurance.
Dental Laboratory Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ compensation is a valuable insurance policy that is for your employees protection, but also benefits your business as well. This policy will cover medical costs relating to a work-related illness or injury. So if an employee becomes ill from radiation in the laboratory, their medical costs and recovery period is covered by workers comp. It also prevents employees from suing your dental laboratory business following the injury or illness, so it benefits you as well.
Dental Laboratory Crime Insurance
While you should still protect your dental laboratory from potential crimes and loss with security cameras and employment screening, it isn’t always enough. Crime insurance adds more protection if you experience theft, embezzlement of money from employees, theft of supplies from employees, or vandalism to your business property. With crime insurance, any loss experienced is going to be covered by the policy.
By choosing from these dental laboratory insurance policies, your dental lab will be properly secured and protected. As such, your business assets and reputation will have the protection it needs to continue being successful even after an unexpected event occurs.
