Canada's dental care plan begins today. Here's what you need to know

The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) begins covering 1.7 million seniors today — but many patients may have to wait a while to get their dental visits covered.

The massive public oral health-care insurance program will eventually cover one quarter of Canadian residents who don't have private dental plans, at a cost of $13 billion over the next five years. Ottawa is rolling out eligibility gradually, starting with seniors.

"They are very excited to have their teeth cleaned because it has been many years," said Shannon Maitland, an independent dental hygienist who runs a mobile clinic out of Carleton Place, just outside of Ottawa.

Maitland is one of 5,000 oral health-care providers who have signed up so far for the CDCP. But she won't start seeing patients under the program for several weeks because she's decided to wait and see how the initial rollout goes.

Dentists, denturists and hygienists have generally supported a national, publicly funded dental insurance program, arguing it will fill the gap of nine million low- and middle-income Canadians who have to pay for oral health care out of pocket.

But while coverage for seniors 70 years and older begins May 1, some patients are finding out their dentist isn't participating. Changes Ottawa made that will allow dentists to still process claims without registering don't come into effect until July. On top of that, it will also be another six months until certain dental services that require pre-approval are covered, like crowns and partial dentures.

Since the plan was announced in December, there has also been confusion over who qualifies, how the plan affects other insurance programs and whether enough dentists will sign up to meet demand.

Here are answers to some common questions about the plan.

The federal government contracted insurance provider Sun Life to administer the program. The company recently launched a searchable database of available CDCP providers.

According to their associations, there are about 30,500 oral health-care professionals who could sign up to offer the program, including roughly 26,500 dentists, 1,700 independent hygienists and 2,400 denturists.

That means only about 16 per cent of oral health-care providers have signed up so far.

Some dentists have been reluctant to register for the program because Ottawa wants them to sign contracts to provide care and they think the program will require an unreasonable amount of paperwork.

"The vast majority of dentists are still waiting for more information before they agree to participate," said Dr. Joel Antel, a Winnipeg dentist and the newly elected president of the Canadian Dental Association.

He said he hasn't signed up to provide the CDCP in his own clinic.