The short answer? Yes, in narrow circumstances you can use super to pay for dental work through what’s called compassionate release. The longer answer is that the rules are much tighter than the marketing suggests, the ATO rejects nearly a third of medical applications, and the real cost of a withdrawal is far bigger than the number on the invoice.
Scott spotted this one in the wild. He was in a dental clinic and saw a payment plan option on the wall. Not Afterpay. Not a plan with the clinic. Your superannuation. He mentioned it to Phil, who hadn’t seen it advertised in a waiting room either, so down the rabbit hole they went. What they found became a full episode of the Wealthlab podcast, and it’s worth understanding before anyone in your family fills in a form.
What compassionate release of super actually is
Super has a sole purpose test sitting underneath it. It exists to fund your retirement, and that’s meant to be the only reason you can touch it. Compassionate release is one of the few doors out before retirement.
It’s for serious illness, debilitating injury, severe pain, or treatment that isn’t available in the public system and that you genuinely can’t fund any other way. To be approved, two registered practitioners have to certify the treatment is necessary to alleviate acute or chronic pain, treat a life-threatening illness or injury, or alleviate acute or chronic mental illness. You apply directly to the ATO through myGov.
That door was built for people in real trouble, and for those people it’s a reasonable thing to walk through. What’s changed is how many people are now standing next to it, offering to fill in the form for you.
The numbers behind the boom
In the 2024-25 financial year, Australians lodged around 93,500 applications in the medical category, and about $1.4 billion in super was released early on compassionate grounds. The ATO rejected roughly 30% of those medical applications for not meeting the requirements. Dental applications have more than doubled in two years, rising from around 20,960 in 2023-24 to about 31,780 last financial year.
Figures are sourced from ATO compassionate release of super data, current as at the 2024-25 reporting released October 2025.
The growth got big enough that the ATO and the health practitioner regulator, AHPRA, issued a rare joint warning about people being pressured into early access to pay for overpriced or unnecessary treatment.
What we’re seeing in the market
A few patterns keep coming up:
Cosmetic and elective work, including veneers, weight loss treatment and IVF, being framed as fundable from super. Outbound call centres, some run by the same operations that were cold-calling about super switching a few years ago, now pivoted to health. Fees that are hard to find. Phil clicked through one of these sites and couldn’t find the fee stated anywhere, though he did find a clause promising a refund if your application is knocked back.
And a regulatory grey zone. Someone walking you toward “just use your super” starts to look a lot like personal financial advice, given without a licence to give it.
One practical note that cuts through all of it: if a compassionate release application is genuinely warranted, it’s a form through myGov to the ATO plus paperwork from your doctor. There’s no secret channel. Anyone charging a fee to lodge it is lodging the same form you would.
The real cost: $40,000 of dental work, $390,000 of retirement
This is the bit that made Phil sit up. On the podcast, he modelled two 30-year-olds. Same $150,000 starting super balance, same $100,000 salary, standard employer contributions, no extras, 7% a year to age 65. One of them takes $40,000 out at 35 for dental work. The other doesn’t.
To land $40,000 in hand, roughly $52,000 has to leave the fund, because withdrawals under 60 are typically taxed at around 22% on the taxable component, including the Medicare levy. And at 65, the person who made the withdrawal has around $390,000 less in super. Same job, same contributions, one withdrawal thirty years earlier.
Please note: All figures, projections and scenarios in this article are approximate and for illustrative purposes only. Actual outcomes depend on your fund, your contributions, your tax components and actual investment returns. Individual outcomes will vary based on personal circumstances and current government policy. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. This is general information, not personal advice.
The maths behind it is simple. At 7%, a balance roughly doubles every decade. There are three of those doublings between 35 and 65, and that’s the whole story. We usually talk about compounding as the good news. It works just as hard in reverse.
Closer to retirement, the problem changes shape
Most Wealthlab readers are a long way past 35, and closer to 60 the picture shifts. There are fewer years of compounding left, so the hole from a withdrawal is smaller, and past 60 the tax treatment is different again.
The catch is on the way back up. Contributions are capped (the concessional cap is $32,500 for 2026-27, current as at 1 July 2026, ATO), and there are only so many working years left to refill what came out. The younger version loses more. The older version has less room to recover. We generally find that people underestimate both.
Want to see what a withdrawal or a contribution change does to your own trajectory? Run your numbers through the free Wealthlab super calculator. It takes two minutes and shows the compounding effect more clearly than any rule of thumb.
What people weigh up before super becomes the answer
The ATO’s own position is that compassionate release should only be considered as a last resort, once every other way of paying has been exhausted. In practice, the alternatives people commonly explore first include:
Asking the clinic for a discount. Scott did, and his dentist said yes. Checking what a health fund covers, and whether a public system option exists. Asking the clinic for a staged payment plan, because four payments over twelve months changes the problem. Questioning whether the treatment is genuinely urgent, or whether a few more months of saving covers it. And weighing up borrowing, keeping in mind that a personal loan or mortgage top-up carries interest and its own risks, but it also ends. Money out of super doesn’t come back.
None of these will suit everyone. It’s horses for courses, which is exactly why it’s worth a conversation with a qualified adviser before a form gets lodged. Our superannuation advice page covers how we approach these decisions.
The episode, and why we made it
Scott and Phil cover the whole thing on the podcast: what compassionate release was designed for, where the bar actually sits, Phil’s $40,000 versus $390,000 numbers step by step, and why “just use your super” from a call centre looks a lot like unlicensed advice. Scott also talks through exactly how he would handle a $10,000 bill with no savings and no assets, starting with a conversation at the clinic and finishing twelve months later with the treatment done and the debt cleared. You can find the episode on the Wealthlab podcast page.
The reason we made it isn’t that our clients are about to raid their super for veneers. It’s that the people being called are often the ones who can least afford to say yes, and quite a few of them are somebody’s adult child. When the sales pitch is smooth and the paperwork is pre-filled, a second opinion is worth a lot.
The other thread is the boring one we keep coming back to in retirement planning. A cash buffer sitting in an account doing nothing exciting is what stops a $10,000 problem becoming a $390,000 one. Unexciting, and the whole point.
FAQ
Can I use my super to pay for dental work in Australia? Only in limited circumstances, through the ATO’s compassionate release of super scheme. Two registered practitioners must certify the treatment is necessary to alleviate acute or chronic pain, treat a life-threatening illness or injury, or alleviate acute or chronic mental illness. Cosmetic or elective work doesn’t qualify, and the ATO rejected around 30% of medical applications in 2024-25.
How do I apply for compassionate release of super? You apply directly to the ATO through myGov, with supporting reports from your practitioners. There is no special channel or fast track. Third parties charging a fee to lodge the application are submitting the same form you can submit yourself for free.
Is money withdrawn from super for medical treatment taxed? Usually, yes. If you’re under 60, the taxable component of a compassionate release withdrawal is generally taxed at around 22%, including the Medicare levy. That means landing $40,000 in hand can require roughly $52,000 to leave your fund. Speak to your accountant about how the tax applies to your components.
How much does an early super withdrawal really cost by retirement? It depends on your age, balance and returns, but the compounding effect is large. In the worked example on the Wealthlab podcast, a $40,000 withdrawal at age 35 left the person around $390,000 worse off at 65, on a 7% return assumption. The younger you are, the bigger the long-term cost.
Can a dental clinic or agent apply to access my super for me? The application belongs to you and goes through your myGov account. The ATO has warned about businesses charging fees to prepare or lodge applications or requiring you to use a specific provider, and AHPRA has cautioned practitioners about certifying treatment that isn’t clinically necessary.
What are the alternatives to using super for a medical bill? Options people commonly consider include clinic payment plans, negotiating the price, checking health fund and public system coverage, delaying non-urgent treatment while saving, or borrowing. Each has trade-offs, and whether any of them suits your situation depends on individual factors.
Getting calls like this in your family?
If someone in your world is weighing this up, or you’d just like to talk through the general principles with someone licensed to have the conversation, book a free chat with the Wealthlab team. We’ve run this maths for a few people over the years and it’s usually a short conversation. Or start with the free Wealthlab retirement quiz for a general snapshot of where you stand.
