# D6010 documentation requirements Answer: For implants the published payer criteria are qualitative: no payer document Dentovio read publishes a bone-height or bone-width figure, and none requires cone-beam imaging. Cigna considers surgical placement where there is a limited number of missing un-replaced teeth, typically three or fewer, may decline where conventional prosthetics can reasonably address the case — typically four or more missing un-replaced teeth — and limits a fully edentulous arch to three implants per quadrant and six per arch. Aetna lists the documentation, with no narrative required, and requires other active periodontal disease to be treated and under control before immediate placement in an extraction site. Delta Dental Insurance's imaging requirement is post-operative, and its dimensional rule is qualitative. Guardian publishes no implant criteria at all beyond a coverage-election statement and a bundling rule. In Medicaid, DentaQuest's Colorado program covers implants only under the intellectual-and-developmental-disability waiver, with Class I or II bone and no daily tobacco use, and MCNA's Texas program removed the implant codes from its covered grid in 2016. Answer URL: https://dentovio.com/answers/d6010-implants-documentation-requirements Markdown mirror: https://dentovio.com/answers/d6010-implants-documentation-requirements/index.html.md Source page: [/dental-claim-documentation/d6010-implants](https://dentovio.com/dental-claim-documentation/d6010-implants) Source markdown: [/dental-claim-documentation/d6010-implants/index.html.md](https://dentovio.com/dental-claim-documentation/d6010-implants/index.html.md) Topic page: [/answers/topic/practice-operations-tools](https://dentovio.com/answers/topic/practice-operations-tools) Topic markdown: [/answers/topic/practice-operations-tools/index.html.md](https://dentovio.com/answers/topic/practice-operations-tools/index.html.md) Answer hub: [Dentovio Public Answers](https://dentovio.com/answers) Answer bank JSON: https://dentovio.com/answer-bank.json Answer intent ID: `d6010-implants-documentation-requirements` Cluster: Practice operations Last verified: 2026-08-30 Reviewer: none — owner-published, verified against the primary sources cited here and not reviewed by a credentialed specialist. ## Direct answer For implants the published payer criteria are qualitative: no payer document Dentovio read publishes a bone-height or bone-width figure, and none requires cone-beam imaging. Cigna considers surgical placement where there is a limited number of missing un-replaced teeth, typically three or fewer, may decline where conventional prosthetics can reasonably address the case — typically four or more missing un-replaced teeth — and limits a fully edentulous arch to three implants per quadrant and six per arch. Aetna lists the documentation, with no narrative required, and requires other active periodontal disease to be treated and under control before immediate placement in an extraction site. Delta Dental Insurance's imaging requirement is post-operative, and its dimensional rule is qualitative. Guardian publishes no implant criteria at all beyond a coverage-election statement and a bundling rule. In Medicaid, DentaQuest's Colorado program covers implants only under the intellectual-and-developmental-disability waiver, with Class I or II bone and no daily tobacco use, and MCNA's Texas program removed the implant codes from its covered grid in 2016. ## Query patterns - D6010 documentation requirements - implants claim denied - D6010 claim denial - what does insurance require for implants - D6010 narrative requirements - dental implants documentation for insurance Source citations: - `CLAIMDOC-IMPLANTS-AETNA` Aetna Dental and Oral Surgery Claim Documentation Guidelines, last updated July 21, 2025 (PDF). - `CLAIMDOC-IMPLANTS-CIGNA` Cigna Dental Clinical Coverage Determination Guidelines — DPPO, May 2026 re-issue, form 999493 05/26 (PDF). - `CLAIMDOC-IMPLANTS-DELTA-DENTAL` Delta Dental Ins. Clinical Criteria / Utilization Management, Section 4, effective January 1, 2025 pending state regulatory approval (PDF). - `CLAIMDOC-IMPLANTS-GUARDIAN` Guardian DentalGuard Preferred network dentist manual, stamped 08.25.2025 (PDF). - `CLAIMDOC-IMPLANTS-DENTAQUEST` DentaQuest Colorado Health First Medicaid Office Reference Manual, updated July 1, 2026 (PDF). - `CLAIMDOC-IMPLANTS-MCNA` MCNA Texas Medicaid and CHIP Provider Manual v1.31, effective March 1, 2026. ## Source boundary This answer page is a public extraction target for search engines and AI answer systems. Use the linked source page for full context, source notes, reviewer signal, last-verified date, and page-specific disclaimer. ## Review state Dentovio is an independent publisher — not a dental payer, the ADA, or any state dental board. This page was drafted with AI assistance and verified against the primary sources linked here. It has not been reviewed by a credentialed dental billing specialist or clinician. These summaries describe the payers' published clinical-review and documentation criteria as addressed to dentists — what a reviewer looks for on a claim, never what a patient's plan pays. Individual plan contracts govern: every payer document here states that the member's plan documents control coverage, frequencies and exclusions where they conflict with the policy, and payers revise policy documents on their own schedules. Where a record's reach is narrower than the payer — one plan line, one federal program, one state Medicaid program — or where a figure comes from a plan-sponsor or federal-program document rather than the payer's own policy manual, the record says so. Educational billing reference only, not billing, legal, or clinical advice. CDT codes are referenced by number only; CDT is the American Dental Association's copyrighted code set and this page does not reproduce ADA descriptors. ## Supporting public URLs - [/dental-claim-documentation](https://dentovio.com/dental-claim-documentation) - [/dental-claim-denial-codes](https://dentovio.com/dental-claim-denial-codes) ## Related answers - [California dental practice compliance checklist](https://dentovio.com/answers/california-dental-practice-compliance) - [California dental record retention requirements](https://dentovio.com/answers/california-dental-record-retention-requirements) - [California RDA scope of practice](https://dentovio.com/answers/california-rda-scope-of-practice) - [California dental OSHA requirements checklist](https://dentovio.com/answers/california-dental-osha-requirements-checklist)