Dental insurance, sometimes referred to as a dental savings plan, is a type of health insurance specifically designed to cover a portion of your dental expenses. Many people are surprised to learn that most (if not all) health insurance policies do not cover dental care, and what few people realize is that dental care is especially expensive. For this reason it is often more cost-effective to purchase dental insurance on its own. Dental insurance can be purchased independently from the health insurance policy it is purchased in conjunction with. By purchasing it on its own, you can choose exactly the dental insurance plan you need at the right price. The benefits of dental insurance coverage will also be applied to any extra dental work that is performed as part of the dental plan.
When compared to the cost of major dental work, such as root canal treatment, most people find that dental insurance plans are far more affordable. Most plans cover preventive care like regular cleanings, fluoride treatments, and other preventative services, and there are many plans that offer services for serious, life-threatening dental problems. In addition to this, many plans offer coverage for surgical and dental procedures that are performed in the dental office.
If you have teeth that are in need of immediate dental treatment or that are severely decaying, your best option may be a dental insurance plan. When comparing different plans, make sure to look at how much coverage you’ll receive and whether the plan will require you to pay monthly premiums. Many plans will only cover a portion of your dental expenses, such as a single complete tooth extraction. Other plans will cover as much as the entire cost of having the tooth extracted and will require you to pay monthly premiums for the rest. Look closely at what exactly you’ll be covered for before choosing which dental insurance plan you’d like to purchase.
For families with a low income, low-cost family dental insurance coverage is not always available. Family dental plans often come with very high deductibles. A family dental plan pays the entire cost of caring for an individual’s dental health, and may not pay the cost of caring for a family. There are also many plans that offer coverage for only one child, or a specified number of children. For families in which both children have attended private school, a federal government plan called “child” pays the cost of caring for any additional children that may come along. If you do not have any children currently attending school, don’t worry: “pediatric” plans usually cover your entire family.
Even if you’re paying too much for your dental insurance, it’s still possible to get an “in network” dental health plan. “In network” simply means that the dental health plan accepts your insurance card and authorization to get the dental health plan approved. In some cases, dentists who belong to “in network” dental health plans won’t accept new patients unless they also belong to the same plan as you.
The most important advantage of “in network” plans is that you can get affordable dental care from qualified providers. In addition, with “in network” plans, you can choose dentists within a certain range of their prices – often 25 percent lower than what you’d pay within “in network” plans themselves. Most people, however, don’t have a dentist in their area listed on the “in network” portion of a dental discount plan may still want to get dental services. In this case, you may need to get a referral from a trusted dentist, or you may need to look around at various dentists’ offices to find one who will accept your “in network” dental discount card.