Search This Blog

Approach a Dental Insurance Plans That will Work For You


Dental health should be one of the top priorities for any human being owing to the critical role our teeth have.

Our teeth enable in enhancing our facial looks by keeping the muscles in check and help to amplify our smile.

Without teeth, chewing food would be a significant problem. On the other hand, our teeth are prone to problems such as tooth decay or in the case of an accident one could end up losing almost all of the dental formula.

This necessitates a preplanned measure to check our dental concerns possible through a dental insurance plan.


What is dental insurance?

Dental insurance has a similarity to medical insurance and works in almost the same manner.

It offers benefits such as regular checkups, x-ray services, dental cleaning, among other services required to maintain a healthy dental formula.

To receive these benefits, one is required to pay monthly premiums. The services offered are differentiated by the services per package and the accompanying premiums.

Some of the specialized services include oral surgery, orthodontia, and dental implants

Types of dental plans available

A broad classification of the dental coverage gives rise to two dental plans namely indemnity and managed care plans.

Of concern in this classification is how bills are payable, choice of dental provider and out-of-pocket costs. Indemnity plans offer a lot of flexibility in choosing a health provider and therefore suitable for people who are always traveling from one place to another.

On the other hand, managed care plans have flexibility in their mode of payment for your services.

This could be attributed to their restrictions on the service provider for they liaise with selected dentists hence you receive dental services freely.

This is achievable through maintaining a dental provider network where the participating dentists agree to offer services at predetermined rates and then submit the claim later for you.

For the case of indemnity plan, bills are paid on demand where you will have to submit a bill before payments are made. This implies that you will first incur out-of-pocket costs and then obtain reimbursement from your dental insurance provider.

picking a dental insurance

Therefore, it is up to you to select the preferred plan knowing that, managed care plan offers you lower transaction costs and less paperwork while indemnity plan offers you a broader choice for dentist selection.

Breaking dental insurance plans further

Dental discount plans: These can be considered as partial coverage since they do not provide full coverage.

They only address the common dental procedures, and the benefits are available as the patient needs them.

Standard individual plans: It is one of the most popular among many people and covers the costs of most preventive checkups.

Every year, a client is offered two checkups X-rays and cleaning services, and where additional work is required, the insurance will cover it partially for you.

Therefore, it is an improved version of the discount plan.

Preventive-only plans: This is a suitable dental insurance plan for those who do not require regular dental services.

It is a low premium plan and helps you cover preventive checkups and cleanings. It is an ideal plan for young people who have a healthy dental formula.

The family plans: This is similar to standard individual plans only that, they consider a family benefit deductible on the total payments.

For instance, if the payments for a dental plan are $50 per head, this plan has a cap of a maximum amount of $150 payable per family.

Therefore, where you wish to cover many family members, only three will be charged.

Gold and premium plans: Some insurance firms will call it a gold plan while others term it as premium plan.

Whichever the name, premiums are usually higher than in other plans, but the benefits are also more, for instance, you may end up with more cleanings per year or other services of choice.

Factors to consider when acquiring a dental insurance plan

As listed above, there are many plans at your disposal, which may be contradicting hence the need to have some basic knowledge on this issue.

The deductibles: The deductible refers to the total sum of money incurred or payments you need to make before the dental insurance provider offers cover for the services.

Note that, plans with low premiums have a high deductible while plans with higher or expensive premiums have low deductibles.

Therefore, people with a sound dental health can opt for the low premium plans, which have a high deductible since they will rarely use this service.

However, if you have issues with your dental health, the high premium plan with low deductibles is suitable for you, as you will often use this service ensuring proper utilization of your premiums.

Previous
Next Post »