Get Better Dental Insurance

Find the Perfect Dental Insurance Plan

Good oral hygiene can prevent tooth decay, gum disease, bad breath, and improve your overall health. That is why it is important to invest in dental insurance or a discount plan at a minimum. This ensures good dental health for the future.

With the right dental plan, you can make your oral hygiene the best its ever been. You will also avoid costly treatments and painful procedures later on.

Dental insurance gives you the ability to receive preventive care and basic procedures for your smile. Each plan will offer families and individuals different amounts of coverage they need. Premiums, copayments, deductibles, maximum annual limits all vary with each company and specific plan.

Overall, dental savings plans or insurance policies can save you and your family when it comes to expensive procedures or even regular checkups. We know how to get you in touch with a great dental provider in your area. Here’s everything you need to know about how to find the dental insurance plan you need.

All About Insurance

The following terms are commonly used by insurance companies to describe their dental plans.

Deductibles

Deductibles are a fixed amount of money a customer must pay before their insurance company begins to cover care. With a deductible of three thousand dollars, the patient would pay that amount, and then the insurance company would pay after. After the deductible is paid, you typically only pay a copayment or coinsurance for services that are covered.

Keep this in mind: a lot of plans pay for services like routine cleanings before the patient has paid the full deductible. It is crucial to check the details of your plan to know exactly what to pay. Plans may even include separate deductibles for things like prescriptions. Also, family plans usually have both an individual deductible and a family deductible

Copayments

A copayment is a fixed amount that you pay for a service after the deductible is paid in full. Copayments often vary for different services within the same plan. Plans with lower monthly premiums generally require higher copayments, while those with higher premiums offer lower copayments.

Allowed Amount

The allowed amount is the maximum amount the insurance company decides it will pay for a service that is covered under the plan. If your health provider charges more than the allowed amount, you may be required to pay that difference.

This is also known as the network discounted rate you may receive if you have to pay out of pocket for covered procedures

Maximum Annual Limit

Basic dental insurance policies have a maximum amount in costs. This means insurers will pay a maximum fee for treatment in a year, called the maximum annual limit. Typical annual maximums can range from five hundred dollars to fifteen hundred dollars, and even more.

In some cases, insurers will not subtract the cost of your cleanings and routine checkups from the annual maximum. If you hit that maximum number you will be required to pay for any additional dental treatment you receive in that year out-of-pocket.

Rider Policies

Dental plans tend to only cover basic care and preventive care, not more expensive and costly treatment. This is why orthodontia, dentures, implants, or other advanced care is not covered under a basic insurance agreement. Rider policies are used to supplement the existing policy and add benefits for the insured. For example, in some areas you can get a rider policy to cover orthodontic services to avoid paying out-of-pocket.

Services not covered by your policy are usually because they are expensive, so it is important to plan ahead and buy a rider policy if you are expecting to need one.

Network Dentists

A network is a group of medical providers. A dental insurance company uses a network to give clients a convenient place to see the dentists that will accept their insurance. If you visit a dentist that is outside of the network, that does not necessarily mean your services will not get covered. However, the coverage will likely not be as high as if you visited a dentist within the network, nor will you receive the network discount negotiated by your insurance company.

Preventive Care

Preventive care is included in almost every dental insurance policy because this care is needed to prevent costly dental issues in the future.

Preventive care for dental companies includes:

• Cleaning
• X-rays
• Exams

These visits are almost always paid in full with an oral health plan or a small copayment.

Basic Care

For dental insurance companies, basic care includes procedures like tooth extractions and fillings. Depending on the plan, root canals may or may not be covered under basic care plans. Just like for every dental insurance plan, the insured will have a copayment or coinsurance amount they are responsible for.

Major Care

Major care is covered to a lesser extent by insurance companies because major care is more expensive and involves more extensive treatment. In many plans, there is a separate lifetime maximum amount of coverage for major care, which includes services like crowns, bridges, implants, or dentures.

It is important to note that most cosmetic procedures are not covered under most dental insurance policies because they are considered non-essential to the patient’s oral health.

Savings Plans

Dental savings plans, also called dental discount plans, are flexible and cheap alternatives to traditional dental insurance. With this plan, you can expect ten to sixty percent savings for dental care. Discount coverage resembles a members-only club, where you join the club and get discounts exclusively for members. However, if you require a more expensive procedure or different oral health care, your dental savings plan may not be able to offer you a lot of savings.

Waiting Periods

The waiting period for dental insurance is the amount of time you must wait before you can receive full coverage. During this period, your insurance company will not pay for certain procedures. These can last anywhere from six months for basic services to a whole year for major services, depending on the plan you have selected. The terms of waiting periods depend on the individual company and how they offer their plans.

Sometimes, if you are purchasing dental insurance because you no longer work at a job you used to work at or because you moved to a new area, you can bring this to the attention of your new company. They may waive one or more of the waiting periods and allow you to have access to full dental benefits sooner.

Coinsurance

Coinsurance is the percent that you pay for a service that is covered after you have paid the deductible in full. For example, if your coinsurance is twenty percent and you paid your deductible, then you would only pay for twenty percent of the cost of the approved services. If your deductible is not paid in full, then you have to pay the deductible first and then twenty percent of the remaining balance.

In general, low monthly premiums come with a higher coinsurance and lower maximum annual benefit, and high monthly premiums come with a lower coinsurance and a higher maximum annual benefit.