What is the Difference Between Dental Insurance and Low Cost Dental Plans?

In order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, maintaining proper oral hygiene is an integral part of your health. The mouth, containing your teeth, is perhaps the most important part of the human body. As such, it is absolutely essential that you are concerned with the prevention and repair of any dental problems you may incur.

It is a sad fact that most people do not have any type of dental coverage whatsoever. Due to many corporations cutting costs - especially in our economic condition today - dental benefits for employees have been thrown out of the window, due to their high expense. Many people who have become victim to this cost-cutting problem have always visited the dentist for routine care, but now find that they cannot afford them. How can they get these benefits that they once had, and what is the difference between dental insurance and low cost dental plans?

What most people do not realize is that dental insurance is not offered to individuals or families. It is only offered to employers, who include it as part of a benefits package, where the employees pay a monthly premium for their coverage.

Dental insurance has a fair share of drawbacks when compared to a low cost dental plan. Insurance plans:

• have a cap on spending
• have a deductible or non-eligibility issues
• have a lot of services that are not covered
• have long waiting periods
• have pre-existing condition clauses

Insurance also entails the need to process claims, which can be a long, drawn out process. Dental insurance mainly covers the most common services, such as teeth polishing and the most common exams, and the deductibles for such services can range from $20-$50USD. While dental insurance can cost $100USD or more a month, the choice of providers is completely up to the policy holder.

Low cost dental plans, in contrast, are open to everyone. They provide membership into a service partnership which connects patients with dental care providers at deeply discounted rates. While there is a monthly fee to such services, it is generally much lower than that of dental insurance.

Dental plans such as this are very easy to join, as there is no paperwork, and everything can be handled online. There is no red tape or claims to file. All you do is show your membership card at the dentist's office and pay the co-payment required. The dental plan you select takes care of all of the rest.

With low cost dental plans, you can get deeply reduced costs on dental exams, teeth polishing, teeth pulling, root canals, and other routine procedures. On average, dental plan members save up to 60% off of regular dental fees, which costs less than most dental insurance deductible.

Even if you do have dental insurance, ask how you can use your policy in conjunction with your low cost dental plan to receive even deeper, special discounts.

Are you interested in finding low cost dental plans for yourself or your family? If so, I found a great website that will help point you in the right direction. It is called Low Cost Dental Plans.

They have plenty of information there, plus you can find links to companies where you can do a free search for low cost dental services in your area -- and find services for as little as $7.95 a month.

by dr. tom kilpratt

Comparing Various Dental Plans in a Smart Way

In today's economy with prices increasing and salaries reducing, it is even more important for you to obtain dental insurance for yourself and your family members. In order to save cost, you are advised to select the right dental plan that suits your family's needs at an affordable premium. Below are some useful tips for your kind reference.

· Firstly, you are advised to decide what type of oral health plan you are looking for. For instance, if your teeth are in good condition, then you may just need a plan that allows you to get regular cleanings and yearly x-rays. This is the cheapest and most affordable type of dental insurance.

· After you have decided the particular type of plan, you can now start to look for insurance providers that provide your preferred plan in the market. The process of evaluating the insurance companies may need a lot of time as you need to do thorough comparisons on the premiums, benefits of the policies, the lists of dental providers, the procedures, schedule of reimbursement, annual policy limit, etc.

· Next, you are reminded to check whether there is any lifetime benefit limit cap indicated in the plan. Lifetime limit caps outline the maximum amount the insurance company will pay for a particular procedure for the life of the policy. In common, many insurance providers do not cover expenses for braces. As a result, they usually put a lifetime cap on their policies for orthodontic work such as getting braces.

In short, as a wise consumer, you are always reminded to compare the prices and the benefits of different policies to make sure that you are getting enough insurance to cover you and your family in case you need to go to the dentist.

For more information about dental insurance quotes and dental insurance plans, visit DentalInsuranceAdvice.com

by jeslyn jessy

The Basics of Dental Insurance

The number of employers offering dental care insurance is increasing rapidly, as coverage for dental care is being offered more frequently as part of group health plans. Occasionally, dental insurance is part of a health benefits package with a single deductible called an integrated deductible, applying to both medical and dental expenses. More often, dental coverage and dental claims are handled separately, though they may be part of a larger package with a separate deductible for health insurance coverage and for dental insurance coverage. There also may be a probationary period in group dental insurance to help hold down coverage for preexisting conditions.

Some dental policies are scheduled; that is, benefits are limited to specified maximums per procedure, with first dollar coverage. Most, however, are comprehensive policies that work in much the same way as comprehensive medical expense coverage.

In addition to deductibles, coinsurance and maximums may also affect the level of benefits payable under a dental plan. Coinsurance percentages may apply to reimbursements that are either the reasonable and customary (R&C) type or the scheduled type. A plan based on R&C will apply coinsurance percentages to the dentist's usual and customary fee, provided it is reasonable. This type of plan is also known as usual, customary, and reasonable (UCR) or usual and prevailing (U&P). A plan that is scheduled will apply coinsurance percentages to a schedule or list of fixed-dollar amounts for each covered benefit. Scheduled benefits are generally lower than R&C allowances.

Comprehensive dental plans usually provide routine dental care services without deductibles or coinsurance to encourage preventive dental care. Generally, there is a specified maximum dollar amount payable per year and, sometimes, per family member covered. There also may be a lifetime maximum per individual.

Non routine dental care includes the following:

• Restorative-repairing or restoring dental work that has been damaged in some way
• Oral surgery-surgery performed in the oral cavity, for example, the removal of wisdom teeth
• Endodontics-treatment of the pulp (the soft tissue substance located in the center of each tooth)
• Periodontics-treatment of the supporting structures of the teeth
• Prosthodontics-artificial replacements
• Pediatric dentistry-patient management and preventive and restorative techniques particularly suited to children and adolescents
• Oral pathology-microscopic analysis of tissue biopsy material for diagnosis of oral diseases including oral cancer
• Orthodontics-correction of irregularities of the teeth; most commonly, braces

For non routine treatments, a comprehensive policy pays a percentage, such as 80%, of the reasonable and customary charges. The patient pays an annual deductible and whatever expense remains. Typically, the deductible is per person or per family and most policies limit benefits to stated maximums per year.
Policies that provide for orthodontic care generally have separate limits and deductibles for orthodontia. The coinsurance percentage is likely to be 50% rather than the higher 75% or 80% that applies to other types of non routine dental care.

Many plans offer a selection of providers from which plan participants must choose. In some plans, if a course of treatment is expected to exceed a certain amount, say $200, a report must be submitted to the insurer by the dentist. The report describes the proposed treatment and itemizes the expected charges. The insurer reviews and evaluates this report and sends the dentist an estimate of benefits to be paid.

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by kirby horton

Finding the Best Dental Insurance

The best dental insurance is the policy that covers all your needs. There really is no other way to look at it, price, coverage and network availability is important but the most important thing is that your dental insurance is covering all your dental needs.

Budget

What is your insurance budget? You must decide first and foremost how much you can afford to spend on dental insurance each month. There is no point in considering plans that are far outside your family budget. Sit down, decide this number first, and then as you begin to search for insurance be upfront about what you are willing to spend.

Pre-Existing

Do you have any pre-existing dental issues that need to be resolved? This is an important consideration, as many dental plans will not cover these problems for you. If you are in need of a specific procedure and you do not yet have dental insurance you will want to check the policy to see if you are covered.

Insurance versus Preferred Provider Organizations

You have many choices in your dental care management these days insurance and PPO plans are just a couple. Which one will better suit your needs is relative. Insurance will normally allow you to see any dentist you choose and pay a certain percentage of the cost of approved procedures. A PPO plan however gives you the option to see any dentist, but you will get deeper discounts if you use one in the network.

If you have been with the same dentist for many years and they are a part of a PPO network this could be the best insurance for you. On the other hand, if you are still searching for a dentist and prefer to shop around a bit then traditional insurance may be your best bet.

Research

Whether you are considering insurance, PPO, HMO or other dental plans you will want to research the plans. What are the maximum payouts per year or lifetime? Some have small yearly maximums that will not work for certain individuals. Another question to consider is the procedures they will cover.

Some dental insurance plans will only cover what they consider ordinary expenses and things like root canals or oral surgery are not on that list. For many people this will not be a huge issue but it is important to know ahead of time.

Conclusion

The best dental insurance is the policy or program that gets you the best care for the least amount of money. Each individual or family will have slightly different needs and what works for one may not work for another. When you begin shopping for the best dental insurance, keep all of these ideas in mind.

If you are interested in a better alternative to regular dental insurance, we recommend you visit http://www.DentalPlans.com.

by nathan victor

Choosing Family Dental Insurance

Family dental insurance is very important to the smiles and oral health of your family. Choosing a plan can be a bit daunting at first but with a few tips and a little practice, you will be able to choose the best family dental insurance plan. When looking for insurance you should consider some of the following issues.

Dentist Choice

You should check to see how much leeway you have in choosing your dentist. Some family dental insurance plans limit you to only dentists that are in their network. This may or may not be a deal breaker for you and your family. Look over the dentists in the network to determine if there is one or more that you would be happy with and go from there.

Other programs will allow you to choose your own dentist but will give you the best savings if you use a dentist from the network. Of course, traditional dental insurance allows you to choose any dentist at any time and your benefits remain the same.

Family Members

For most dental insurance plans, children in your household under the age of 18 are covered. However, there are a few plans that will allow you to cover your college student up to age 22. If this is important to your family talk to your insurance provider about potential coverage options.

Procedures

Family dental insurance plans are often times limited on the procedures they will cover. For instance cleaning, and fillings will be covered but more extensive procedures such as root canals are not, if you know that you will need a root canal or some type of dental surgery this could be a very important part of your coverage.

Scheduling

When companies offer super cheap family, dental insurance there is often a catch, such as scheduling. You will have coverage but be limited to specific times when you can visit the dentist. This is not a big deal if you are seeking routine preventative care but should you chip a tooth or have a serious toothache this could be a big problem. Largely it is probably best to avoid this kind of family dental insurance, as you never know when you will need to see a dentist immediately.

Savings

Finally try to determine how much you will save with an individual plan. The best family dental insurance plans generally come from your employer and if this is an option for you choose employer sponsored coverage. However, some employers have begun cutting benefits due to the bad economy and you might have to look outside your job for dental plans.

Calculate what it will cost you to see a dentist without coverage and then with, then figure your monthly premium and the frequency with which you plan to use the insurance. This will give you a good idea of what your savings will be and help you choose the best family dental plan. Overall, you will be better off with insurance than without as dentist visits can be quite expensive.

If you are interested in a more affordable alternative to regular family dental insurance, we recommend you visit DentalPlan.com.

by nathan victor