Seeking Advice on Dental Insurance

Hello L.,
Let me recommend AmeriPlan to you. It is NOT insurance, but instead called Consumer Driven Health Care or sometimes nicknamed "discount plan." You can include your entire household (up to 20 people) for only $19.95 per month. This will entitle you to discounts from 20% to 80% on dental care. Example: Normally, in the DFW area, for the dentist to just look in your mouth, the fee is about $103, but with Ameriplan it is $30! Services include braces, whitening, x-rays, etc. This dental plan also provides you with discounts on vision, prescription and chiropractic care. If you would like more information, please visit www.Dental80off.com . You can also call me at ###-###-#### and I'll be happy to tell you more about it. I use this plan and have been very pleased with what I have saved in dental and vision care.

Google "dental insurance" and several options will come up for you.

I've recently gotten a dental discount plan for our 27 year old daughter who has had and has to have extensive dental coverage. I've also been looking for my husband and I since we no longer have coverage now.

Most dental insurance plans have high premiums and low yearly maximums. For example, our daughter had to have several teeth given root canals and crowns. The root canal is about $1000 and the crown is about $1000. The insurance would pay about 50% which leaves us with $1000 out of pocket expense. For an individual(not group) policy, the yearly maximum benefits is usually between $1000 - $2000. Paying monthly premium for insurance of $80 just doesn't make sense for us, especially since most policies have clauses for pre-existing conditions.

If you have a dentist you like or want to use, be sure to make sure that dentist is on the insurance or discount plan. The plan we chose gave us a good discount and the net cost was only a bit more than we would have paid out of pocket. Discount plans are generally a lot less expensive.

Another option I've been exploring for my husband and I is AFLAC. They have waiting periods for existing conditions, too, but they vary depending upon the work needed and the premiums are generally less.

We have Carrington. Just got to their website and you can see the plans. I believe its only like $15 a month for our whole family. My husbands work offers dental but its so pricy and the benefit level is awful. We have uded this plan for a really long time and its great. Its also immediate once you join you can print a card and go use it. I had to when my wisdom tooh came through and I woke up and my whole face was swollen and I looked a mess. It only costed me $110 to do x-ray, and the removal and I thought that was pretty cheap. It also has a rx ans eye discount on it as well. Hope this helps!

We use http://www.dentalselect.com/
It's around $30 a month for a family. It pays for regular cleanings & x-rays. For the bigger stuff it gives a discount.

L.-

I am a dental hygienist and often I find that patients are unsatisified with their dental coverage. Say for instance they need a $1000 crown. I don't think I have ever seen a dental insurance pay 100% unless it's for a cleaning. So you are looking at paying $250-$500 of it yourself. You may consider just opening a savings account and putting the money that you would be paying for premiums into it.