Discount Dental Plans & FAQ about Dental Insurance Plans - Compare Prices

I have been personally reminded recently why access to dental care is important. A tooth strategically positions below my left ear broke and became infected. Not only did the tooth itself hurt, a massive ear ache began pulsating about midnight. To make matters worse a fan was blowing in the room and its airstream hit - you guessed it - directly in my left ear!

Fortunately I did not have to suffer long or worry that I would face a huge bill to start on the antibiotics and pain medication needed to deal with the horrendous toothache - I had a dental plan and that dental insurance covered most of my actual costs in dealing with this excruciatingly painful problem!

What would you do in a similar emergency?

Aside from these "emergencies" good dental health is important in a number of other ways:

For these reasons, we need access to professional dental care and usually people budget for that using a reputable dental insurance or dental discount plan.

The Discount Dental Plans available in a given zip code vary by company.

In general, these Discount Dental Plans will let you join without regard to any previous dental conditions or other health restrictions.

Savings in such plans generally are 10% to 60% on most dental procedures. These discounts extend to dental specialties usually, but this varies by location and plan.

Discount Dental Plans cost less than Dental Insurance because they purchase access to national discount dental networks. Dental insurance actually pays part of the cost of a discounted procedure. For that reason it costs more depending on what the company calculates their costs will be.

Discount Dental Plans can be purchased online without examination and can be activated quickly if dental care is needed right away.

Because more than 100,000 dentists participate in 30 national and regional networks, most people can find a participating dentist somewhere close by.

Because of the internet, it is relatively easy to compare a variety of plans serving your area by their price, by the number of local dentists in the plan and other variables.

If you have a "family dentist" already who does not participate, many dentists will join rather than lose an existing patient.

You can compare Discount Dental Plans with 100,000 participating dentists at this link.

Please Note: Because Dental Insurance is an insurance product (unlike a discount dental plan) to purchase such a product, you must consult (even if by phone) with a licensed health insurance agent. Usually plan implementation takes longer because coverage under a dental insurance plan can only happen after an insurance company receives the premium and accepts the application for insurance.

Basically there are two ways to approach access to dental care - by securing guaranteed discounts for a variety of services should they be needed (a "dental discount plan") or to purchase actual dental insurance.

A dental discount plan lets you tap into the pre-negotiated discounts insurance companies and other large groups use for yourself. If you're not too good at arm twisting - especially when a toothache has you about to scream with pain, this can save you significant amounts of cash in a time that's already physically painful. Your annual or monthly "fee" buys you access to these networks. Without them, sometimes dentists will not even give you a "cash discount" (in fact, if they did and the dental network found out about it, that dentist could be excluded the network and lose patients in the future).

By joining a dental plan that lets you tap into these discounts, you'll have the confidence of knowing that you're not having to pay more for dental services than customers who have insurance. The difference is that you will pay 100% of the bill - it will be a discounted bill however.

Dental insurance, on the other hand, actually is letting you prepay the cost of dental work. It's a bit like how a life insurance quote is calculated. Instead of "Mortality Experience", the companies determine how likely you are to have extensive dental work.

Dental insurance companies go out and negotiate the cost of dental services and then - with your dental insurance premium dollars - go pay (depending on the plan) some or all of that discounted rate for a given service when visit the dentist. You pay the balance or some sort of co-pay. Usually some services like annual x-rays and cleanings are "free" to make sure you're getting preventative care so that, hopefully, more expensive treatments aren't needed later.

Dental Discount Plans are cheaper - you're just buying official access to a network of dental providers at discounted rates.

Dental Insurance is more expensive because you're not only buying access to the network of discounted dental services, you're actually "insuring against" future dental services or "prepaying" for dental work in a way.

Because there is much more involved in the way of caluclating premiums, there are likely waiting periods for certain procedures, annual benefit limits per family member covered, variable copayment amounts for "in network" or "out of network" providers and all the usual monkey business we've come to associate with insurance! That's so that dental insurance providers can provide coverage without going broke!

These (usually national) companies are well known in the industry for providing dental plans and or dental insurance plans. Not every carrier is listed, but these are major carriers you can inquire about when making comparisons. Not every plan is available in every area.

• Aetna Dental Access,
• Signature Wellness Plan,
• Patriot Plan,
• UNI-CARE 200,
• Vital Savings by Aetna,
• Preferred Network Access,
• Dentemax,
• DHA-Access,
• Dental Care Advantage,
• Dent-All Plan, Inc. Nationwide Program,
• Dental Network of America,
• DNOA Select,
• UNI-CARE 100,
• Protective,
• Affordable Family Health Services,
• Avia,
• Patriot Plan Plus,
• First Dental Health Access,
• DentalSave,
• Qualident,
• Starmark,
• Liberty,
• Liberty CA90,
• ADI,
• ADI Ultra Care,
• Dominion,
• MSofA,
• Dent-All Plan,
• Harbor,
• Eclipse,
• HealthPlus,
• Cigna,
• Delta Dental,
• Metlife,
• Blue Cross Blue Shield,
• Guardian,
• Fortis,
• GE,
• Horizon,
• Ameriplan,
• Prudential,
• Cocordia,
• MCNA,
• Careington, and
• United.

There is another possible way to save money on dental care without purchasing dental insurance...

It's called "Dental Tourism" or "Medical Tourism".

It involves travelling to a recognized medical or dental clinic in another country to have US equivalent dental work done at local prices which can be much cheaper.

Guides are published to help you begin the process of finding such clinics. Be sure to verify that the information is current with the local Embassy or Consulate to verify that 1) the clinic is still in business, 2) has a solid reputation (would diplomatic staff go there?) and 3) that travel for international visitors is safe in the region as you plan your trip.

Ordinarily, I think it'd be better to do preventative and ongoing care in the US in conjunction with a discount dental plan or dental insurance, but sometimes enough dental work needs to be done at one time to justify this plan, especially if one is travelling on vacation to the area anyway.

Usually these clinics require cash payments so be careful how you transfer the funds so that you will not be endangered travelling with large amounts of cash. A bank transfer may be suggested.

When purchasing a Discount Dental Insurance Plan or Dental Insurance, please consult with your personal financial, legal or other advisors. The information here is believed to be correct but no warranties are made. Please conduct your own research and make your own decision in consultation with your professional advisors.

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