What You Need to Know Before Choosing a Dental Insurance Plan
October 1, 2020

If you have insurance, you will want to choose a dental care plan that covers you and your family’s needs.

What You Need to Know Before Choosing a Dental Insurance Plan

Just like choosing a dentist, choosing a dental care plan is much of a big deal. With two or more visits to your dentist, you will figure out if the dentist is fit for you. However, you will not discover problems with your dental insurance until you or your family need coverage.

Understanding Dental Insurance

Unlike health insurance covers that people rely on to cover large medical bills, dental care insurance covers low-cost and preventative services. Most plans will cover preventive care services such as cleanings and exams fully. For treatments such as fillings, they cover 80% of the cost, while they cover 50% of more complex treatments such as root canals.

If you compare the cost of dental care services annually out of your pocket with the expenses when you have dental insurance, the out of the pocket cost is higher. Therefore you should consider a dental insurance plan that does not inconvenience you.

In case you need a dental insurance policy, you can buy it from an agent or through online agents.

What Does a Dental Plan Include?

The components of a dental plan vary from provider to provider.  However, a typical dental insurance plan includes:

  • Preventive care. According to a dentist in Morristown, NJ, your insurance covers preventive dental care services such as period check-ups, cleanings, x-rays, fillings, and fluoride treatments. Other preventive care services that most insurance providers cover are periodontics and root canals.
  • Emergency dental care. Emergency dental care involves procedures that address issues that require immediate attention. Some of the issues include broken or cracked teeth, toothache, and abscesses
  • Complex dental care. At Dental Care of Morristown, some of the complex dental services that insurance plans cover are orthodontics, dentures, and bridges. However, most dental plans cover only half the cost of these complex services.

Types of Dental Plan

Some of the dental plans include:

Dental Indemnity Plan

Dental indemnity plans offer flexibility since they do not have provider networks. As a member, you can use any dentist and the plan will reimburse, according to the provider’s fee schedule. However, some indemnity plans have low coverage limits. Therefore, you will have to pay a part of your treatment cost.

Managed-Care Plans

Managed-care dental plans, on the other hand, require you to choose a dentist from a pre-approved list. You can choose a dentist from your area, such that a resident in Morristown, NJ, chooses a Morristown dentist as their primary service provider.

A managed care plan is either a PPO or an HMO. Just like other medical HMOs and PPOs, the insurance provider will not cover treatments in a dental clinic that is not in the pre-approved list.

Discounted plans

There are also discounted plans that are not provided by insurance companies. Discounted plans provide discounts if you visit a dentist, who has agreed to provide discounted services in a network. However, the plan does not cover any cost of your treatment. Therefore, you will have to pay from your pocket but at a discounted price.

What Are the Factors That Determine the Reliability of a Dental Plan?

At a Morristown dental clinic, the dentist will recommend you to choose a dental plan with the following:

  • No or short waiting period. Some dental plans have a waiting period after signing the policy. Therefore, you will have to foot your bills for dental care services while waiting for the waiting period to elapse. Before signing a policy, you should read the fine print to check the waiting period and evaluate the reliability based on your needs.
  • Low deductibles and high annual dollar limits. Before choosing a dental plan, the deductibles and annual dollar limits should be convenient, depending on your dental needs.
  • Affordable premium. When choosing a dental plan, you should consider the annual premium. However, the premium for your insurance should be in line with your dental needs and annual dollar limit.
  • Covers all ages. The family dental plan you choose should cover every family member despite their age.

Also, before choosing a managed-care plan, ask your family dentist if they are in the provider’s network. However, if you don’t have a primary dentist, you can consider a plan that does not restrict you to one dentist.

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