Individual and Family Dental Insurance

You can obtain an individual dental plan for for $8 a month. There is no reason not to have some form of dental coverage.

Over 43 million Americans do not have health insurance (although the actual number is closer to 20 million). This number is a drop in the bucket compared to the number who do not have dental insurance. Yet, dental coverage is the most asked for benefit rider when someone shops for a health insurance plan.

Individual Dental Insurance versus Individual Dental Plans

Most of you use these terms interchangeably. However, the regulatory authorities do not see it that way. So, for discussion sake, an individual dental insurance plan is an underwritten plan offered by an insurance company and sold only by licensed insurance agents. An individual dental plan, is generally a discount dental program that may or may not be sold by a licensed agent.

Are Individual and Family Dental Plans Worth the Cost?

Many of you are used to a typical health insurance model for medical care. You have co-pays for doctors and prescriptions and a deductible for the big stuff.

If you had a family dental plan 15 years ago, the annual caps on the plan were probably around $1,000 per person per year. Now roll the calendar forward and quadruple the cost of dental care and guess what? The plans still have caps of around $1,000 per person.

What happened? Why do these plans defy economic sensibility? It is really quite simple. The cost of administration has gone up dramatically along with dental care. A crown and root canal can easily cost you $1500 to $1800. You can plow through a $1,000 worth of dentistry in a blink of an eye.

The insurance companies want to make money and paying for thousands of dollars of dental treatment would force them to charge you a fortune for dental insurance. So, they kept the benefits more or less constant and kept the price down.

However, there are ways to keep your out of pocket costs down, so read on.

First, it gets worse

When I was a child, my family dentist cleaned, filled and pulled teeth, made bridges, etc. They provided almost all dental services for the entire family. Children and adults went to the same dentist. Specialist were rare and considered an extreme measure.

Now, most of the "expensive" procedures are farmed out to specialists (with the exception of crowns and dentures). That is why I always try to find a dentist that do their own root canals.

But then it gets better

Don't get depressed, it is not as bad as it sounds. You just have to have realistic expectations and take advantage of the plans that are available. As I mentioned on the home page, don't expect to pay twenty bucks a month and have someone pay you for $5,000 of dentistry. You and I know it will never happen. But there are individual and family dental insurance plans that can really help.

All of the plans we sell have networks associated with them. The discount, indemnity, PPO and HMO plans all are networked plans.

This means that if you use a dentist in the network you are entitled to the discounted network price for your dental work. This alone can save you a fortune.

If your dentist is not in any of the networks for any of the plans we offer, I suggest you consider changing. I know that is something you do not take lightly. However, you are literally handing over hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars to your dentist because you are afraid of going anywhere else. Please, don't tell me you have the best dentist in the world. There are about 150,000 dentists in the United States. Find one that will accept insurance you can purchase.

Otherwise, negotiate a discount with your "best dentist in the world" and buy an indemnity plan to help you cover part of the expenses.

Next Steps

Use our dental plan quote page to view all of our plans.