Authored by Rodney Southern in Dentistry, Insurance
Published on 04-23-2009
Dental problems can be very costly and expensive and often will even cost more than your current insurance plans will cover. Contrary to popular belief, there are a great many dental expenses that are not covered at all by the average health insurance plan. Given this hole in many people’s coverage, supplemental dental insurance makes excellent sense. Supplemental dental insurance is a dental plan that is meant to supplement existing dental coverage.
Supplemental dental insurance comes in a number of different forms, and each have advantages and disadvantages. What supplemental dental insurance is not, however, is dental insurance meant to stand alone. You still need to have your normal health insurance or dental coverage. Even those that have excellent dental coverage can benefit greatly from supplemental dental insurance. The costs of dental care are rising.
One of the types of supplemental dental insurance is not actually insurance at all. It is called a dental discount plan. Because of a large membership base, dental discount plans find dentists willing to participate in the program. You then go to the member dentists for your dental care and they give you a discounted rate for your dental work. These plans are usually very affordable, and can often work in conjunction with your current dental insurance.
Much like regular health insurance, another type of supplemental dental insurance is based around a preferred provider network of dentists. Like the discount plan, you pick a dentist that participates, and then you get to pay a co-pay along with the plan to cover the costs for certain procedures. The rates on these vary, but they are highly effective options for the vast majority of people.
Some supplemental dental insurance plans are aimed at a specific group of people. Students are a great example of these types of supplemental dental insurance plans. Because of their high risk of not having dental insurance, students are often offered a student discount plan with their University of choice. These University work out deals with the participating dentists and then the students get dental work at a cheaper rate.
Other supplemental dental insurance plans exist, and they all cover expenses to some degree. The fact is, going without supplemental dental insurance these days is just silly. The costs are very minimal, and they can save you a ton of money over a period of time.
If you have ever found yourself in the situation of having dental care needs, and not having the insurance or money to see a dentist, then you know the importance of supplemental dental insurance first hand. If you have never experienced this, take my work for it and go out and get a supplemental dental insurance plan today. You will someday be glad that you did.
