The difference between US dental plans and insurance

Everybody knows we are going through tough economic times but people still need and want to look after their health. This is defiantly true when it comes to the health of your families teeth and it is vital that people continue to take care of their teeth. Bad oral hygiene and poor teeth care can cause other health issues in the body and new tests have shown that they can even lead to heart attacks. Nearly all dental practice plan providers are now helping people spread the cost of any dental surgery with dental plans. Dental plans are making a case as the best alternative to dental insurance but many people don’t know the difference between dental plans and insurance.

Dental insurance is an alternative option to dental plans but they are often more expensive and there are other issues that put potential clients off. Typically dental insurance in the US is priced some where around two hundred dollars per year for a single person and around fifteen hundred dollars a year for a family.

Another problem with dental insurance is that in many cases an insurance policy doesn’t cover you for pre-existing teeth issues and there is a waiting period before you can have any dental work done. A dental insurance waiting period is typically between six to twelve months or twenty-four months if major dental surgery is required. Many dental insurance policies only allow a maximum pay out of 1000 dollars a year, the problem with this is, if you need root canal surgery on 2 of your teeth then you have to pay for the second tooth yourself. This has caused major issues because in the US over 110 million people go without any sort of dental insurance.

A dental plan in the USA is priced at around $80 each year and these are more flexible than dental insurance. Dental plans provide you with access to a network of dentists that offer discounts of between 10% and 60%. They will perform almost any dental surgery procedures from x-rays and cleanings to cosmetic dentistry, teeth extractions and fillings. Another benefit of dental plans is that you don’t have to wait before you can have dental work. Say you decided to sign up for a dental plan today, then you could see a dentist tomorrow.

You may be thinking how can dental plans afford to be that much cheaper and what is the catch? A practice branded dental plan provides dental surgeries to offer combinations of membership, maintenance and capitation. This means that dental surgeries can provide the sort of dental plans that are tailored to the individual needs of the patient. Flexible payment schemes like these will allow dentist surgeries to keep their clients, rather than loosing them to competitors or preventing them from turning their back on dental surgeries all together.