4 Basic Facts You Need to Remember about Dental Insurance

Dental insurance—the mere mention of it can cause your eyes to glaze over. For those who aren’t familiar with it, this type of insurance can seem like a dry, boring topic, but if you don’t understand the basics, you could end up losing money you could have easily avoided spending.

Without going into the nitty-gritty details, here are the main points you need to know to keep your dental expenses as low as possible.

You Get 2 Dental Checkups & Cleanings Per Year.

The strong majority of dental insurance policies cover a visit about every six months. This routine appointment involves checking your teeth for existing issues like gum disease or cavities as well as removing damaging plaque from your teeth. Overall, it takes usually an hour, unless you and the dentist need to discuss further treatment or questions.

Although it can be easy to overlook the importance of this preventive care, it is essential if you want to avoid more costly repairs later on.

Prevention and Early Treatment Get the Most Coverage.

Many people think dental insurance is exactly the same as medical insurance, but that’s not true! While medical insurance focuses a lot of coverage on large expenses for necessary procedures and tests, dental insurance has a more proactive approach. To illustrate, here is how most insurance companies cover dental expenses:

• 80 to 100 percent of the cost is covered for preventive dental checkups and cleanings.
• 70 to 80 percent of the cost is covered for minor restorative procedures like tooth-colored fillings.
• 50 percent of the cost is covered for major restorative procedures like crowns, root canals, and dentures.

As you can see, the sooner you address a dental problem, the less you pay out-of-pocket.

Benefits Expire at the End of the Year.

Unlike your paid time off at work, your dental insurance benefits do not carry over into the new year. What happens if you miss one of your preventive visits before December 31? Do you get an extra visit in the following year? As soon as the calendar changes to January 1, you lose any unused benefits, which is why you need to try to schedule your first checkup and cleaning appointment early in the year, giving you plenty of time for the other in the second half.

You Can Save Even without Being In-Network.

Although going with an in-network dentist tends to save you a little bit more, you can go to an out-of-network dentist and still avoid paying full price for care. Many dental offices will file claims for you, but keep in mind that you’ll need to pay for any work upfront, and the insurance company will reimburse you the amount you’re owed.

By taking the time to comprehend just these simple principles of dental insurance, you can save thousands of dollars! Maybe this topic isn’t quite as boring as you originally thought, and it’s worth paying attention to so that you spend less on maintaining your smile.

About the Practice

Queen Creek Complete Dental is proud to be in-network with Cigna, Delta Dental, and MetLife insurance plans, but we will gladly work with whatever insurance you have. Dr. Reza Jafari and Dr. Sierra Ferreira and the rest of our experienced team know how to deal with dental insurance and get the most value out of your benefits. If you have questions about using your insurance, don’t hesitate to contact us online or call our Queen Creek office at 480-722-1200.