When it comes to teeth…
One of my teeth started to hurt this past weekend. It’s not a sharp pain. But I don’t want to ignore it, wither. It feels like it is one of the teeth I had worked on last fall. At the time, I had a small cavity and put off the dental appointment to get it fixed for three months while my insurance issues after my divorce were worked out and running smooth. That was a mistake. In those three months, the cavity just happened to get into the soft part of my tooth and narrowly missed the root. The dentist was able to save my tooth, but only with heavy reconstruction.
And, it took a LONG time to pay off the bill, despite the fact that I have dental insurance. My insurance just did not cover much and I was expected to pay a very large part of the bill. I am a little concerned that when I go back I will be looking at yet another large bill.
Now, like I mentioned, I have dental insurance. It can be a hassle, because I have to use a doctor who accepts the plan, they have to file forms, my insurance company can deny claims and there are limits on what procedures are allowed.
A different option, which I am now looking into, is a dental plan. A Plan will differ from Insurance in that the Plan is network of dentists and services I can use to receive up-front discounts. DentalPlans.com, for example, partners with over 30 regional and national discount plans and more and 100,000 providers in combined networks. As an alternative to insurance, any dental plan I choose would have an annual membership fee and then grant me access to dental services with discounts anywhere from 10% to 80%, most typically in the 50% range.
My dental insurance costs me about $216 annually just for the premium. I changed to a less expensive plan this past enrollment period. It was costing about $450 annually. Keep in mind that is just the premium. I still needed to pay deductibles and non-covered services and procedures.
I’m going to do some more research on discount dental plans. There are a lot of choose from and they all have slightly different benefits. All in all, though, it might be a better option for me.
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