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dental insurance / dental plans |
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| Many individuals who have dental insurance (or have coverage through some other type of dental plan) receive it as one of the benefits of their employment. Offering a dental insurance plan can aid an employer in obtaining and retaining superior employees.
While most individuals do work, not all of us are employed in a situation where we have dental coverage provided for us. In these cases a person may choose to evaluate the market place and make a determination about the suitability of the dental insurance and dental plans for individuals and individual families that they find available. Towards this type of search we provide the following pages outlining aspects of dental insurance plans that are commonplace. |
Why have a dental insurance plan?Everyone is at least somewhat familiar with the concept of insurance. Most insurance (homeowners, automobile, health) is purchased as a way of protecting ourselves from unpredictable and catastrophic events (a house fire, totaling a car in an accident, developing a serious health problem). While a part of the purpose of dental coverage is indeed to help protect us from the expenses associated with surprise events (like breaking a tooth while eating or even rebuilding our mouths after a serious accident), comparatively speaking the vast majority of dental needs a person will experience throughout their lifetime will be non-catastrophic and relatively low in cost. Because of this you will find that dental insurance is usually structured so it provides its benefits differently than most of the other types of insurance we buy. |
Topic Dental Insurance Plans : |
How does dental insurance differ from other types of insurance?If you examine the way most dental insurance plans are set up you will see that the greatest portion of the benefits an individual receives from dental coverage differs from those types of benefits provided by most other types of insurance. The primary goal of the typical dental plan is to insure that the covered individual receives regular preventive dental care (check ups, dental cleanings, x-rays, dental sealants, fluoride). This is because dental insurers realize that most of the dental treatment an individual will require throughout their lifetime will not be caused by unpredictable events (such as an accident) but instead by situations where minor problems were not detected and dealt with in an appropriate time frame.Companies selling dental insurance plans know that if they can encourage a covered member to seek regular preventive dental care then that person's potential for needing extensive dental treatment will be greatly reduced. This means that the insurance company's cost for providing dental care for that individual throughout their life should be lower. |
How is a dental insurance plan usually structured?Most dental insurance plans are set up so to encourage their covered individuals to seek regular preventive dental care (check ups, dental cleanings, x-rays, dental sealants, fluoride). The same dental care that helps to minimize the need for more extensive dental treatment (like root canals or crown and bridgework). Dental insurance providers do this by way of structuring their dental plans so the member shoulders a greater portion of the cost of reparative dental treatment (dental fillings, crowns, dentures, etc...) than they do for routine preventative dental care (check-ups, dental cleanings, and x-rays).By making preventive dental treatment easily affordable for their members the dental insurance company is actually reducing the overall cost of providing coverage for these individuals. While dental insurers are no doubt interested in the general well being of the individuals for which they provide coverage, lower dental expenses for their members also translate into greater profits for them. |