Finding the Best Individual Dental Insurance

Where can you go to find the best individual dental insurance plan? It is likely that the most beneficial coverage won’t come from a traditional insurance company at all. That’s right; the best coverage is likely to be through a discount dental plan instead. Unlike a standard insurance contract, with pre-approvals, paperwork, waiting periods and restrictions on certain procedures, a discount dental plan lets you get what you need, exactly when you need it.

Individual dental insurance plans are identical to a family plan, but with a lower monthly premium. Just because there are no children or additional members assigned to the policy it doesn’t mean that the insurance company is going to provide expanded benefits or faster service. The individual will still need to wait for major procedures like root canals, extractions, surgeries of any kind, and perhaps even such things as fillings.

Why do insurance companies do this? Basically it is a guarantee that they will receive enough premium payments to cover their cost on any procedures in the event that you should cancel your policy. They don’t want to put any significant money into your care right away, and instead they will wait until some premiums have accumulated, that way if you cancel coverage you will not have cost them much money at all.

With discount dental plans however, the consumer pays a small annual membership fee which provides them with immediate access to discounted dental care through a proven network of providers. Most allow for any kind of treatment required from the moment the individual signs their membership contract. Generally the large numbers of dental professionals participating in such arrangements translates to huge discounts extended to discount dental plan members.

How does this work? If a discount dental plan has roughly forty thousand dentists in their network each one of them will guarantee a fixed discount on a specific service. For instance, if a standard cleaning usually costs $75 dollars, the discount dental network may provide the service at a cost of $45 to all members. With most discount dental memberships averaging around one hundred dollars per year for an individual account, the recommended two cleanings each year would have just paid for the entire plan. No individual dental insurance policy can provide a return like that.

What if an employer provides an individual dental insurance plan to their employee entirely free of charge? That of course is a benefit, but it is the coverage under the benefit that must be thoroughly scrutinized. Though the employer may have eliminated the annual or monthly premium, the employee will still have to fill out claims forms, wait for many essential treatments, be examined (and perhaps rejected) under the insurance company’s health restrictions and accept the annual maximum coverage amount. All of this can quickly add up to a valueless or meaningless policy, particularly if the employee needs specialized care immediately, and of the kind that might amount to a large final cost.