Dental Insurance: Beneficial Only if you Choose the Right Plan

If you are a self employed individual, it is very important to pick well your health insurance benefits package. You are not going to receive anything from an employer, so you must make sure you have enough dental coverage, and access to quality services.

Most of the times, choosing medical insurance or the retirement plans is easy; however, when you come at choosing your dental insurance you might be a little bit confused as to which plan is the best.

The most important factors that you need to analyze before making your decision, are the following:

• The overall design of the plan
• Dental coverage utilization
• How much will the premium cost
• How much is the deductible/ co-pay scheme

It is very important to keep in mind that you should pay attention to underinsuring vs. over-insuring yourself. If you have a history with many dental emergencies and other oral health problems, it is better to buy more insurance of high quality.

On the other hand, if you are the type of person who takes care of oral hygiene, and visits the dentist at least twice a year, it means that you are basically protecting yourself against those “unplanned” dental problems. If this is the case, a preventative/standard plan with low premiums and a higher deductible would work fine.

According to recent surveys, the prices for root canal treatments or crowns range between $350 and can go as far as $3,000. In cases when you have to go through such complex dental treatments, or if your personal dental history is filled with such kinds of treatments, it is better to pick an insurance that carries higher premiums and lower deductibles. It is everything about the risk in insurance, so you should pay extreme attention on what criteria you choose the dental plan.

Did you know that 50 years ago when dental insurance became a trend, the annual maximum has been $1,000? Today, more than 50% of the average dental insurance plans offer the same benefit per year – $1,000 to max. $1,500! This clearly shows that few things have basically changed over a lifespan of 5 decades.

Then, according to a study published in 2005 in the Journal of the American Dental Association, it has been reported that 63% of the adults with dental insurance went for the regular checkups to the dentist compared to 40% of the individuals who do not have coverage at all.

However, out of those who own dental insurance, approximately 12% struggle with dental anxiety. This means that employees with a proper insurance and dental phobia are less likely to visit the dentist than people who do not have any coverage at all.

The affair of dental insurance in ensemble is quite complicated, and it has many intricacies. The best you can do when choosing a plan for yourself is to look at your individual case, and pick the coverage according to your individual needs, and not according to the trends.

Also, make sure to carefully read through the terms and conditions, and the exclusions list in your contract. By knowing exactly how much coverage you are offered and for what types of treatments, will make you more conscious about the problem when all you do is postponing your visits to the dentist.