Remember This Info about Dental Insurance!

Unless you work in the insurance industry, these various plans can be utterly bewildering. Even though dental insurance is probably one of the simpler types, you may not fully understand it. However, not grasping its basic principles could end up costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars! What are some helpful bits of information to remember about dental insurance? Keep reading to find out!

Prevention and Early Treatment Will Save You the Most Money.

While medical insurance focuses mostly on treatment, dental coverage emphasizes the importance of prevention and early intervention because insurance companies understand that it’s cheaper to avoid an oral health problem now than it is to treat it later.

As a result, you get more coverage and less out-of-pocket expenses when you take advantage of preventive care, which is usually completely paid for by the insurance company. In other words, you get the most bang for your insurance buck if you visit the dentist at least twice each year for checkups and cleanings and address cavities and other issues as soon as possible.

Cosmetic Procedures Are Considered Elective.

One similarity between medical and dental insurance is that elective procedures are often not covered. When it comes to dental procedures, patients must pay for purely cosmetic treatment like porcelain veneers and teeth whitening completely out-of-pocket. However, there are some rare exceptions, which is why your dental team should look closely at your policy.

Insurance Isn’t Your Only Option for Making Treatment Affordable.

Although your dental insurance can reduce the amount you owe out of your own pocket, you have other methods available to take pressure off your budget. For instance, your dentist may accept payment through a financing company like CareCredit, which divides the total you owe into smaller monthly payments. With a low interest rate, you can pay for treatment over time, which eases the financial burden of treatment.

You Lose Any Unused Benefits at the End of the Year.

Every January 1, your dental insurance benefits reset. This means that if you did not get two dental visits in the previous year, you do not get extra checkups and cleanings in the new one to make up for it. As a result, it’s imperative to plan and use your allotted benefits—otherwise, you give free money back to the insurance companies. In fact, patients gift about 1 billion dollars’ worth of benefits to these companies every year! Don’t leave your money on the table, and use benefits you’re entitled to.

You don’t have to be a dental insurance expert to use it wisely. Now that you know these little basic tidbits of information about dental insurance, you can better utilize it to your advantage and save as much money as possible.

About the Practice

Our four dentists and the rest of the team at Advanced Dental Solutions of Pittsburgh are proud to accept dental insurance from patients in the Pittsburgh area. We are in-network with many insurance PPO plans, including Cigna, Delta Dental, Guardian, Aetna, and more. If you have questions about dental insurance, we would be happy to help you. Just give our office a call at 412-854-2310 or visit our Contact Us page here.