Dental Insurance vs. Dental Discount Plans

Health insurance usually only covers the kinds of dental services that might be associated with a covered illness or injury, so you shouldn't count on your regular major medical plan to cover routine dental services, filling cavities, root canals or orthodontics. Still, having access to professional dental care is an important part of good healthcare. At the same time, some trips to the dentist can be expensive without proper coverage.

Two popular ways of controlling these costs are dental insurance and dental discount plans. Consumers who are looking for help with their dental care need to know the difference between these two choices.

Dental Insurance vs. Dental Discount Plans

It may be harder to tell the difference between discount plans and actual insurance for a few reasons. First, many insurance policies also use a network to control costs. In that way, a sort of discount plan could be bundled into many dental policies, but they also pay all or part of the bills for certain dental services. Second, discount plans may look an awful lot like PPO or HMO networks. In fact, they are very often offered by companies that also offer insurance.

Dental Discount Plans Don't Pay For Services: A dental discount plan doesn't actually pay for any services. Instead, the network dentists may offer some free or reduced prices for services in order to get included on the list of plan providers. Dental professionals may hope to attract more patients by belonging to these networks. Again, these networks could also be associated with insurance, but they could also be stand-alone discount networks.
Dental Insurance Policies Do Pay For Covered Services: Dental policies do pay for some or all of covered services. Typically, network policies will offer routine services, like cleanings and checkups, for a very low cost or even for free. However, they may only pay a limited amount or portion of the cost for major services. Also, many dental policies have a waiting period before they will cover many major services. People usually can't expect to get services like crowns covered the week after their dental insurance becomes effective.

Is Dental Insurance Better Than a Dental Discount Plan?

Typically, discount plans cost less than dental policies. They may also offer discounts with no waiting periods and fewer restrictions. However, while they may help plan members get cheaper dental services, they don't actually pay for anything in full. On the other hand, a true dental insurance policy can pay a specified amount towards covered services and may also include network discounts. The best choice really depends upon a consumer's needs, budget and the individual options available.

Get the right coverage today. Call TCU Insurance Agency at (800) 772-8043 for more information on Indiana dental insurance.

No Comments