Overview
Dental insurance is a vital part of health insurance although not everyone seems to know that there are a number of ways to pay for a dentist or dental care. For instance, a dental discount plan may be the best deal for some, if their employer does not offer any dental insurance or is unwilling to negotiate a plan in the workplace. For some others, purchasing dental insurance through their employer could work out well if they have a family to insure and a history of dental problems. And yet there may be instances where one may decide to pay the dentist's bills from his pocket and avoid paying any premiums for dental insurance.
Dental insurance is generally available under the following broad based plans.
Traditional Dental Insurance
These plans are the most common and they offer the same benefits that are found in health insurance plans. Such traditional dental insurance plans require a weekly or monthly premium and provide benefits like meeting up to 80-100 % of the dental care costs. The traditional dental insurance plans could be purchased through employers or insurance agents although one has to know that if the plan is bought from insurance agents and not the employers then the costs could be higher. It is better to always check with the employer first while purchasing a dental plan since some procedures and prior problems may have a waiting period or may not be covered.
Dental Reimbursement Plans
A dental reimbursement plan is a type of agreement between the employee and his employer and not an insurance plan as is understood. In this type of plan the employee pays for his dental care and then submits the dental care provider's receipt to his employer who reimburses him up to a specified limit (not exceeding $ 1000 per year). This plan is mutually rewarding for both the employer and the employees as neither party has to worry about paying monthly premiums to an insurance company or about having limited choices of consulting a dentist.
Voluntary Group Plans
In this type of plan the employee and his co-workers pay all the fees for the dental insurance but it is set-up through the employer as that enables the employee to get a cheaper group rate with chances of better benefits. Employees interested in purchasing dental insurance at the workplace can get together with their co-workers and ask the employer to set up a voluntary group dental insurance plan.
Dental Discount Plans
Dental discount plans are not insurance but instead one could get a specific discount on specific services. These types of plans usually require the payment of an enrollment fee and a monthly fee to the dental discount plan provider. For instance, if the fee charged by a dentist is $ 80 for a visit and cleaning a dental discount plan discount of 20 % would enable payment of only $ 64 although dentist choices would be limited to the dentists in the area that accept the dental insurance plan.
