Dental Insurance

Many people does not know that medical and dental medicine are not one but two different insurance plan. Most of the dental diseases are preventable. Because of this reason, most of dental insurance plans focus only on preventive treatment.

Medical illness is generally unpredictable and could happen suddenly. Therefore, all medical insurance plans cover the expenses towards diagnosis as well as treatment of the illness.

It is possible that even if you are covered by a medical insurance, you are not covered by a dental insurance. Even if you are covered, the cover might not be sufficient. In such a case you can go for supplemental dental insurance plan.

There are different types of plan available under dental insurance. Some dental plans are known as “open panels”. In case of such a plan, you are allowed choose any dentist you like for your treatment. There are other dental insurance plans that are known as “closed panels”.

In such an insurance plan, you are allowed to select your dentist only from a specific list made out by the insurance company. Even in case of “closed panel” dental insurance, there are two main types. One of them is called Preferred Provider Organization or PPO in short.

In case of such a plan, the insurance company provides you with a list of dentists who are enlisted with the company. These dentists are ‘preferred’ and they will charge you at a lower fee but you are not debarred from consulting any other dentist for a higher fee.

The other plan is called Exclusive Provider Organization or EPO in short. In case of such a plan, you are allowed to select dentists only from the given list.  There are exceptions in case of emergencies or when you are traveling. But, generally any care received from any dentist not included in the list would not be covered by the insurance plan.

There are many variations amongst these supplemental insurance plans in the way the payment is made to the dentist. Some plans would require you to pay certain percentage of dentist’s fees while receiving the services. Other plans might require you to pay a set co-payment. In some other cases, you might be required to pay the entire cost while receiving the dental service, which would be reimbursed to you later by the insurance company. 

Therefore, while taking out a dental insurance you should clear about what are the benefits you would be receiving from the plan and the cost involved. In case, there is any doubt, you should not hesitate to ask questions to get all your doubts cleared before taking any decision regarding dental insurance.