Supplemental Dental Insurance – Take a Bite Out of Your Dental Costs

You should not confuse supplemental with traditional dental insurance. Supplemental insurance is only meant to fill in when your regular health or dental plans doesn’t cover all of your treatments. You can choose among a variety of supplemental plans.

Discount Dental Plans

The most common kind of supplemental plans is the discount plan. A discount plan acts as supplemental plan because if there are certain procedures which your standard insurance will not cover, you can have them done at significantly reduced fees by becoming a member of a discount plan. You’ll pay nominal monthly fess for your membership, and in return can use any of the dental professionals which belong to the network of the plan you joined.

There will be neither deductibles nor spending caps. Nor will you be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions. You will, however, be required to pay the reduced price for your procedures at the time you receive them.

Reduced-Cost Student Dental Plans

Most family insurance will cover children only until their 18th birthdays, so there are reduced-cost plans for students now offered by many colleges and universities. While these supplemental plans usually cover only routine procedures like checkups, cleanings, fillings, and X-rays, that may be sufficient to keep more serious and expensive problems from occurring.

This form of insurance sometimes requires the student to pay a minimal co-payment a the time of treatments, but the annual cost of supplemental insurance for students is reasonable, usually below $200 per year.

Preferred Provider Network Supplemental Dental Insurance

One way to save on detal costs is with preferred provider, which, for a monthly fee in the twenty dollar range, will let you use any dentist who belongs to the preferred provider network. The network will pay a predetermined portion of the cost of your treatment, and you’ll handle the rest.

Places to Find Supplemental Dental Insurance

If your employee doesn’t offer supplemental dental insurance, you may be able to qualify for it by joining a professional group, or investigating whether your labor or credit union offers coverage.

If you’re an American over 50, you are eligible for membership in the A.A.R.P, or American Association of Retired Persons (you don’t have to be retired). A.A.R.P has a low annual fee, and in addition to offering insurance coverage to its members, has many other discounts on entertainment and travel.