Taking good care of your teeth is important. We all want healthy teeth and gums, and a nice smile. The cost of the dental care involved isn’t always easy on your budget. Here are a few ways to save money on dental insurance and dental care, even if you don’t have dental insurance coverage.
One of the easiest ways to save money on your dental care is if you have dental insurance. Some health insurance plans will cover dental care, so you should start by checking to see what your current plan offers. If your health insurance is a group plan, that comes to you from your employer, there is a good chance that it will cover dental care. If it does this automatically, then you aren’t going to have to pay anything extra for dental insurance coverage.
What if your health insurance plan doesn’t cover dental care? Some plans will allow you to attach dental coverage to your existing health plan. Typically, this comes in the form of a “rider”, which is an extra piece of insurance coverage that you can add on for a certain amount of money. Doing this will raise the price of your health insurance premium. It might be less expensive than purchasing an entirely separate dental insurance policy.
Once you have dental insurance coverage, it is a good idea to try and find a dentist that is in your network. In general, the care you receive from a dentist or doctor that your insurance company considers to be within the network is going to cost less than if you got the exact same care from a dentist or doctor who is out of network.
Call your family dentist and ask if she takes your insurance. If she does, then you are set! If not, then you should start calling other dentists in your area, to see if they will take your insurance. Staying within your network should save you some money on the cost of dental care.
What if you don’t have dental insurance at all? Let your family dentist know that you don’t have dental insurance. Some health care providers will offer a discount on the cost of care if the patient can pay for it in cash, or if the patient isn’t making the dentist deal with the paperwork involved with dealing with an insurance company. You could try calling several dentists and asking for a “ball park” figure for the cost of a cleaning and checkup.
Another option is to try Brighter.com. This is not a form of dental insurance. It is more like a discount card that lowers the cost of dental care. This website has a partnership with a company called Careington International Corporation, which has received a rating of A+ (on a scale from A+ to F) by the Better Business Bureau.
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