As opposed to dental insurance plans which are governed by the same structure as medical insurance, individual discount dental plans are more like memberships. They are available in every state of the country with quite a few variations of payments, depending on needs and deductibles. When you join, you get welcome letters, fee schedules, instructions and tips to maximize your savings and support and contact information.
Great Place to Find Individual Discount Dental Plans
A good source to find individual discount dental plans is dentalplancards.com. There is a search page for any zip code after you select the dental services that are most important to you, individually. The choices are:
- Checkups and x-rays
- Cleaning and sealants
- Fillings and crowns
- Braces
- Implants and veneers
- Root canals
- Gum treatments
- Dentures and bridges
- Tooth extractions
- Pediatric dentistry
- and more…
After your selections, and your area zip code, a list of available plan providers is presented. For an example, after picking the five most expensive services from the list for the state of Arizona, the top four choices were:
1. Cigna Dental Only, $104.95 yearly
2. Alliance Healthcare Gold Card, $144.95 yearly
3. Patriot Plan, $104.95 yearly
4. Dent-All-Plan, Inc. Nationwide, $114.95 yearly
These individual discount dental plans provided for about 47% to 52% off of regular dentist prices.
There were several more with the cheapest plant being Uni-Care 100 Discount Dental Plan for $79.95 a year, plus a free bonus package to include RX, Eye care, hearing and chiropractic coverage. Where most dental plans will cover preventative work at 100%, this plan only covered it at 30% and any specialty work at 15%. In dental plans, like most things, you get what you pay for.
One of the better plans reviewed was Delta Dental of Arizona, which provided 24/7 access to the website deltadentalaz.com and offered monthly payments automatically deducted.
Delta Dental offered five price plans ranging from $44.32 a month to a low of $18.71 monthly. The maximum out of pocket expenses ranged from $2,000 to $500 a year; preventive dentistry was either covered 100%, 90%, or 70%; basic work ranged from 50% coverage to 100%; and major work was covered 50% on several individual discount dental plans, 40% on one, 30% on another but not covered at all on the least expensive plan.
Our final tip is to do your homework. You can shop around and find good individual discount dental plans that fits your needs. The relatively low monthly or yearly cost can save you lots of money at the dentist.
