Know what is not covered under your dental plan. Be aware of any restrictions when choosing your plan. Such as: No specialist, No preexisting (Missing Tooth clauses) No work in progress. Many dental insurance plans will not offer coverage’s on cosmetic dental services such as whiting or veneers or implants.
Other restrictions on coverage’s could include treatments of complicated periodontal disease requiring surgery involving bones, underlying tissues or bone grafts.
Does the plan provide benefits to patients who may also be covered by another dental insurance plan? Not all dental plans offer dual benefits. So when searching for a secondary dental plan make sure both plans allows for coordination of benefits. Also make sure you are seeing a dental provider that is willing to process dual plans.
Does the dental plan allow referrals to specialists? Not all dental insurance plans cover the cost for dental specialists. There are times when a dental services such as root canal or tooth extraction requires a specialist. In such cases does the plan offer coverage’s to specialist? If so what are the coverage’s for specialist? In many cases coverage’s are reduce when seeing a specialist so this is important to know and understand before buying a dental plan.
Many plans like PPOs or Free choice of provider plans have maximum annual dollar limitations, waiting periods and deductible. Many of these types of plans out based on percentage up to UCR (Fair and Reasonable or Maximum Allowable Charge) for the different dental services. Where other dental plans may schedule out the cost for services showing the cost a member pays for each type of dental service covered.
Know the plan benefits and what is cover and who controls any treatment decisions.
There are many dental insurance plans that require dentists to follow treatment plans that rely on a least expensive alternative treatment approach. (Example) If there are multiple treatment options for a specific dental condition, the dental insurance plan may only pay for the less expensive treatment option. Therefore if you choose a treatment option that may better suit your individual needs you may be left responsible for paying the difference in costs or even the total cost for the dental service. It’s important to know who makes the treatment decisions under your plan
Does the plan give you the freedom to choose your own dentist or are you restricted to a network of dentists selected by the insurance company?
This is important to know if you are trying to stay with a family dentist that you are satisfied with. In the same regards it is important to know what types of dental plans your dentist takes and whether or not they are a network provider of any plans.
When buying a dental insurance plan there are many factors that should be looked at so that you get the best plan for you and or your family.
One of the primary focus should be to determine whether the dental plan coverage’s will satisfy your dental care needs. Ask these questions to yourself when reviewing a dental insurance plan and know the answers before buying one. Doing this can save you money as well as any unnecessary grief.
Medical insurance is primarily designed to cover the costs of diagnosing, treating and curing serious illnesses. This process can normally includes a primary care physician and multiple specialists, a variety of tests and multiple procedures to be performed by doctors and laboratories, as well as medications. Rating medical insurance depends on the health, age and attitudes of people in the medical coverage group, so costs can fluctuate widely.
When reviewing dental insurance, you will be able to note that most dental coverage is designed to ensure that the patient receives regular preventive care. Where as high quality medical care requires the complex, multiple resources, That is rarely the case with high quality dental care. A thorough examination and a set of x-rays done by the dentist is all it usually takes to diagnose a problem.
Dental care is normally provided by a general practitioner, although some cases may require the services of a dental specialist. However, because most dental disease are preventable, dental benefits plans are structured to encourage patients to get the regular, routine care vital to preventing and diagnosing the onset of serious dental disease. Because preventive dental is so important in dental health care, most dental benefits plans require patients to assume a greater portion of the costs for treatment of dental disease than for preventive procedures. By placing an emphasis on prevention, and by covering regular teeth cleaning and check-ups, Americans saved nearly $100 billion in dental care costs during the 1980s.
Most dental ailments are preventable, unlike medical which can be both unpredictable and catastrophic. With dental preventive care would including regular dental checkups and cleanings. By having regular visits to the dentist, problems can be diagnosed early along treated without extensive testing or elaborate and expensive procedures. Which helps keeps the costs of dental care much lower than those of medical care. In fact, total spending for dental care is decreasing. In 1970, it made up 6.3 percent of total health care expenditures. But in 1991, dental care’s share of health care spending was only 4.9 percent.
Tom’s of Maine invites parents to take a second look at their child toothpaste and consider changing form a saccharin to strawberries. Toms of Maine offers toothpaste that has no artificial dyes or sweeteners, a silly strawberry toothpaste that has real strawberry flavor derived from strawberry extracts and other natural flavors and is the first and only natural kids toothpaste to earn the American Dental Association’s Seal of Acceptance for cavity prevention.
Good dental and oral health care is first taught from home. Having healthy teeth and gums are important not to have a great smile but to have long term retention of teeth. Young children may not have a good understanding of the importance of oral health care that is why it is so important to make brushing their teeth fun and not a chore.
Try getting your children excited about brushing their teeth and help them to make it a lifetime habit. A few simple ways to make bushing fun would be buying toothpastes they like. Let your child pick their own toothbrush. They are more likely to use one they picked on their own.
Brush your teeth with them. Showing that you enjoy taking care of your oral health will make them want to copy you. As your child gets older do not forget to teach them how to correctly floss. Until then floss your child teeth at least once a day.
One in three US children still lack dental insurance and proper dental dental care. While most people talk about receiving better health care dental care tends to be over looked. For the children that are on Medicaid dental care can be difficult to find. Children and adults alike have died from dental infections from lack of receiving proper dental care. Stating that dental care without dental insurance is to high and dental insurance it too costly for them to afford. Even though most states have low cost dental insurance plans many people do not know where to look for them.
Feds consider less fluoride in water. Although fluoride in drinking water is credited with dramatically cutting cavities and tooth decay too much fluoride in drinking water is causing Flurosis (white spots or streaking) This is one reason why the federal government has announced plans to lower the recommended limit for fluoride in water supplies. Which is the first change of its kind in nearly 50 years.
Mercury amalgam filling or other wise know as silver filling are made up of almost 50 percent mercury which can make some people sick. Having mercury filling replaced with porcelain fillings makes for a healthier and stronger restoration option.
Many dentist are no longer using the old amalgam filling option but in the past these filling were commonly used. If you have questions about your silver or amalgam filling talk to your dentist and see if replacing with porcelain is a good option for you.
Due to baby boomer aging the number of older adults are increasing. Therefore more people are facing tooth loss more commonly among the elderly. One Survey taken estimates that 37 millions Americans will need dentures by 2020.
In an article taken from the Journal of Oral Implantology reports on an alternative treatment to dentures. The “All-on-Four” therapy uses four implants to support a fixed prosthesis, and the patient’s new teeth can be put in place the day of surgery. The All-on-Four treatment maximizes the use of available bone and allows immediate functionality. Four implants are placed two near the front and two near the back of the dental area. These support a fixed, full-arch prosthesis that is put in place the same day as the surgery. The success of this therapy is judged not only by its comfort and usability for the patient, but also by its longevity.
A panel of multi-disciplinary experts convened by the American Dental Association Council on Scientific Affairs issued a report containing clinical recommendations that ugar-free chewing gum, lozenges and hard candy including xylitol or polyol combinations, and a prescription varnish with chlorhexidine and thymol could be beneficial in preventing cavities when used as adjuncts to a comprehensive cavity prevention program which includes the use of fluoride-containing products.
In Chicago IL a landmark meeting brought together experts from both medical and dental professionals. The Diverse disciplines got together for the purpose of understanding and advancing awareness of the oral and systemic health link. The mission was to bridge the outdated communication gap between the two disciplines.
Prescribed CPAP is considered to be the standard in sleep apnea treatment, more people are opting to use a lightweight dental appliance that keep the airway open, which helps ensuring a restful night sleep. For people with sleep apnea that are not using their prescribed CPAP machine or can’t tolerate it discuss oral appliance therapy with their doctor.
Expert Opinion is Changing Each year, despite the risks of any surgical procedure, millions of healthy, wisdom teeth are being extracted from young patients. Even though many dental insurance plans cover the removal of wisdom teeth, there very little scientific evidence supporting the routine extraction of wisdom teeth. In fact some countries have abandoned the practice of pulling out wisdom teeth unless necessary. Talk to your dentist and go over all factors of pulling wisdom teeth then do what you feel is best for you or your child.
It is perfectly normal for infants to suck on their fingers and thumbs. Most baby will stop by age of two. If your child does not, try to discourage finger and thumb sucking after age four. Prolonged thumb sucking can create crowded, crooked teeth, or bite problems. As your pediatric dentist for ways to address a prolonged thumb sucking issue.
