If you have really great dental coverage already, a discount dental plan is worthless to you. It would be throwing money away to buy one. If you have some coverage, but not that great, a discount dental plan may actually save you money when combined with your coverage. best cash discount program Not always, but it CAN happen. If you have no dental coverage at all, then not having some sort of dental plan can be like playing Russian roulette. I have a lot of friends who sell discount dental plans, and most can come up with a story about someone who held on to the info (brochure, business card, flyer) for months or even years, not doing anything about it until they had a toothache or needed dental surgery. Suddenly they rummaged through the kitchen drawer until they found the information and called the broker. The dental plan which had not been of value until then suddenly became priceless.
So, let’s accept the fact that for SOME people, not everybody, but some, a discount dental plan MIGHT be of value. Let’s see if we can find some ways to see if it’s something we might like to have, and what would be its value.
First of all, a discount dental plan is NOT insurance. In most cases, certain dentists have chosen to have themselves listed under the particular plan. In return for having their listing regularly shown to a large list of potential patients, they agree to offer reduced rates on their services. They consider this to be a form of advertising in a way. If someone has the plan, they will look through a list of dentists which is smaller than the list in the phone book. If they like the service, they will probably bring their immediate family members in or recommend the dentist to friends or other family members.
How big are the discounts in these dental plans?Frankly, that is something that will vary from plan to plan, but savings up to 75% or 80% are not unusual for SOME services. Be aware, however, that NOT EVERY service the dentist provides will be discounted that deeply. Some services may have much smaller discounts. The upside to this is that under many of these plans, some services, such as an annual checkup, may be free, and services such as an annual teeth cleaning may be free or at extremely low rates. The value of this lies in the fact that many people, particularly if they are strapped for cash or have large families, may put off such services because of the expense, and wind up paying huge fees later for fillings, extractions, root canals, or other oral surgery. Some people may feel that just heading off expensive problems as a result of being able to afford preventative measures may make almost ANY discount dental plan worth the expense.
Most people, however, want to be able to place some sort of dollar value on the services. Since they are dealing with the potential costs of something that MIGHT happen, and have no real way of knowing what procedures might be required in various situations, it is difficult to say what actual out-of-pocket expenses might be in the future.