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Exercising
preventive care can reduce your costs
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Day-to-day care
is just as important as your regular
check ups
Exercising basic
preventive care at home, such as
effective brushing and flossing,
are good steps toward maintaining
your dental health in between office
visits. Read
our brushing and flossing tips.
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Employer-sponsored dental
plans actually encourage you and your
family to make an annual or even semi-annual dental
office visit. To promote preventive care, most
dental plans pay all or most of the cost of routine
dental checkups, including cleanings and exams.
Additionally, exercising preventive care can help
you avoid more costly dental problems that can
develop or be worsened by lack of basic preventive
care.
For example, for non-preventive
services, your share
of the costs — referred to as your "copayment"
— progressively climbs as the type of dental
procedure becomes more involved. For instance,
it is not uncommon for many dental plans to require
a 20 percent copayment if you need a cavity filled.
A root canal, crown, bridge or periodontal work
(to treat gum disease) can require a 50 percent
patient copayment. Such procedures can cost upwards
of $1,200.
Annual maximums, which refer
to the total cost of care above which a dental
program will not pay, are frequently in the range
of $1,000 to $1,500. As a result, you can find
yourself running out of benefits altogether if
you or your family needs extensive dental work.
Even under most prepaid dental
plans, which advertise lower out-of-pocket costs
with no deductible and/or annual maximum, there
are significant copayments for major services.
That's why, regardless of
what kind of dental plan you have, it pays to
see the dentist for routine checkups in order
to save yourself the cost, as well as the pain,
of advanced dental disease.
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