Understanding Your Dental Insurance: 5 Dental Insurance Myths
Dental insurance can be a tricky topic. Many people participate in their employer-offered dental insurance plans but are not fully educated on the benefits available to them through these plans. The extent of their knowledge is typically who the provider is (Anthem, Delta Dental, MetLife, etc.) and for many, they assume that dental insurance works similarly to health insurance. We have attempted to clarify some of the common dental insurance misconceptions below and hope you will leave us a comment and let us know if you have any further questions!
Myth: Dental insurance will cover all the dental work you need.
Fact: Dental insurance is not meant to cover all recommended dental treatment. Instead, it is meant to mainly cover preventative services and be an aid for anything else.
Myth: Dental insurance works the same way as health insurance.
Fact: There are several main differences between your Dental Insurance and your Health Insurance. Chiefly, the main purpose of your dental insurance is preventative care. Dental insurance offers the highest coverage for services that keep your oral care in check, such as cleanings, exams and oral cancer screening. Health insurance typically focuses less on preventative care and more on unforeseen injury and illness. Keep this in mind when evaluating the available benefits of your dental insurance plan.
Myth: All dental plans are the same under one insurance provider.
Fact: Any given insurance provider may offer hundreds of different dental insurance plans. Many dental plans are tailored specifically for your company and may differ drastically from a plan that they provide for another company. Focus less on the insurance provider and more on the plan that is available through that provider.
Myth: If a dentist recommends that work needs to be done, dental insurance will cover the work.
Fact: Most dental plans have an annual limit of coverage that is unrelated to the amount of treatment recommended for the patient. Dental insurance plans do not adjust the amount of coverage in relation to what is recommended by your dentist. Typically your dental insurance will pay a percentage of the allowable charge up to a certain maximum each year.
Myth: I do not need a flexible spending account if I have dental insurance.
Fact: Flexible spending accounts can pay for many other qualified health expenses aside from dental services. In addition, flexible spending accounts allow you to use tax-advantaged dollars to pay for dental services that your dental insurance may not cover.
At Rusnak Family Dentistry, our extensive experience working with many different insurance plans allows us to help you understand your available dental insurance benefits. Feel free to contact our office for a more thorough explanation of the benefits that are available to you. As always, thanks for reading the Rusnak Family Dentistry blog!
