Do you have dental insurance?

34saving · #1 (**permalink**) 03-25-2005, 03:37 PM

I'm finding that dental insurance is covering less and less and costs more and more. I'm thinking it might be better to go without and just pay out of pocket. What do you guys do?

jacquelynrose · #2 (**permalink**) 03-25-2005, 04:13 PM

Yes, but it is not an insurance it is a discount plan.

DivaJen · #3 (**permalink**) 03-25-2005, 05:13 PM

We don't. Like you it seems cheaper to pay out of pocket. We do get to submit those bills to our medical reimbursement plan, so that helps a little bit.

Tree0164 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-26-2005, 03:45 AM

We have dental. We pay $25 a month for a family of 5 so for us it is worth it. Cleaning and x-rays are over $100 a time now but we don't have to pay for those.

PRICEPLUS · #5 (**permalink**) 03-26-2005, 04:27 AM

The wife and I pay almost 500 a month for medical, dental, prescription, and eyeglass. We have found a dentist who is pretty reasonable with pricing who'll take our insurance. The amount we have to pay can sometimes add up to a hefty sum.

If you have kids you may really need the insurance. An individual may be able to pay out of pocket. How much care you'll need also depends on how well you take care of your teeth. With a family it seems to make sense.

kashi · #6 (**permalink**) 03-26-2005, 05:38 AM

I have dental insurance, but it's only $5 a month. It's worth it to me.

Armywife · #7 (**permalink**) 03-26-2005, 06:10 AM

We pay 23.00 a month for four people. The plan isn't the greatest in the world but at least it gets me out of jams.. especially with my cavities

34saving · #8 (**permalink**) 03-26-2005, 08:11 AM

My husband's coverage seems to be good on the surface, but then they end up covering almost nothing. For example, his insurance has 100% coverage for "basic services" as long as you use an in-network dentist. So, the dentists agree to a capped price and the insurance agrees to pay that price. (Of course what those caps are is a mystery that us mere mortals may never know, but that's another issue.) Sounds good, right? So, my husband goes to an in-network dentist and need some fillings. The dentist will not put in silver fillings (most dentists around here won't) so he tells my husband he'll have to pay the difference betweent the composite and silver fillings. Okay, what nobody, including the insurance company mentioned is that since the composite fillings are an "un-covered" service there is no cap on what a dentist can charge. So, the insurance company pays the $60 it agreed to pay for the silver filling and the dentist charges $140 for the composite one -- much more than I suspect the cap would be if the cap was enforced. So, $80 per filling is the patient responsibility. It seems like we be better off shopping around for the cheapest dentist and skipping the whole "in-network"/insurance junk. Okay, maybe I'm just venting, has anybody else had similar experiences?

34saving · #9 (**permalink**) 03-26-2005, 08:13 AM

Oh, to add me and my daughter (who is 17mos and only has 6 teeth) would cost an additonal $70 per month. Given what you guys are paying I'm glad I opted out of that!!

singinjeannie · #10 (**permalink**) 03-30-2005, 06:29 AM

My DH's place of employment doesn't cover much of our medical insurance or dental insurance. We've been forced to opt out of dental insurance as we just can't afford it. We have 4 kids. I just don't go to the dentist much as I can't afford to. If I go once a year, that's a big thing. I make sure the kids get there. My DH lost a front tooth last year and spent many, many months toothless because we couldn't afford to replace it. He now has a temporary replacement glued into place while we try to figure out where to get the money for an implant ($3000). It'd be a miracle for us to come up with this money.

miclason · #11 (**permalink**) 03-30-2005, 06:42 AM

I have dental insurance, we pay $5 a month....I have to go and need to take DD for cleaning and fluoride "bath"...

singinjeannie · #12 (**permalink**) 03-30-2005, 08:59 AM

$5 a month is amazing. You must have a good employer. Ours was going to cost us nearly $50 a month, so we said, "No thanks."

34saving · #13 (**permalink**) 03-30-2005, 09:20 AM

Have you guys had any luck bargaining with dentists? (IE, I'll pay you the day of with no insurance, but I want x amount of discount?) Now that I'm realizing how much my husband's insurance doesn't cover, I'm shopping around more. I'm amazed how much prices vary. The first three dentists in my area phone book varied by $50 on how much they charge for a posterior composite filling. That's a big difference!

MrsChambers · #14 (**permalink**) 03-30-2005, 01:00 PM

we have dental insurance, I think we pay something like 12 bucks a month or something like that.. we have yet to use it though... for the past 3 years we have gotten all of our dental work in Mexico.
we have needed major $$ work done, and it's just cheaper to pay out of pocket to my dentist in Mexico then to pay the % that the insurance requires.