Dental Work

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I don't get what the point is of having dental insurance that covers nothing. I need to have an extraction and implant done of a tooth I've had a crown on for over 15 years. I had second root canal to find out that the tooth is still dead and the infection wasn't from an uncleaned root. Long story short, Delta Dental will only cover $281 of a $1845 extraction and bone graft procedure.

What is the point with having insurance if it covers nothing? Sorry for the vent. I discussed with the dentist and they won't cut me a deal either for cash. Because they are delta providers who only get what delta says. Arrgh. Ideas?

[bUU]

The reimbursement rates for Delta Dental are often much lower than that if its competitors. In one comparison I found (to DentalCare USA), it had subscriber paying 2-3 times as much for a metal crown, and almost ten times as much for a partial denture.

[Like2Plan]

I don't get what the point is of having dental insurance that covers nothing. I need to have an extraction and implant done of a tooth I've had a crown on for over 15 years. I had second root canal to find out that the tooth is still dead and the infection wasn't from an uncleaned root. Long story short, Delta Dental will only cover $281 of a $1845 extraction and bone graft procedure.

What is the point with having insurance if it covers nothing? Sorry for the vent. I discussed with the dentist and they won't cut me a deal either for cash. Because they are delta providers who only get what delta says. Arrgh. Ideas?

Sorry you have to have this procedure done. Is it possible to go to another dentist (oral surgeon, I guess?) that is not a Delta network provider and see if you can negotiate a better deal?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

This person was someone I trusted and someone referred by my dentist.

[cooliemae]

You might look into have an oral surgeon perform the needed work and see if your health insurance will cover it as a medical procedure. My wife did this with her two wisdom teeth that needed to be removed and it cost us hardly anything.

[~bs]

I don't get what the point is of having dental insurance that covers nothing. I need to have an extraction and implant done of a tooth I've had a crown on for over 15 years. I had second root canal to find out that the tooth is still dead and the infection wasn't from an uncleaned root. Long story short, Delta Dental will only cover $281 of a $1845 extraction and bone graft procedure.

What is the point with having insurance if it covers nothing? Sorry for the vent. I discussed with the dentist and they won't cut me a deal either for cash. Because they are delta providers who only get what delta says. Arrgh. Ideas?

Not sure if you area is the same, but dental insurance is generally pretty cheap compared to medical insurance. Consider that this insurance basically covers 2x a year cleaning, xrays, and most of the cost for some fillings. Generally not intended to cover major work such as root canals. If you want that covered, I'm pretty sure they'll allow you to purchase some sort of rider on your dental policy.... If you want a policy that covers a thousand plus procedure, it will cost more.

My advice is to invest in an electric toothbrush, if you haven't already. True that it costs a lot more than a regular brush, but the cleaning quality goes way up, and cavity rate way down, at least for me.

[JoeP]

A lot of times, choosing the correct level of coverage is a bit of a gamble. In my case, I knew 2 rounds of braces were on the way, so I planned the correct dental plan. While it cost me a little more each pay period, we saved a lot of money and the out of pocket for the braces was about 50% lower than it would have been with or old plan. In fact, we had to stall a little in order to wait for the enrollment choice to kick in; not a huge deal with orthodontia.

When the braces is over, we'll fall back to the lower plan. If we get a warning from our dentist about a pending issue, we'll have to work the numbers to see if it is worth going to the better plan again, and if we can wait for enrollment.

So can you delay the procedure, and get something temporary until you can enroll in a better plan? Obviously, it is a gamble, and you'll have to see if it makes financial sense.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

No choices for employer provided dental insurance. True it covers cleanings and x-rays. BS I have an electric toothbrush. I haven't had a cavity in years. I brush and floss.

This is an extraction for a root canal initially done in 1996 but botched I believe. At the time I was in high school and I blame my parents because they choose the dentist who was crummy. I've had tons of problems over the years. Constantly replacing the crown until now where it's turned into a fissure and even with a second root canal it needs to be extracted and an implant done.

I am calling around. My other issue is that should we buy extra dental insurance for orthodontia? Took my 3 year old just in and was told she'll need braces earlier and longer and headgear. Not a huge surprise just by looking at her you knew she'd need a lot of work. She inherited unfortunately the worse of both our family's jaws.

[~bs]

No choices for employer provided dental insurance. True it covers cleanings and x-rays. BS I have an electric toothbrush. I haven't had a cavity in years. I brush and floss.

This is an extraction for a root canal initially done in 1996 but botched I believe. At the time I was in high school and I blame my parents because they choose the dentist who was crummy. I've had tons of problems over the years. Constantly replacing the crown until now where it's turned into a fissure and even with a second root canal it needs to be extracted and an implant done.

I am calling around. My other issue is that should we buy extra dental insurance for orthodontia? Took my 3 year old just in and was told she'll need braces earlier and longer and headgear. Not a huge surprise just by looking at her you knew she'd need a lot of work. She inherited unfortunately the worse of both our family's jaws.

You can get a second dental insurance policy and pay that out of pocket. I believe the coverage will overlap. BUT insurers are aware that people will find out that they need a major procedure, up the coverage, then reduce it afterwards. So, many times, they will exclude covering the bulk of major dental work the first year you have the policy. For my root canal, it was going to cost $1500 or something, insurance was to cover $1000, and I was to pay the rest (dont quote me on the numbers) But the coverage was denied because it was within the 1st year I had the policy. Luckily, my dentist was nice about it and "comped" a good portion of the amount that should have been covered by insurance.

Yeah, I've had my share of shoddy dental filling work. Like with the toothbrush thing, sometimes it doesn't make sense to go cheap or just figure 1 dentist is equal to another.

[DRILLINDK]

I'm a dentist and I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I run a strictly cash only dental office for these reasons. Dental insurances are not your friends. They are a business that sole purpose is to please shareholders and maximize profits. They do so by not paying out more than they collect.

Dental insurance is different than medical insurance. With medical insurance, anything over your deductible is usually covered by the medical insurance. Dental insurance gives you an allowance, usually $1000-2000 depending on what type of insurance and coverage you have. Insurance coverage or allowances (as I call it) has not increased since the 1980's. This is back when crowns were $200 and gas was $0.25.

So, a dentist that signs up for your insurance agrees to a decrease fee with the insurance company. Depending on how good/bad the insurance reimbursement is dictates that office bottom line. The worse the insurance reimbursement is to the dentist the less time he/she is allowed to spend with you to maximize his/her profits. For instance, if a crown is regularly $1000, but the insurance only pay that dentist $500. He has to see twice as many patients to make the same amount of money. And believe me, they do. As a result, you see bad treatment, bad dental work, neglected patient time, etc. Hence, this is why your root canal went bad after a short period of time.

Moral of the story...you pay for what you get.

Again, I'll repeat myself...DENTAL INSURANCE IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. It is one of the biggest rip offs.

[MonkeyMama]

@Drill - I appreciate your comment.

I have never found any dental insurance that made *any* sense. So we skip it. Even when offered through employer a decade ago, we garnered no benefits. Would have been same or cheaper to just pay cash for cleanings.

As a non-insured, dental offices offer us large cash discounts, in general.

I had a very good dentist for 30+ years and he was always nagging me to get insurance. I didn't understand why, so I Appreciate another point of view.

We only insure for catastrophe. So, I am fine doing without. I admit I haven't looked too much into the orthodontia insurance (which is why my dentist recommended, because I had a TON Of work done and obviously my kids will too). But, again, it's not like it will cost six figures, so I think I'd rather just cash flow it - is no catastrophe. It's not like I was not well aware my "future kids would need work" with these genes. Plenty of time to plan and save...