Paying for Dentistry
Cassandra Minor, RDH, BSDH
November 1, 2011 (update)
The best step to reducing dental costs is to receive regular dental check ups and routine cleanings to address simple issues before they are expensive problems. I'll draw an analogy to brakes on a car. If you have them maintained, you will likely have no problems. However, if you put off brake repair it gets more expensive proportionate to how long you wait. A simple filling can turn into a very expensive root canal treatment and crown (cap).
1. Pay in full at time of service. This is the easiest way to fund your dental procedures even when you have dental insurance coverage. Your insurance provider will reimburse your covered expenses. Dentist office's commonly file insurance claims for their patients, but if any issues of payment come up the patient is ultimately responsible for all fees.
2. Provide insurance coverage to pay for procedures. Insurance coverage amounts in dentistry are far behind their medical counterparts. Most dental insurance will cover preventative services such as routine cleanings and x-rays up to 100%. However, other services are covered 50-80% with a maximum paid of $1000-$1500 per year. It is likely that you will need to supplement insurance coverage if you are having a procedure other than a filling.
3. Use a dental care finance company to divide large treatment costs into smaller, more manageable pieces. Additionally, there is frequently a grace period, three months to two years, in which no interest is charged. CareCredit, Chase Health Advance and Direct Dental Finance are examples of such companies.
4. Consider using the equity in your house to pay for services. This is advantageous in large treatment cases in which treatment is deemed necessary as soon as possible. It is crazy to think that dentistry could be expensive enough to require a second mortgage, but it pales in comparison to other medical costs. Besides, your mouth is a great investment; you'll need it the rest of your life.
5. Take advantage of local dental and dental hygiene schools to receive free and reduced fee services. You can save $230 a year just by having your regular cleanings, x-rays and check ups done at the local dental hygiene school. If you are in need of periodontal treatment (disease of the bone and surrounding tissues of the tooth), you could easily save $1500-$2000 just by going to the hygiene school. There is a time investment, but essentially you are paying yourself pretty well to be at the school. There are no income requirements so this option is open whether you are economically underpriviledged or not. Dental schools offer reduced fee services. My husband paid $330 for an otherwise $2100 bill for wisdom teeth extraction. Another advantage is that your treatment is carefully observed and critiqued by dental educators and multiple opinions are available on one site.
6. Start making payments in advance to the office. Small payments add up. Once you have made a sigificant dent in the cost of services, your dentist may be willing to start treatment in advance of your full payment. Even if you must fully pay for service first, you are making smaller, easier to manage payments.
7. Seek local reduced-fee, sliding scale (fees are commensurate with your income level) or free clinics. I have some listed on the Links page. A great source for this information is a dental or dental hygiene school. Additionally, the state dental society is usually familiar with dentists that have such programs.
8. Negotiate with your dentist. While you should understand that dentistry is expensive for patients to receive, but expensive for the dentist to deliver, a dentist will lower set fees. Many dentists are willing to reduce fees, especially for persons with extensive treatment plans.
9. Plan to use your tax refund. This may be the one time you have the lump sum to pay for dental needs.
10.
Purchase membership in a dental discount plan. These type variations to dental insurance use group buying power to get substantial discounts on dental treatment and the cost is usually low. Make sure to read the fine print. Some terms are less favorable than others. For example, some you may use immediately and others have waiting times.
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