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Dental Insurance For Better Dental Health

By: Susan Chiang Dental diseases are the most common and prevalent diseases affecting almost everybody in the world. Today the cost of dental treatment is enormous.

Dental treatments to treat these dental diseases are of two types, occasional and routine. Occasional dental treatments include tooth extraction, braces, root canal treatment etc. Routine dental treatments include cleaning, plaque removal, X-rays, etc.

People today care more about their teeth than they did few decades ago. With wide television coverage nowadays on cosmetic dentistry, having a good-looking smile has become even more important. Dental insurance plan is a good way to reduce the impact of dental treatment especially for large families. Almost 55% of Americans are covered by dental plans.

Dental insurance plan is coverage for individuals to protect them against dental treatment costs, and is usually included in health insurance. For this plan the individual has to pay a monthly premium to the insurance company. The insurance company then provides the cost of medicines and treatment procedures to the individual for a specified period. Usually the period is limited to one year. The insurance has to be renewed after the period. The premium set by the company usually increases year by year. For sicker and older individuals the premium is higher than for healthier individuals, which has been a cause of controversy and debate in the western world. The premiums range from 15$ a month to 70$ a month depending upon the type of dental insurance plan taken and the health of the individual.

Dental insurance plan usually involves a lot of health records, age records, screening and paper work. The insurance company tries to avoid adverse selection. Adverse selection means people with poor dental health who are more likely to opt for dental insurance plans than healthier people. This increases the insurance cost to the insurance company. Most individual dental insurance plans require a waiting period before having any major or minor restorative work done. However there are annual limits to the cost of dental treatment that one individual can claim under dental insurance plans.

When the employer provides employer dental insurance plan then it works out better than discount dental plans opted by individuals. However the trend of employers providing dental insurance plan is on the decrease.

Dental insurance plans help improve the dental health of individuals as they are paying premiums and hence opt for dental treatment. Employer dental insurance plan is more common and less costly than individual insurance plan.