When thinking about buying a dental discount plan what you should know in picking the best dental plan for you and or your family. Most dental discount plan may work the same in the fact that they provide dental discount saving on your dental care needs for a low monthly cost of the plan. However not every dental discount plan will work for your needs. Tips to making sure you buy the right dental discount plan.

Many people still do not floss and brush their teeth regularly. If you are one in the many, here is just another reason to start taking preventive dental care more serious. Forget your nagging dentist that keep telling you that you are not flossing good enough. Here is something that may really scare you into proper gum and oral health care. An increasing number of employers are reducing or even dropping dental benefits. Which means that you could be paying more more for your next dental care visit. With more employers making their workers pay more for their dental benefits for a family this can set you back up to hundreds per year. This is even worse if they drop dental benefits altogether and you are having to pay cash for your dental care needs.

There are some steps you can take if you do not receive dental benefits or the cost for your dental benefits are getting to high. Try searching for a dental insurance plan that you could buy directly. There are many different types of dental plans from lower cost dental plan to more expensive. Shopping  out your dental insurance each year is a good way to make sure you are getting the best coverage’s for the lowest price. People spend more thought and time in buying their next TV or computer then what they have for their own dental care needs. Make sure you have the best dental plan to fit your dental care needs at the best affordable cost.

While many people many know the basic tips for staying healthy and feeling well is by having a balanced diet and exercise.  However did you know your oral health can play a big roll in your overall health?  By having good oral health care habits you can maintain not only good oral health but over all wellness.

As best as you can know what type of dental care you or your family needs before buying a dental plan. Think of your current dental needs as well as an future dental care needs. If you have children try to get a dental plan that offer some coverage’s for orthodontic care if braces are ever needed in the future.

Think about your over all healthcare issues that may effect your dental care needs. If you are a diabetic the gum care is very important and buying a dental plan that offer affordable deep cleanings will be very useful to you in maintain good gum health care.

Read, Ask and Know about the dental plan you may buy for yourself or your family. The better you understand the dental insurance plan and what it offers the better you can fit your dental care needs to your budget.

Know what is not covered under your dental plan. Be aware of any restrictions when choosing your plan. Such as: No specialist, No preexisting (Missing Tooth clauses) No work in progress. Many dental insurance plans will not offer coverage’s on cosmetic dental services such as whiting or veneers or implants. Other restrictions on coverage’s could include treatments of complicated periodontal disease requiring surgery involving bones, underlying tissues or bone grafts.

Significant link between smoking and gum disease. According to a new study done at Ohio State University, smoking causes the body to turn against its own helpful bacteria.  The study shows how cigarette smoke also wipes out good bacteria in the mouth making the tissue much more susceptible to attack from bad bacteria, which leaves smokers more vulnerable to gum disease, and tooth decay.

Does the plan provide benefits to patients who may also be covered by another dental insurance plan? Not all dental plans offer dual benefits. So when searching for a secondary dental plan make sure both plans allows for coordination of benefits. Also make sure you are seeing a dental provider that is willing to process dual plans.

Does the dental plan allow referrals to specialists? Not all dental insurance plans cover the cost for dental specialists. There are times when a dental services such as root canal or tooth extraction requires a specialist. In such cases does the plan offer coverage’s to specialist? If so what are the coverage’s for specialist? In many cases coverage’s are reduce when seeing a specialist so this is important to know and understand before buying a dental plan.

Know the plans coverage’s and limitations. Many plans like PPOs or Free choice of provider plans have maximum annual dollar limitations, waiting periods and deductible. Many of these types of plans out based on percentage up to UCR (Fair and Reasonable or Maximum Allowable Charge) for the different dental services. Where other dental plans may schedule out the cost for services showing the cost a member pays for each type of dental service covered.

Know the plan benefits and what is cover and who controls any treatment decisions. There are many dental insurance plans that require dentists to follow treatment plans that rely on a least expensive alternative treatment approach.

(Example) If there are multiple treatment options for a specific dental condition, the dental insurance plan may only pay for the less expensive treatment option. Therefore if you choose a treatment option that may better suit your individual needs you may be left responsible for paying the difference in costs or even the total cost for the dental service. It’s important to know who makes the treatment decisions under your plan.

Does the plan give you the freedom to choose your own dentist or are you restricted to a network of dentists selected by the insurance company? This is important to know if you are trying to stay with a family dentist that you are satisfied with. In the same regards it is important to know what types of dental plans your dentist takes and whether or not they are a network provider of any plans.

When buying a dental insurance plan there are many factors that should be looked at so that you get the best plan for you and or your family. One of the primary focus should be to determine whether the dental plan coverage’s will satisfy your dental care needs. Ask these questions to yourself when reviewing a dental insurance plan and know the answers before buying one. Doing this can save you money as well as any unnecessary grief.

Medical insurance is primarily designed to cover the costs of diagnosing, treating and curing serious illnesses. This process can normally includes a primary care physician and multiple specialists, a variety of tests and multiple procedures to be performed by doctors and laboratories, as well as medications. Rating medical insurance depends on the health, age and attitudes of people in the medical coverage group, so costs can fluctuate widely.

When reviewing dental insurance, you will be able to note that most dental coverage is designed to ensure that the patient receives regular preventive care. Where as high quality  medical care requires the complex, multiple resources, That is rarely the case with high quality dental care. A thorough examination and a set of x-rays done by the dentist is all it usually takes to diagnose a problem. 

Dental care is normally provided by a general practitioner, although some cases may require the services of a dental specialist. However, because most dental disease are preventable, dental benefits plans are structured to encourage patients to get the regular, routine care vital to preventing and diagnosing the onset of serious dental disease. Because preventive dental is so important in dental health care, most dental benefits plans require patients to assume a greater portion of the costs for treatment of dental disease than for preventive procedures. By placing an emphasis on prevention, and by covering regular teeth cleaning and check-ups, Americans saved nearly $100 billion in dental care costs during the 1980s.

Most dental ailments are preventable, unlike medical which can be both unpredictable and catastrophic. With dental preventive care would including regular dental checkups and cleanings. By having regular visits to the dentist, problems can be diagnosed early along treated without extensive testing or elaborate and expensive procedures. Which helps keeps the costs of dental care much lower than those of medical care. In fact, total spending for dental care is decreasing. In 1970, it made up 6.3 percent of total health care expenditures. But in 1991, dental care’s share of health care spending was only 4.9 percent.

Tom’s of Maine invites parents to take a second look at their child toothpaste and consider changing form a saccharin to strawberries.  Toms of Maine offers toothpaste that has no artificial dyes or sweeteners, a silly strawberry toothpaste that has real strawberry flavor derived from strawberry extracts and other natural flavors and is the first and only natural kids toothpaste to earn the American Dental Association’s Seal of Acceptance for cavity prevention.

Your child dental and oral health is important to maintain not only for healthy teeth and gums but for overall wellness.  According to past studies done: In California alone, 504,000 children missed at least one school day in 2007 to a toothache or other oral problems.  

Appearing in the September 2012 issue of the American Journal of Public Health: Ostrow researchers had previously documented that 73 percent of disadvantaged kids in Los Angeles have dental caries, the disease responsible for cavities in teeth. The new study shines light on the specific connection between oral health and performance in school for this population, said Roseann Mulligan, chair of the school’s Division of Dental Public Health and Pediatric Dentistry and corresponding author of the study.

DentalOpinions.com provides you with more the just one company one type of dental insurance plan. In most states we provide dental insurance plans though several companies offering PPO’s, Indemnity and HMO’s insurance plans in addition to dental discount plans as a low cost alternative.   

You are able to get free dental plan quotes from our website in order to compare many different plans and choice the plan and plan type you feel is best for you and your family. We also provide a member service line 310-534-3444 for you to call if you have any questions about the plans we have to offer

There is a children’s dental crisis currently going on in this country. Many children are not going to the dentist because their parents can not find affordable dental care. That is a unfortunate because basic dental checkups, cleanings, fluoride applications, and sealants can help to prevent early tooth decay and gum disease in children.   

However one of the main ways to make dental care more affordable is by having dental insurance in place.  As a family dental insurance is important part of keeping your dental care cost low. If you do not receive dental benefits for you and  your family though work, there still many good low cost dental insurance and dental plan options to choose from. 

Review what our website has to offer and if you have any questions about our dental insurance and dental plans options call our member service line at 310-534-3444 as we be happy to help you pick the right plan for you and your family.

Question: Are there any dental plans for a child only? Need dental insurance for my fourteen year old.  

Answer: Few dental insurance companies will let you buy their plans for only a minor.  So it really depends on the plan you are reviewing. Such as our PPO plan though Standard Life dental insurance and our HMO plan though California dental will write a child only on the plan where as our other dental  insurance plan required at least one adult which means buying a couple plan.  

You may also wish to review our dental discount plans though Aetna Denta Choice+ as they too will let you have the plan for only a minor child. If after reviewing our dental plan options you have any questions please call our member services at 310-534-3444 as they would be happy to help

After our last post you may be wondering how do you safely store your toothbrush. Here are some tips you may want to practice. 

1) Make sure to rinse your toothbrush well after brushing your teeth. Before putting your toothbrush away give it a good rinse with tap water, making sure not to leave any toothpaste or debris in the brush

2) Put your toothbrush upright, in a cup or a holder, this will allow the water to drain away from the head of the brush. You want the toothbrush to air dry thoroughly. So make sure it has access to good air circulation, and is not suffocating in a small drawer or cabinet when not in use 

3) Keep your toothbrush away from other people’s toothbrushes. Even if you are all family members do not let your toothbrush touch another toothbrush. Bacteria on one brush can cross-contaminate another. 

4) Avoid keeping your toothbrush too close to the toilet and sink. In tip two we tell you to keep your toothbrush out in the open for it to air dry thoroughly. However you want to make sure it is not too close to the sink. You do not want it to get splashed with dirty or soapy water when family members are washing their hands. Likewise, keep the brush at least four feet away from the toilet. (Remember our prior post about this on 6/29/15) If you have a small bathroom that dose not let you keep this distance store your toothbrush in a different room away from your bathroom 

5) Sanitize or Not. Although you can buy toothbrush sanitizers (usually a small counter-top device), there is no evidence that these make a difference to your health. They can, however, provide you with a safe zone for storing your brush. Also, there has been no study that shows soaking your brush in an antibacterial mouth rinse makes a difference.