Dental Insurance for Individuals

Individual dental insurance is designed to protect you from unexpected dental expenses by meeting the costs of: regular checkups with a dentist, preventive treatments, and emergency dental procedures. Dental Insurance will also typically cover dental treatment required for serious injuries or emergency procedures, as well as oral diseases but not cosmetic procedures such as teeth whitening, veneers, and implants. It is possible to find some insurance companies willing to tailor a dental policy for clients who require this. Preferred provider organizations (PPO) and dental health maintenance organizations (DHMO) are the well known types of dental insurance plans available to Individuals. They are both considered managed care programs.

Dental PPOs offer a network of pre-selected dentists, who participate by committing to accept discounted and pre-arranged fees for their service to members of the PPO. Dental DHMOs assign a dentist or dental facility to you to manage all of your oral health needs. In the event that you need to see a different specialist, you must gain authorization from your insurer through a referral from your assigned dentist. In Fee-for-service plans, you pay a coinsurance – a percentage of the total fee, when you visit the insurers’ network dentist and the service plan covers the rest; percentages for this may vary depending on the insurer and the type of dental treatment required but typically 80 percent is paid by the insurance plan and 20 percent is paid by the patient.

Dental insurance will provide specific benefits at an agreed premium, with policies offering diverse levels of coverage and choices in which dentist one can visit. These factors determine the out-of-pocket cost, how dental treatments are paid, and your annual contribution to the plan. Most dental insurance plans, rely on a network of dentists whose fees are greatly reduced, the consequence of this is you will either pay more or get no cover at all should you need to see a doctor outside of the network. As a patient ages the premiums paid toward dental insurance increase, in such situations there are dental plans specifically designed for older clients.

Safeguard is a dental and vision insurance provider that operates in California, Texas, and Florida. Their dental plan covers 245 procedures, has no claim forms, waiting periods, maximums or deductibles. The individual dental insurance comes in 2 varieties - Premier and classic, which can be paid for annually by credit card or check. The annual cost of the Premier package in California, Texas, and Florida is 141.60, 145.20, and 141.60 dollars respectively while their monthly costs are 11.99, 12.29, and 11.99 dollars respectively; the annual and the monthly costs of the classic package are 94.44 and 8.00 dollars respectively. The premier package has lower co-payments and costs more than the classic package.