When it comes to our personal health care, many people tend to neglect their dental health in favor of finding health insurance. In recent years, due to economics, employers have cut costs and stopped offering dental insurance to their employees. As such, many people choose to take their chances on dental care, and focus only on shorter term health problems.
There is one big problem with this point of view. Dental problems are very preventable and if not prevented, can lead to serious conventional problems in the future. For example, an abscess or a root canal that is not dealt with can lead to serious infection, spreading throughout the blood stream and causing other illnesses and/or triggering viral infections.
Have you ever known someone – or you yourself – who put off a dental procedure, only to be sorry they had not addressed it earlier? I do – that person was me – about 10 years ago! I tried to avoid a root canal for some time, not because I was afraid of it, but because I could not afford it. My dentist had told me I should get on a low cost dental plan to absorb most of the cost – which would have only cost a little over $80 a year. But, I didn’t. Instead, the tooth completely decayed and most of the tooth fell out – leading to a more costlier procedure. The bottom line is, the original cost of the root canal was over $1000. With a discount dental plan, I would have only paid about $275! That’s a little over 25% of the cost. Instead, it ended up costing me nearly $1775 to repair what could have been wholly prevented for only $275! Now, THAT’S a lesson to learn the hard way.
So what is a protective dental plan? Well, they are also known as low cost dental plans and/or discount dental plans. Because dental insurance is not offered to individuals or families, there is pretty much no other option for dental care except if your employer offers it. These affordable dental plans are offered to all who want them, cost a minimal amount, and save you tons of money in the long run.
The basic premise of a dental plan is that it is a membership program – starting as low as $75 per year. Each plan has its own network of dentists where you establish one or two as a routine provider. If you already have a dentist, you may want to ask him/her which dental plans they are a part of. That way, you can still keep your current dentist. These days, with the current problem of those lacking dental insurance, virtually all dentists belong to several networks to maximize their clientele.
