We know many dental patients find the ins & outs of dental insurance confusing, but if you have dental insurance the most important thing for you to know is that you get two free cleanings per year!

Nearly all dental insurance plans are set up in favor of preventive care. Most plan benefits cover two annual teeth cleanings (also referred to as hygiene or prophylaxis in clinical terms) at 100%, meaning you won’t pay anything out of pocket for your visit & the insurance company covers the cost of your annual cleanings. This is one of the ways that insurance companies & your dentist encourage you to prevent dental problems. By seeing the dentist for a cleaning every six months, which usually includes a brief exam, we can catch problems before they become painful, costly or both!

At a typical dental clinic, teeth cleanings are the most common reason patients come in to the office. If your teeth are relatively health, you’ve avoided having a dental injury, & you haven’t chosen to have cosmetic dentistry, most of time your visits to our office will not involve a financial transaction on your part at all. That being said, we will bill your insurance for your cleaning, meaning each cleaning won’t cost you cash, but it will cost you one of your annually allotted teeth cleaning benefits from your dental plan.

In some very rare situations, your insurance company may request you pay a small out-of-pocket cost for your cleaning. However, this shouldn’t be a reason not to get your cleaning. The $10 copay you pay twice a year for your cleaning if you have this kind of insurance plan is small compared to the hundreds or thousands you might pay out of pocket if something goes wrong & you need a crown because you haven’t been going to the dentist!

We don’t want anything to stand between you & optimal dental health. That’s why we offer teeth cleaning appointments that fit your busy schedule. We strive to provide appointment times that don’t require you to take off work (or school). We’d much rather see you before or after work for your teeth cleaning than pull you away from your obligations in the middle of the day. If you don’t already have your next 6-month teeth cleaning appointment scheduled, call us today so we can arrange it!

Take advantage of your teeth cleaning benefits! They’re made available to you in order to keep both your smile & your wallet healthy!

If you have dental insurance, your insurance company provides you with certain dental benefits each year. In case you’re not very familiar with insurance vocabulary, you can think of an insurance benefit as a dental service that the insurance company pays all or most of the cost of. Most dental plans cover the most common preventive services at 100%, meaning the insurance company pays 100% of the cost & you pay nothing.  But you should know, if you don’t use these benefits each year, they’re gone forever!

Why does it matter whether you use your benefits each year? For one thing, these benefits are provided as a way to help keep you healthy. That’s why preventive & diagnostic services such as exams & x-rays are usually covered at 100% by the insurance company. Even your free cleanings are a great opportunity for the dental hygienist or the dentist to detect potential problems. Think of it as an incentive to get your teeth checked out by the dentist twice per year.

The other advantage of using up your preventive benefits each year is that it can save you money. The healthier you stay & the earlier problems can be uncovered, the less both you & the insurance company will have to pay for more complex care in the future. For example, a cavity that is caught when it’s relatively small & minor will just result in a filling. A big cavity that has gone undetected for a long time until it started causing problems might result in a crown instead, which is a longer, more complex, & more expensive procedure.

Another reason to use up your dental benefits is if you encounter the need for more than one relatively major dental procedure in a single year. If you’ve been told you need a crown, rather than put off the treatment, if you get it done right away you’ll hit your deductible, the minimum you have to pay out-of-pocket before the insurance company starts helping pay for the cost of your care. But say a few months later you end up needing a root canal on a different tooth. If both treatments fall in the same calendar year, you only pay your deductible once. But if the two treatments fall in two different calendar years, you’ll pay your deductible each time. You’ll save money by completing your dental treatment sooner rather than later & using up your dental benefits!

We know dental insurance (or any insurance for that matter) can be confusing. If you have questions about your coverage, we will do our best to answer them. Our staff is trained to make the most of your dental benefits.