No Dental Insurance? No Problem. What You Can Do Without Dental Insurance

Even without dental insurance, there are quite a few ways you can make it to your bi-annual visit to the dentist. Visiting a dentist every year ensures your teeth stay healthy so that you won’t have to fork out even more money for things like root canals or fillings.

Unfortunately, your daily dental routine can only do so much to protect your teeth. Visiting the dentist twice a year helps you address concerns such as plaque buildup, teeth sensitivity and inflammation.

However, we understand that the number one reason people skip out on these infrequent appointments is because they don’t have dental insurance. The automatic assumption is that an out-of-pocket visit to the dentist is more than most can afford.

This, simply, isn’t true.

What Is Dental Insurance, Really?

Before we give you alternatives to dental insurance, let us explain what dental insurance is and what it actually covers.

Dental insurance isn’t truly insurance— it’s just a benefit. The true concept of an Insurance is that it is meant to protect you against unpredictable calamity to yourself, your family and your stuff. For the most part, dental care is something that can be planned for and isn't an unpredictable event. A lot of dental care consists of regular maintenance which is distinctly different from a heart attack, a car accident or an earthquake …events that normally are covered by insurance.

Dental benefits are a lot like a gift card. Your dental benefits give you a certain amount of money to be used toward dental care in a given year. Most plans don’t allow you to carry over an unused amount to the next year, so it’s “use it or lose it.” The incentive to the patient is to use their “insurance” to the fullest. To make it even more complicated, your dental gift card has many limitations on how it could be used.

Dental insurance sticks by the 100-80-50 rule. One common dental insurance coverage scenario is: 100% of basic preventative dental work (exams, cleanings and x-rays); 80% of basic restorative work(such as fillings), and only 50% on other major dental care. Oftentimes insurance is capped at around $1,500 annually, and it comes with many limitations. As a matter of fact annual maximums have hardly changed since 1970.

After that, you’ll have to pay all dental costs out-of-pocket.

What You Can Do Without Dental Insurance

As you can imagine, one root canal can eat up your entire insurance benefits, which might mean you’re better off receiving routine dental care without dental insurance.

Here are some alternative ways you can still go to the dentist without paying upfront costs:

1) Find an in-house dental membership plan

Plenty of dental offices offer in-house memberships. At a set annual price, you can receive dental care such as cleanings, exams, x-rays, and sometimes even teeth whitening. You can also inquire about payment plans to pay for this annual cost. Typically these plans are more reasonable than going through dental insurance companies.

You’ll have to call your office to check if they have one of these memberships. We have one at Downtown Dentist SF!

2) Create a health savings fund.

Did you know that health savings funds can be tax deductible? The rule is “your health care costs must exceed 10% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) for tax filings.” This means if your AGI is $50K and you need a significant procedure that costs $5,000 or more, it is tax-deductible.

But let’s save the “what-if” scenarios for another day. For now, the best way to ensure your two dental cleanings a year is to create a health savings fund. Try to set aside $100-150 a month towards visiting your dentist. This should be more than enough to cover two visits a year and any emergency visits.

3) Health insurance credit cards

For those without dental insurance, you might want to consider applying for a health insurance credit card. Many times, these cards come with no interest. Care Credit is a favorite amongst our patients.

Make sure you ask your dentist of choice if they accept these credit cards. You can also ask what the prices are for self-pay dental services.

Don’t be a part of the 36% of Americans who haven’t visited a dentist in the last year. Preventative dental maintenance helps you avoid costly procedures (and unbearable toothaches!). Call Downtown Dental SF and ask us about your options.

dental, dental painStefka Petrova DDSFebruary 12, 2021Downtown Dentist SFwithout dental insurance