Be Careful With Discount Dental Plans

This is an exasperating subject, and one that I could speak about at length. More and more insurance companies are offering what they call “discount plans”. Smile Savers is an example. The company sells it fairly cheap and claims you can use it for all of your dental needs. This is probably the most economical individual dental insurance plan out there. Seems great, right?

Well, not so much. When you read the fine print on these plans you’ll discover that there’s still significant out of pocket costs. You’ll also get a list of providers that accept the plan, and it will include such illustrious places as Western Dental and Access Dental. Places you would have to pay me to just walk in the door there’s so much scary stuff going on in there. The reason there are limited offices to go to is that this plan doesn’t do much for the doctor. It forces the office to drastically discount their fees for a few patients in return, and causes the offices to try to “up-sell” patients to make a few extra bucks. This means, in my opinion, that no self-respecting dentist would accept these plans.

I think when everything is said and done, if you’d saved the money you spent investing in becoming part of the plan, you’d have more money available to pay for appropriate dental treatment in a nice office.

Yours in good (dental) health,

Dr. Stefanie Shore, DDS