Discount dental plans are still a largely unknown alternative to the dental insurance that we're used to. Come on, everyone has dental insurance, right? Wrong. In fact, CDC.gov states that.gov, 108 million+ American do not have dental insurance. Why do so many people live without some form of dental insurance. There are several reasons, but the most common are unemployment and the hefty cost of being insured.

Dental Plans were created to make dental care affordable for the 108 million Americans whom could not afford traditional dental insurance. You can think of discount dental plans as savings plans. Dental plans provide discounts on most dental procedures and run around $80 to $150 per year on average. The money-saving power of discount dental plans varies from depending on the procedure you have performed, but you'll notice it's typically quite significant.

Discount dental plans are beneficial in a number of other areas as well. Here are my top 5.

1) Affordability

Most dental plans start at around $80 for individuals and can run up to around $150 for family plans. Not bad at all if you consider how expensive premiums can be for traditional dental insurance.

2) Savings

With a discount dental plan you will save anywhere from 10% to 60% on most dental care procedures. Although this varies from plan to plan, this often includes x-rays, fillings, cleanings. The majority of plans even provide discounts for procedures such as tooth extractions and root canals. Savings are dependant on the type of dental care you receive and your choice of discount dental plan.

3) No Health Restrictions

A big problem with traditional dental insurance is the health restrictions many companies enforce to keep their costs low. Discount dental plans have no restrictions on pre-existing health conditions. You are discounted according to the same fee schedule whether you have pre-existing health conditions or not.

4) Large Dentist Selection

Dentists across the United States participate in dental plan programs. The dental plan broker we recommend provides access to 100,000 participating dentists nationwide. Most areas have numerous options when it comes to participating dentist.

5) Immediate Online Enrollment & Quick Activation

Most plans offer immediate online enrollment in the plan of your choice, and a short 1-3 day activation period.

The benefits don't stop there. If you're interested in learning more about how a dental plan can make sense for you and your family, I urge you to visit leading dental plan site - dentalplancards.com

Cory Kemp is the owner of dentalplancards.com, a leading discount dental plan information site.

Co-authored by: Oral Irrigator. Three different companies work under the Cigna name and they all provide services in the health domain. Thus, Cigna dental insurance falls in the range of activity of Cigna Health Care; the packages included in their offer are meant to address the needs of employers who offer health insurance as a job bonus. Concerning the dental plans, their cost and extent is variable, and employees can even choose between the alternatives available with Cigna dental insurance. If you want to be able to tell which variant works best for you, get informed on all the plans in the first place.

A DHMO Cigna dental insurance plan, for instance, will allow one to go to any dentist from the company’s network. This package does not require a yearly maximum, there are no deductibles nor forms to file as part of the insurance coverage process. As part of this plan you will have several regular checkups and cleanings include together with the services necessary for orthodontia and braces.

In case you want to see a doctor outside the network and still have coverage for the interventions, choose the PPO Cigna dental insurance. Deductibles are required for such a dental plan as well as an annual dollar maximum.

A traditional Cigna dental insurance plan also involves an annual dollar maximum and not all services are completely covered by it. Normally, the company advertises the traditional insurance package as having low rates particularly since it allows one to visit any specialist of personal choice.

The problem here is the deductible and the fact that you may have to go through a waiting period before the coverage is possible. And here we should mention the most complex Cigna dental insurance: Cigna Flex Advantage that allows the insured to choose options from all the other different packages.

Savings and discounts represent another means to attract customers and Cigna dental insurance brings this opportunity through a special saving program that allows one to make an economy of up to 32% on every visit to any of the participating dentists in the network. Since discounts save you the trouble of working with deductibles and calculating the annual maximums, there won’t be any waiting period either. Instead, you can enjoy the benefits of having a Cigna membership card that makes the discounts possible on the exact type of dental service that is necessary for your situation.

Co-submitted by: Oral Care, Parkurson Alec.

Co-written by: Oral Irrigator. An effective dental insurance means that you get the best kind of service for your dollars, while preventing damage to gums and teeth. Many people fall into the trap of low costs choosing cheap and affordable dental insurance plans, not paying attention to other factors that make the subject of the insurance contract. Consider the following suggestions before making your choice, and maybe the plan you go for will be more advantageous for you as a patient.

Does an affordable dental insurance allow you to choose your dentist? Just as it happens with plenty of other insurance types, some cheap dental packages will restrict you to the service of certain doctors only. In case you want to be able to choose freely, it is highly recommended that you get a little more expensive package that includes this option within the plan.

Another problem frequently encountered with cheap or, more politely said, affordable dental insurance is that the policy coverage is restricted to the cheapest treatment for the dental condition. Maybe there are better treatment possibilities, and you won’t be able to use them because your affordable insurance plan covers only the lowest-paid type of service.

When you decide for a dental insurance plan, you ought to consider all the clauses in the contract. We should mention that a package considered acceptable covers, two cleanings per year, fluoride treatments and X-rays. The payment for the rest of the services should be split 50/50 between the patient and the affordable insurance plan.

There is also the possibility for higher costs in case of more special dental interventions required by the patient’s condition.

Appointment scheduling may be limited by a very affordable dental insurance plan. Some dentists plan their services for clients belonging to a certain insurance group or category on special days of the week, and this schedule could be pretty inconvenient or inflexible for the patient. Check for these details in advance to prevent appointments from becoming an inconvenience to you.

The most important question one ought to ask about an affordable dental insurance plan is: what will I pay? By far the best option a family has is an employer sponsored dental insurance that significantly limits the costs of the procedures. Then, people with a special tax situation could use the premiums for tax deduction.

All in all, the truth is that regardless of whether you pay for a cheap or more expensive dental insurance, the price is significantly lower than if you had to cover the costs of the dental interventions out of your own pocket.

Other Authors: Oral Care, Parkurson Alec.

What do you look for when you are considering dental plans? Obviously if you can get a dental plan through your employer, that will be your first choice. However many employers do not offer health plans and even if they do, often these exclude dental. Providing care for your family and yourself falls on your shoulders.

If you are in that position, then you need to look into a range of types of dental insurance. The most commonly chosen type is purchased through a Preferred Provider insurance organization (PPO). PPO's offer cover to patients who are prepared to work through the company's covenanted list of dentists.

There are distinct advantages to this. A PPO provider has a vested interest in balancing costs and professional standards, maintaining a reliable stable of professionals in association with them, and providing a clearly defined set of services through those professionals.

PPO’s are considered a form of managed health care, and there are a range of similar dental insurance plans, including DMHOs and closed panel plans. The primary thing to establish if you choose a PPO is whether you are allowed to make use of professionals who are not within their network, and under what circumstances permission for non-network professionals would apply.

Dental plans that allow referrals for specialized work, for example, might allow you to use a non-network specialist if you were referred by a network affiliated primary dentist. Likewise some dental insurance allows for the use of non-network professionals if there are no network professionals within a certain mile-limit from your residence.

The second most likely form of dental health insurance you are likely to purchase outside the employer provided dental plans, is one of a number of forms of dental indemnity plans, most called that specifically. A dental plan that is indemnity based will usually allow you to choose your own provider, and will then pay a percentage of the cost over and above the deductible payment you make going in.

A payment of 80% of “usual and customary” costs is fairly standard. Look out: the gotcha in that is the ability of the company to argue over claims they feel are not "usual and customary" either in price or in the normality of the service.

Either form of dental plan offers a range of variations…particulars can be found on various sites online. Whichever you choose must reflect your knowledge of your own or your family's needs. A managed program is usually the least costly, and will offer varying degrees of coverage. An indemnity plan is more likely to be expensive, but will offer you a wider range of dental plan providers and services.

Brought to you by: Oral Irrigator. The costs of dental health insurance are skyrocketing every day, and it is normal for people to think a decision thoroughly when they actually buy dental insurance. Whether you have an employer-sponsored insurance or you pay for it independently, you should check all the aspects of the plans carefully so that the coverage efficiency be the most advantageous for you as a patient. Make all contract clauses clear before you sign anything.

What is the yearly maximum? What is the highest amount of money dental insurance will cover in a year? It goes without saying that you’ll have to buy dental insurance or renew it at the end of twelve months, with the mention that if benefits are unused, they cannot roll over to the next contract period. $1,000 is most of the time the yearly maximum of lots of insurance companies.

According to the policy you’ll either be limited to the choice of a dentist within the network or have the freedom to select independently. This is a major issue to analyze when you buy dental insurance. The plans for the in-network option provide lists with dentists in the geographical area of the patient, and he/she has the possibility to select the most convenient one. Keep in mind that in-network dental insurance doesn’t cost one as much as out of network plans.

One other problem when you buy dental insurance is the UCR fee. The Usual Customary and Reasonable fee is the price a dental insurance company sets for a specific intervention: the company will only cover this amount of money leaving the rest for the client to pay. For instance, if a a cleaning costs $82 and there is a UCR fee set for $57, then the patient has to cover the difference out of his/her pocket.

What kind of coverage will you have when you buy dental insurance within certain conditions? Dentist procedures thus fall under three distinct categories according to the practice of most insurance companies: there you have preventive, basic or restorative and major interventions.

Routine cleanings, X-rays, fluoride treatments and sealants are considered preventive, fillings and simple extractions stand for basic or restorative while crowns and bridges, surgery, implants, root canal treatments and dentures are major procedures.

From one dental insurance carrier to another, differences are possible in such classifications, therefore make sure to understand how things stand before you buy dental insurance. Go for those solutions that correspond to your necessities, especially when you are aware of the possibility to undergo major dental procedures in the not-so-distant future.

Credits also go to: Oral Care, Parkurson Alec.