Dental Insurance is Warmly Welcomed!
At the Glendale Dental Wellness Center, we strive to make high-quality oral healthcare as affordable as possible for budget-minded individuals and families throughout the Glendale community – and dental insurance can help! Whether you receive coverage through your employer or purchase it directly, this valuable aid can reduce your overall cost and help you smile brighter. However, many patients don’t know how to maximize their available benefits to their fullest potential, or even what their plan actually covers. Keep reading below to learn more about the inner workings of dental insurance, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like further clarification about certain points.
The In’s and Out’s of Dental Insurance
Many people assume that dental insurance and traditional medical insurance are two sides of the same coin, but this isn’t true at all. The bulk of monetary benefits for medical insurance are reserved for true emergency situations, like serious illnesses or traumatic injuries. On the other hand, dental insurance is primarily designed around the power of prevention. By fully covering the cost of biannual dental checkups and cleanings (along with other likeminded services like enamel-strengthening fluoride treatment for patients under the age of 18), patients have the support they need to catch potential problems in their earliest stages and hopefully keep treatment-related costs to a minimum.
What Does My Dental Insurance Plan Cover?
Please keep in mind that no two dental insurance plans are exactly alike; you should always check with your provider before committing to any treatment plan to confirm available benefits. Our team at Glendale Dental Wellness Center can also help with the process! That said, most major insurances do follow these basic guidelines in regards to coverage:
- Basic preventive services like dental checkups and cleanings (up to two each year) are fully covered.
- Simple restorative procedures (such as tooth-colored fillings and root canal therapy) have the bulk of their cost covered – typically anywhere from 70-80%.
- More extensive restorative procedures (such as dental crowns, bridges, and dentures) are covered at 50-60%.
In virtually all cases, purely cosmetic services like professional teeth whitening and porcelain veneers receive no benefits from dental insurance.
We Welcome In-Network & Out-of-Network Dental Insurances Alike
At Glendale Dental Wellness Center, we are in-network with the following insurances:
- Delta Dental Premier
- Aetna
What does it mean to be in-network? Basically, our dental office has agreed to accept negotiated rates from the insurance company for a wide variety of different services. In most cases, these rates are less than what you would expect to pay at a dental office that is not in-network with that specific coverage. However, this isn’t necessarily the case! Dr. Sue offers very reasonable prices for his services and we’re also happy to help patients with out-of-network plans file claims so that they can still take advantage of their allotted benefits. By maximizing these reimbursements, your final cost should be very comparable to what you would pay with an in-network provider.
If you have further questions about dental insurance and how it works, we’d love to help! Contact our dental office in Glendale, CA to learn more, or to schedule a first appointment.