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If you live in the state of Georgia and are need of a good dental plan, you have two major options to choose from, dental insurance or a discount dental plan. Both encourage seeing your dentist twice per year for routine check-ups and both offer savings on preventive care, however, there are other major differences that you should be aware of before you buy a plan. Let’s take a look at both of these types of plans.
Dental Insurance
Dental insurance is designed to give you coverage in the event of a catastrophic injury to your mouth and also to provide a certain amount of protection against tooth decay and other oral diseases.
Unfortunately, the dental insurance product model is flawed. The reason for this is because most people won’t buy a dental insurance plan until they actually need to see a dentist. They put it off until they’re in pain or they’re having difficulty chewing their food. Why?
#1. It’s expensive. We’re talking about insurance coverage that can run between $50-100.00 per month and the only immediate benefit is to be able to see a dentist for preventive care, such as cleanings and x-rays. Even then you’ll have co-pay costs and annual maximum limits.
#2. We procrastinate. Most people are on a budget and if it’s something that we feel doesn’t need to be addressed right away, we put it off.
These two reasons are why approximately 70% of Americans have no type of dental care plan at all.
The result of this is that when you finally do have to see a dentist you’ll be forced to pay for your care without the help of insurance. The reason for this is because “insurance” does not cover anything that already existed at the time that you bought your policy. This means that if you wake up and discover a mouthful of cavities and believe that you can buy an insurance plan to get them fixed, you’re in for a rude awakening because anything pre-existing will not be covered until you go through a mandatory waiting period of one full year. Even then you’ll only receive partial assistance for those issues.
So what do you do if you need to see a dentist right away? This brings us to your second option.
Georgia Discount Dental Plans
Discount plans are not an insurance policy. What they are is a network of dentists that have agreed to reduce their fees substantially (as much as 60%) in exchange for paying the discounted fee at the time of your visit.
Let me give you an example of a discount dental plan in action.
This example is based on zip code 30315, which is the Atlanta, Georgia area. At the time of this writing there are 284 participating dentists that accept the plan that we’re using for this example, GE Wellness.
We’ll do an example for an individual plan first.
Let’s say that you’ve been pretty good about taking care of your teeth. You brush, floss and have seen a dentist pretty regularly, but you’re just tired of paying full price for dental care, so you’ve decided to join a discount dental plan.
Here’s how you’ll save money immediately.
Now let’s say that you went to the dentist for your first visit with the plan and got a routine six month check-up that used to cost you $40.00, full mouth x-rays that costed $104.00, adult teeth cleaning that costed $75.00, one tooth needed protective sealant that would have costed $43.00 and you had one cavity that last time costed you $121.00.
The cost of your semi-annual visit to the dentist used to cost you a total of $383.00.
This time you go for your routine six month check-up and your cost is $0, full mouth x-rays only cost $48.00, adult teeth cleaning only costs $48.00, protective sealant for that tooth only costs $28.00 and one cavity to fill only costs $67.00 now.
Instead of paying $383, your total cost of this visit is only $191.00, a savings of $192.00 or 50%! You can double that amount of savings also because this is only one of two six month check-ups, so your discounted savings for the year on routine dental care is $384.00.
The cost of joining this particular dental plan in the state Georgia is just $109.95 per year for an individual.
Deduct the $109.95 annual membership fee from that $384.00 that you will be saving and you come out way ahead at $274.05 per year saved.
If you need a family dental plan, then your cost of membership is only $159.95, just $50.00 more, and you can now multiply your savings tremendously! If you have a family of four, then you can add additional savings of the $192.00 above, multiplied times three more family members, equals $576.00 for just $50.00 more. Deduct $50.00 from $576.00 and you get a savings of $526.00. Add that to the $274.05 that you would save as an individual above and your total annual savings AFTER the cost of membership for a family of four will be a whopping $800.05! You’ll also still be able to use the plan for any other needs that may arise during the next year.
Don’t Put Off Getting A Dental Plan Any Longer!
If you’ve been looking at different Georgia dental plans, but weren’t certain which one you should get, I hope this gives you a better idea of what’s out there and the major differences between these two types of dental plans.
If you are in need of a dental plan now I highly recommend you join a discount plan today. By doing so Right Now you’ll save an additional 10% off of the already low cost of annual membership. So don’t put off getting a dental plan any longer. Join up Right Now and start saving money on your dental care right away!
Simply enter your zip code into the blue box above and then enter the discount code JE10 at the time you checkout or just give us a call at 1-855-214-7725 today!