After you graduate from college, you have lots of responsibilities to take on — including taking care of your dental health. While many professional adults choose to purchase themselves a dental insurance plan, dental insurance can be prohibitively expensive for a recent grad who doesn’t have employee benefits or a full-time salary. One great dental care option for recent college grads is choosing a discount dental plan. A dental discount plan ensures that you end up with a healthy, beautiful smile — at a cost that won’t break the bank.
What is a Dental Discount Plan?
In a dental discount plan, the provider of the plan negotiates reduced fees from participating dentists. Then, the savings are passed along to the patient. Often, for young people who don’t need extensive dental work, dental discount plans tend to be the better deal, and dental discount plans also ensure that young people get the dental treatment they need in order to prevent serious oral diseases in the future.
How is a Dental Discount Plan Different from Dental Insurance?
A dental insurance plan is similar to a health insurance plan. When you purchase a policy, you pay a monthly premium, and the insurance company covers some (or all) of the cost of dental treatments you get. With an insurance plan, patients may have to pay for co-pays or any charges that exceed the cap placed by the insurance company. With a dental discount plan, patients pay for an annual or monthly membership. This entitles the member to a discount of a certain percentage — anywhere from 20-50 percent) — from dentists who also choose to participate in the discount plan. For example, a patient who has a dental discount plan may pay only $75.50 for a complete set of X-rays that would have cost them $171.00 without the plan.
Benefits of the Dental Discount Plan
While both insurance plans and dental discount plans have their own benefits, the discount dental plan has specific perks that recent college grads can appreciate.
Savings
Post-college is an expensive time of life, with loan payments to make and rent to pay. By using a dental discount plan, members can save significant amounts of money — that they can then apply to other areas of their life. For example, a dentist may charge $93.00 for an adult cleaning, but with a dental discount plan, a patient would only pay $51 for that same service.
No Cap
Dental plans don’t put a cap on the amount of dental care you can get. This means that you don’t have to worry about the financial strain caused by needing to cover your own expensive care, and you get all of the healthcare that you need.
Direct Payments to Dentists
Unlike with an insurance plan, dental plans allow patients to pay the dentist directly. This makes things easier for dentists, since they don’t have to deal with insurance paperwork (this is also less of a hassle for you at your appointment!)
Pay for What You Use
With a dental plan, patients only pay for the care they get. This is different from an insurance plan, in which people pay way more for their premium payments than the care they actually receive.
Better Coverage
Insurance plans can limit the types of procedures they cover. Often, expensive, intricate procedures are left out of coverage. With discount dental plans, you can get help paying for any kind of procedure — from braces to root canals, and more.
If you’re a recent college grad looking for ways to save money, but you still want to take care of yourself, consider buying a dental discount plan. With the savings provided, your plan can pay for itself in one visit — giving you more financial freedom and less stress to focus on your new, exciting adult life.
