Four Important Steps For Choosing Dental Insurance
December 17, 2019
Dental insurance policies have an annual limit to coverage, along with a $50 to $100 deductible. To avoid getting caught with unexpected expenses, here are some key steps to take when buying dental insurance.
Most health insurance policies cover a hefty percentage of even towering expenses once you’ve paid your deductible. But dental insurance policies have an annual limit to coverage, from $1,000 to $1,500 a year, along with a $50 to $100 deductible. To avoid getting caught with unexpected expenses, here are some key steps to take when buying dental insurance:
- Find out if you can get group coverage - The great majority of people with dental insurance have benefits through their employer or other group coverage programs. These plans are generally less expensive than purchasing individual insurance and may also have better benefits. But take a good hard look at the details of even an employer-sponsored plan to decide whether the premiums are worth the money for someone in your situation.
- Check into individual policies - More expensive than group policies, individual policies often have waiting periods for major procedures. If you’re thinking of signing up for a plan “just in time” because you need implants or a new set of dentures, realize that insurers are well aware of that tactic and institute a waiting period of perhaps a year before you can start using certain benefits.
- Examine the list of dentists in the network - Indemnity insurance plans allow you to use the dentist of your choice, but the common PPO and HMO plans limit you to dentists in their networks. If you have a dentist you like, ask which insurance and discount plans he or she accepts. If you’re OK with using a new dentist, a PPO or HMO might fit your needs.
- Know what the policy covers - In order to budget for dental expenses, it's important to carefully review the policies you’re considering. With both group and individual policies, benefits are limited and can vary significantly. Group plans may also have waiting periods, and almost all plans pay only a fraction of the costs for major work, so check the details.
Check out this article for further information.
Stout Bowman regularly posts important and interesting information on our blog. Current topics include credit/debit/loans, estate planning, insurance, investing, Medicare, retirement, Social Security and taxes, as well as general information that we think you might find of interest. 
We have been publishing an email newsletter for our clients and friends since 2016. Links to all of the newsletters can be found on our newsletter page, with the most recent listed first. We try to keep our emails short, so there are typically only three articles in each one, most of which link to other articles in the financial and mainstream press. 
We also have a page on our site for the latest news about our company, notice of any upcoming events, and a market commentary to discuss what our advisors and other financial industry experts conclude about the previous investment performance and what we might expect the markets and the economy will do in the coming months. 
Many news organizations offer what is called a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed, a listing of the latest changes to their site's content. We have subscribed to several of these news feeds and present a list of their latest ten articles on a page on this website to save our clients the hassle of going to multiple websites just to see what is available. Currently, we subscribe to 
At Stout Bowman every investment client is first a financial planning client; it's important to go through that process before we make any professional investment recommendations. Therefore, we strive to make financial planning understandable and comfortable every step of the way. One way to do that is to provide our clients access to financial education resources. To that end, we have subscribed to educational websites to receive their news feeds and present a list of their latest ten articles on a page on this website. Currently, we offer