Should a Single Adult Purchase Dental Insurance?
Health insurance is extremely important because you never know when you could be struck by a sudden illness that is out of your control in which you will need medical treatment. Doctor visits, blood tests, x-rays and medications can add up very quickly. Dental procedures are also very expensive. But is it necessary for a single adult to invest in dental insurance?
There have been many articles saying that you don’t need dental insurance if you have good oral hygiene and a relatively healthy mouth (a healthy mouth does not have much restorative dental work done to it, i.e. fillings, crowns, bridges or root canals) then you may not need to bother with purchasing a dental insurance plan. But there is one important factor for this option; you must be diligent about being able to set aside money each month specifically for upcoming dental exams, cleanings, x-rays and possible restorative work. Pretend as though you were paying for dental insurance only each month put $30 into a savings account or credit union; something that makes it a bit more inconvenient to withdrawal the money from.
If you set aside $30 a month for 12 months, you will have set aside a total of $360. With a healthy mouth, the first year you will pay for a set of full mouth x-rays ($90-$120.00 and good for 5 years), first exam (about $60), first cleaning ($80) and a second cleaning 6 months apart from first cleaning ($80.). So roughly the first year you will have spent $340 on these initial dental steps. You should have $20 left in savings still.
The second year you will start off with that $20 in the savings but continue to set aside $30 a month. For this second year, you should only need 2 cleanings which are 6 months apart which will cost you approx. $160 in total for both. You will not need to pay for an initial exam or a full mouth set of x-rays since your x-rays from the previous year are still good for another 4 more years, but the doctor may see a suspicious spot on one tooth and may request a single x-ray ($50). At this point you will have set aside a total of $360 for the year but used up $210 for the 2 cleanings and x-ray. So now, you have $150 saved at the end of the year.
Now we are into the 3rd year. You start off your dental savings account with $150 and start depositing $30 a month again. Once again you will need those two exams ($160) and the doctor now wants to do a restorative filling on one of the teeth that was suspicious in last year’s x-ray. She will ask for another x-ray of that tooth to be taken again to see if the cavity has grown ($50) and then he/she will do the composite filling ($250). So now for the year you will have had a balance of $490 but you will have used up $460 worth, leaving your dental savings account with $30.00.
In these three years, you will have set aside and saved $1080.00 for dental care. If you would have purchased a dental plan at $21.40 a month for those three years, you would have only spent $832. So, the bottom line is if you can find a dental insurance plan for $20-25 a month or less, then you are better off with insurance. If the dental insurance plan is more than $25.00 a month, then you are better off setting the money aside in your own savings account and pay for dental procedures as needed with this money.
Visit Liana’s website, skin wrinkle which offers information on skin care tips and technology for laser wrinkle removal.