Dental insurance can be confusing! There are thousands of plans from so many different carriers providing a wide range of benefits. The one thing they all have in common: THEY EXPIRE! Most plans run a calendar year and expire on December 31.
It’s hard to believe that December is here already! Don’t let the end of this challenging year sneak up on you. If you have remaining benefits with your dental insurance, you must use them or lose them.
Dental Insurance Benefits Do Not Carry Over to Next Year
The way that most dental insurance plans work is by providing a limited amount of coverage for dental treatments with a cap on the maximum amount they will pay. For example, many companies provide a maximum of $2000 in dental benefits covering 100% of preventive treatments, 80$ of minor restorative work (like fillings), 50% of major restorations (like crowns), etc….
If you have seen us twice this year for your preventive care (the professional teeth cleaning visits with evaluations by our great dentists and diagnostic x-rays) and you do not need any treatment, then you are good. However, if you missed a check-up due to the craziness of COVID or do need some dental work, now is the time to do it!
Now is the Perfect Time to Begin Dental Treatment
There are two reasons that now is the perfect time to use your insurance benefits. The first is that you cannot carry over unused benefits to next year. Here is a good analogy to explain this aspect of dental insurance. Let’s say you have a benefits maximum of $2000 with 100% of your preventive treatments covered. That is like having a bank account with $2000 available for you to withdraw for your professional teeth cleaning with Staci, Kenneth, Rachel or Micca, your thorough oral evaluation with Dr. Jill, Dr. Cara or Dr. Summer, and any necessary dental x-rays. All it costs you is your time for the appointment. If you don’t use it, that $2000 disappears. It does not stay in the account to add to your benefits for next year.
The second reason now is the perfect time to use dental benefits is that the new year is approaching when you will receive the next year’s benefits. For patients in need of significant dental work, you can take advantage of both this year’s benefits (during the month of December) using as much of the maximum as possible. Then on January 1, your account is replenished to the maximum amount again. This allows many people to receive the dental work they need in a shorter span of time.
Not Sure What Benefits You Have?
We know that all of these details can be confusing. If you need help understanding exactly what your plan covers and what benefits you have remaining for 2020, call our office today at 972-347-1145. Our wonderful front office team is full of insurance experts who can walk you through the details of your specific plan so that you can plan to get the most out of your dental insurance benefits.
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