Orthodontic Insurance for Adults Braces
There are many insurance companies who will happily provide you with dental insurance. However, it is important to note dental insurance may not cover orthodontic treatment. You will want to ensure that you confirm and clarify your need for orthodontic insurance coverage with your insurance company or benefits office.
When individuals are faced with the prospect of getting orthodontic care, one of the many issues that they are concerned about is the issue of money. Money can be a huge problem facing many individuals who are concerned about the cost of their orthodontic care whether it’s for themselves or for their children. Orthodontics has a notorious reputation as being prohibitively expensive and taking a long time, which all translates to a huge investment of time and money. However, there are ways of being able to mitigate these problems.
The most common of course is orthodontist insurance. But this may cause many people to ask questions about orthodontic insurance for adults. Such as: is there dental insurance that covers braces for adults? What’s the best dental insurance for braces? Is orthodontic coverage something I can add? What about supplemental orthodontic insurance to my current dental policy? Is there orthodontic insurance for the child? What about dental insurance covering braces? And is there orthodontic insurance for adults that also provides orthodontia coverage for children as well? And what kind of cost is there when it comes to adult orthodontic insurance?
Before we take a look into these different topics, let’s see what the experts in dentistry and orthodontics have to say about the importance of orthodontic care and dental insurance. There is increasing evidence suggesting a strong relationship between poor oral care and a range of chronic illnesses (Foreman S et al., 2011).
Approximately 52 million people in the United States do not have health insurance, or oral health insurance either (Foreman S et al., 2011). The danger here is that if you don’t have healthy teeth, you will likely struggle with being able to eat properly due to difficulty chewing. You can also feel really self-conscious about your smile which can affect your self-esteem and mental health. It should also be noted that Medicare has failed in adequately covering oral health care (Foreman S et al., 2011).
What does my insurance cover?
As you can see, the academic literature is quite clear on the importance of oral care and that it is important for people to have access to dental insurance. So let’s start off with the common question, does my dental insurance also cover braces? Well, the answer is likely no. However, it need not stay that way.
The vast majority of dental plans do not usually automatically include orthodontic coverage, so always double-check to be sure if yours might be the exception. It is true that the vast majority of company plans and individual plans do allow for orthodontic coverage to be added. Sometimes this coverage is quite affordable as the vast majority of people will actually never need orthodontic coverage over their entire lifetime.
Some families even go without any orthodontic issues whatsoever and so depending on you and your family history, you may well find that adding dental insurance that covers orthodontic treatment is quite affordable, especially if you come from a family that has not had a high use of orthodontics. It’s going to be a huge benefit for individuals who already have dental insurance provided through their work or through a government assistance program to learn that adding orthodontic coverage to the plan is quite simple.
It is important to know that there is a difference between dental and orthodontic insurance. Many individuals believe that simply because they have dental insurance that they will be covered in case of braces for either themselves or their child. These individuals often face a sharp awakening when they find out that these are two separate types of insurance. Always double check your particular policy to find out what is covered and if you do not have all the coverage you need, be sure to talk with your insurance provider to see what it would cost to be able to have both policies together. Many insurance providers will actually reduce rates for individuals who bundle together different types of insurance with them.
What about orthodontic insurance for children?
The other major question that people ask is of course about coverage for their kids. You may not need orthodontics but what if your child does? The good news is that many plans do offer a family version. Typically it would go something like this: you pay a base rate of say $80 per month, to cover your entire family including your spouse and two or three kids. They might charge an extra $50 for dependents meaning that now you are paying $130 to cover your entire family.
However, when you want to add orthodontic insurance as well, by bundling insurance together, especially within the same company, you will often find that there are major savings involved. While getting orthodontic or dental insurance on their own might be $100+ dollars per month for you and your family, if you combine the two together with the same company, especially if it is one that you have been with for a long time and have very few claims on, you can notice significant cost savings.
You may even find that to have dental and orthodontic insurance for an entire family of five would not cost more than $200 per month. With the cost of even the cheapest braces starting at $3,000, it would only take one of your children to need orthodontics to be able to bring you a cost savings from your insurance choices.
While the individual cost for insurance will vary significantly from place to place, your own personal family history, and other factors the actuaries will review, the fact of the matter is that getting orthodontic insurance is not an expense, but rather it should best be viewed as an investment in the future health of yourself and your family.
Protecting their health as well as your own is an important factor and, as mentioned before, with the cost of a single procedure oftentimes equal to the cost of a year or two of dental insurance that covers orthodontic procedures, it is definitely an investment that you should consider to protect you and your family’s health now and into the future.
Reference:
Foreman, S., Kilsdonk, J., Boggs, K., Mouradian, W. E., Boulter, S., Casamassimo, P., Powell, V., Piraino, B., Shoemaker, W., Kovarik, J., Waxman, E., Cheriyan, B., Hood, H., Farman, A. G., Holder, M., Torres-Urquidy, M. H., Walji, M. F., Acharya, A., Mahnke, A., Chyou, P. H., … Schrodi, S. J. (2011). Broader Considerations of Medical and Dental Data Integration. Integration of Medical and Dental Care and Patient Data, 3, 167–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2185-5_4
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