Choosing a Dental Plan
Some considerations you should make before choosing between dental plans:
- Review your family's dental needs.
- Review coverages (e.g. deductible, co-pays, co-insurance, maximum, limitations and exclusions).
- Review your monthly contributions for the dental plan and your potential out-of-pocket expenses.
- Is your dentist a network provider? What is the impact to your out-of-pocket expenses for using non-network dentists? For more on the cost impact of using network or non-network dentists, see Financial Impact of Using PPO Dentists and PPO vs. non-PPO Dentists.
Types of dental benefit plans
The following chart compares Fee for Service versus Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) and Dental Health Maintenance Organizations/Exclusive Provider Organizations (DHMO/EPO).
| Fee for Service | PPO | DHMO/EPO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Highest | Moderate | Lowest |
| Choice of Dentist | Any dentist | Any dentist | Network dentists only |
| Network of dentists | None | Large | Small |
| Dentist discounts fees | None | Yes | Yes (DHMO–Capitation) |
| Dentists' credentials verified (Credentialing) | No | Yes | Yes |
Last updated: 6/30/2020
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