Affordable Dental Plans

According to the National Association of Dental Plans, approximately half of the U.S. population does not have an affordable dental plan. The cost for affordable dental insurance can vary. Therefore, it is important to understand all your options in obtaining the most affordable dental plan coverage.

The company where you work may provide the most affordable dental insurance plan options. Dental insurance plans for individual and families are usually an HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) or a PPO (Preferred Provided Organization) and operate much like traditional health insurance organizations.

Affordable Dental Plans – HMO

Affordable dental insurance plans from an HMO have a limited pool of dentist to select, but it is a more affordable insurance plan. If you are self employed and looking for a more affordable dental plan, a discount dental plan may be an alternative.

Discount dental plans are not dental insurance plans. A discount plan partners with dentists to provide customers with a savings on visits to the dentist office. The downside to discount dental plans is that they are not regulated and you have limited recourse if you experience dental plan problems.

Dental insurance is a good way of controlling your dental care cost.  By choosing your dental insurance plan carefully you can receive your dental care services at a considerably lower cost than the charges you will have to pay without dental insurance.  The key is choosing the right plan that fits your dental needs the best.

Shopping out the different dental plans available it an essential part of choosing a Dental Plan. Read and understand each plans term and conditions. The more you know about the dental plan the better equipped you are, and therefore, the greater the likelihood that you will make a reasonable decision.
Try to decide on how much coverage you or your family needs as well as how much you can afford to spend on a dental plan.  Do not assume that the higher the cost of the dental plan is the better the coverages.  Different types of dental plan have different limitations.

Also if you are wanting to stay with a family dentist before searching for a dental insurance plan find out what plans that dental office is a provider of. Check to see if they are an in network provider of any dental plans this will save you time in reviewing plans that they may not accept. When major dental care is needed make sure you are buying a plan that does not have waiting periods for the very services that you may need right away. Many plan like PPO and free choice of provider have waiting period on both basic and major dental care services.  Where as other plans that do not have waiting periods may not cover for specialist so make sure you know what you are covered for when needing major dental care.

Close to 48,250 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer this year. It will cause over 9,575 deaths, killing roughly 1 person per hour, 24 hours per day. Of those 48,250 newly diagnosed individuals, only slightly more than half will be alive in 5 years.

Historically the death rate associated with this cancer is particularly high not because it is hard to discover or diagnose, but due to the cancer being routinely discovered late in its development.

The Mouth Cancer Foundation is encouraging people to Bite Back at Mouth Cancer, a simple head and neck cancer check which can be carried out by anyone at home, at any time, but ideally once per month.

The Self Examination

Face: Look at the whole face. Are there any swellings you haven’t noticed before? Inspect your skin. Has anything changed recently? Have moles become larger or started to itch or bleed? Turn your head from side to side. This stretches the skin over the muscles making lumps easier to see.

Neck: Run the fingers under your jaw and feel along the large muscle either side of neck using the balls of your fingers. Are there any swellings? Does everything feel the same on both sides?

Lips: Using your index, middle fingers and thumb to feel the inside of your mouth. Pull your upper lip upwards and bottom lip downwards to look inside for any sores or changes in color. Use your thumb and forefinger to feel around and inside your lips checking for any lumps, bumps or changes in texture.

Gums: Use your thumb and forefinger on the inside and outside of the gum working your way around the gum to feel for anything unusual.

Check your Cheeks: Open your mouth and pull your cheeks away, one side at a time, with your finger to look inside. Look for any red or white patches. Use your finger in the cheek to check for ulcers, lumps or tenderness. Repeat on the other side. Your tongue can be helpful to locate sore areas, ulcers or rough patches.

Tongue: Gently pull out your tongue and look at one side first and then the other. Look for any swelling, ulcer or change in color. Examine the underside of your tongue by lifting the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth.

Floor of Mouth: Lift your tongue up and look underneath then look at the floor of your mouth for any color changes that are unusual. Gently press your finger along the floor of your mouth and underside your tongue to feel for any lumps, swellings or ulcers.

Roof of Mouth: Tilt back your head and open your mouth wide to check the roof of your mouth. Look to see if there are changes in colour or ulcers. Check for changes in texture with your finger.

Make sure you understand there is a different between a family/general dentist and a specialist.  Though many dental discount plans do offer a flat saving up to 20 percent or more on their specialist, the schedules that are listed are normally for the family/general dentist within the plan network.

Nearly four out of 10 UK professional footballers have active tooth decay, while one in 20 has irreversible gum disease, finds a large representative study of players, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

This poor level of dental health is affecting performance and wellbeing, and the sport needs to tackle this head on as a matter of urgency, say the researchers.

There is mounting evidence to suggest that the dental health of professional/elite footballers is below average, but the impact on play has not been clear.

Some dental discount plans make you pay in full for one year where others may provide you with a monthly payment option.  You will want to pick the plan the best fits into your budget.

Oral premalignant lesions (OPLs) are considered risk factors for the development of oral cancer. In an article published online by JAMA Oncology, William N. William Jr., M.D., of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Scott M. Lippman, M.D., of the University of California, San Diego, and coauthors report the results of a randomized clinical trial that tested if the epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor erlotinib would reduce oral cancer development in patients with high-risk OPLs defined by specific loss of heterozygosity (LOH) profiles. They also looked at LOH as a prognostic marker in OPLs. The authors note, that to their knowledge, the Erlotinib Prevention of Oral Cancer (EPOC) randomized clinical trial is the first molecularly based precision medicine trial design in cancer prevention, and the first study of OPLs to use cancer as the primary end point.

Scientists led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and Aberystwyth University have revealed ‘sweet points’ for dental fillings, where cement used to fill cracks regain elasticity before hardening indefinitely. This could have implications for creating more durable and longer-lasting fillings in the future.

WITH A DENTAL DISCOUNT PLAN, THERE IS NO OUTSIDE NETWORK SAVINGS. Therefore you want to review and compare dentist within each plan. Making sure you have dentist in your area under the plan before buying one.  I suggest always calling the dental office.  Not only to confirm they are still accepting the plan in question but also in order to asking any question you feel is important in picking a dentist to go to.

Dual discoveries at USC propose a promising method to regrow nonliving hard tissue, lessening or even eliminating pain associated with tooth decay, which the National Institutes of Health calls the  most prevalent chronic disease.

Moradian-Oldak will couple the MMP-20 discovery with another study published Nov. 2 in the Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics, which concluded an amelogenin-chitosan hydrogel could repair early tooth decay by growing an enamel-like layer that reduces lesions by up to 70 percent.

Some plan have short fee schedules then others and since they are different companies that means they each have their own fee schedules showing your discounted cost for dental services. Since many dental discount plans will give you about a 20 percent saving of dental services not list you only  need to compare services that are listed.

New nanomaterials for dental treatments boast impressive antibacterial, decay-resistant and biomimetic properties. In combination with stem cells, they are even capable of regenerating dental tissues, researchers report.

When thinking about buying a dental discount plan what you should know in picking the best dental plan for you and or your family.  Most dental discount plan may work the same in the fact that they provide dental discount saving on your dental care needs for a low monthly cost of the plan.  However not every dental discount plan will work for your needs.  Tips to making sure you buy the right dental discount plan.

Cognitive behavioural therapy could help many people with a dental phobia overcome their fear of visiting the dentist and enable them to receive dental treatment without the need to be sedated,  according to a new study by King’s College London.

Many people still do not floss and brush their teeth regularly. If you are one in the many, here is just another reason to start taking preventive dental care more  serious.  Forget your nagging dentist that keep telling you that you are not flossing good enough. Here is something that may really scare you into proper gum and oral health care.   An increasing number of employers are reducing or even dropping dental benefits.  Which means that you could be paying more more for your next dental care visit.      With more employers making their workers pay more for their dental benefits for a family this can set you back up to hundreds per year.  This is even worse if they drop dental benefits altogether and you are having to pay cash for your dental care needs.

There are some steps you can take if you do not receive dental benefits or the cost for your dental benefits are getting to high.  Try searching for a dental insurance plan that you could buy directly. There are many different types of dental plans from lower cost dental plan to more expensive.  Shopping  out your dental insurance each year is a good way to make sure you are getting the best coverages for the lowest price.   People spend more thought and time in buying their next TV or computer then what they have for their own dental care needs. Make sure you have the best dental plan to fit your dental care needs at the best affordable cost.

Experts say consumers should be just as aware of the potential for sugar-free beverages, candy and sports drinks to cause tooth decay as they are of the link to sugar.

Researchers at the Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), based at the University of Melbourne, Australia, tested 23 different types of sugar-free drinks – including soft drinks and sports drinks – and found those that contain acidic additives and those with low pH levels cause measurable damage to tooth enamel, even if they have no sugar.

Question: My daughter is seven and got into an accident were she lost four of her top front teeth.  They are just her baby teeth but I do not like that she has to deal with such a big gap.    Could she get a dental bridge until her adult teeth come in?  Or would that be consider as cosmetic dental services since they are only her baby teeth?  I know my dental insurance plan does not cover for cosmetic.

Answer: Your child may be able to get space maintainers and in most dental insurance plans, they do offer coverage’s for space maintainers. Talk to your child dentist to see what he/she would advise.

Graphene oxide could be used to make super strong dental fillings that don’t corrode, according to a new study. Research suggests we chew around 800 times in an average meal; that’s almost a million times a year. We put our teeth under huge strain, and often require fillings to repair them. Fillings are typically made of a mixture of metals, such as copper, mercury, silver and tin, or composites of powdered glass and ceramic. Typical metal fillings can corrode and composite fillings are not very strong; Graphene on the other hand is 200 times stronger than steel and doesn’t corrode, making it a prime new candidate for dental fillings.