Unfortunately, you’ve had to visit your dentist under painful circumstances, needing dental care to correct a dental issue. Before you know it, you’ve been referred to a specialist and back again to your dentist. Although you’ve recovered your oral health, you now have a skyrocketing dental bill and you can’t help but curse the insurance companies and wonder one thing: why isn’t dental insurance covered in your other medical benefits?!
Learn more about dental insurance in Leawood and its role with insurance companies and your health in this week’s blog post.
Dental Insurance is a Separate Entity than Medical Insurance
You’ve noticed that you have to pay a premium for medical insurance and a separate premium for dental insurance—but why is that? After all, your overall body’s health is closely related to your oral health. However, insurance companies don’t view it that way.
In fact, going all the way back to 1840, dentistry was proposed as a medical specialty to the University of Maryland and denied. Even going as far as centuries ago, the powers that be (insurance companies) assume that if you’re taking good care of your smile that you won’t have health problems that are related to the mouth and vise versa.
This might seem a bit naïve or even a way for insurance companies to “get over” on patients, but they do do one thing right: cover your preventive care with dental insurance benefits.
Preventive Care is Covered with Dental Insurance
Although the scenario explained above explains expensive costs associated with dental work, these are charges that are applied for dental care that happens because your smile needs to be restored.
Your insurance company provides two semiannual preventive care appointments that all patients should take advantage of. These two appointments a year are actually very helpful in preventing major dental problems like decay, gum disease, and eventually lost teeth.
What Does Preventive Care Include?
When you visit your dentist for covered preventive care appointments, you’ll receive:
- A thorough dental examination of your teeth, gums, head, neck, and surrounding areas. This allows your dentist to view any signs of dental concerns or health problems that could be related to your mouth.
- Then, you’ll undergo a diagnostic portion of your appointment that includes taking dental x-ray images of your smile above and below the gum line.
- Finally, your dentist will meticulously clean between teeth and below the gum line to effectively remove plaque and tartar from your smile.
- Your appointment will close with an open discussion about your current oral health and how to improve it with your dentist in Leawood.
If you have dental insurance benefits, you need to take advantage of the excellent dental care that your dentist provides. First, check to see if your dentist accepts your insurance so that it’ll be of no cost to you!
About Our Office
Do you have current dental insurance benefits that need to be put to use? Our dental team here at the dental office of Dennis C. Ayer, DDS would love to help you explore your insurance benefit plan. We are a Delta Dental provider in Leawood and also have other financial options if you don’t have insurance. Give us a call today!