Are you skipping your visit to dental office to save your money? Or delaying your dental treatment when you are sick? This may cause major effects on your oral health. Dental care is an important part of your overall health and it’s also an area that’s often getting ignored. According to the recent reports, “In Australia, 35% of adults had not visited a dentist within the last 12 months. Do you know why? The major reason behind why people delay dental visit is “Dental Implants Cost in Australia”
How to save on dental visits
Brushing and flossing are the good place to start for the dental care, but eventually you will also want to visit the dentist. Instead of avoiding the costs of dental care altogether, minimise your costs with the following strategies…
Use your dental insurance wisely
If you have dental insurance, you can maximize your benefits by,
- You can gain benefit from flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs) to set apart pre-tax dollars for medical and dental expenses. These are generally offered through your company.
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- You can able to discuss with your dentist about setting up a payment plan if your out-of-pocket costs are high.
If you are uninsured, you have several other strategies to choose from the below…
Consider obtaining insurance
The best way to help protect you from high dental costs is buying dental insurance. Rates may vary, but some plans are available for around $15 to $25 a month for coverage depending on the career, location and policy options. Most of the dental insurance policies operate on a basic plan, in which 100% of preventive and diagnostic costs are covered, almost 80% of basic procedures that includes fillings and extractions are covered and 50% of major treatments like crowns and dentures are paid. Insurance plan normally have a coverage cap, which means that you are applicable to cover only a certain maximum dollar amount for each year.
Consider a discount plan
Discount plans are another better option for the uninsured, but they are not insurance. They offer discounts ranging from 10% to 60% throughout the year on dental services. Similar to insurance, they have only selected network of participating dentists. So, make sure that the dentist you want to use should be included before signing up the discount plan.
Visit Dental School for Treatment
Dental students who are spending their last years in school may conduct hands-on practice with the patients and are also supervised by the experienced instructors. Graduation nearing students can perform cleanings and other procedures with good care and the price of dental implants are often steeply discounted when comparing to other dental clinics.
Finally, don’t avoid the dental treatments because of the fear in dental implant cost; waiting on dental problems will only make your oral health worse and ultimately more expensive.
