Health Insurance

Dental Insurance No Waiting Period

Dental care is expensive and comes about at a most unexpected time. More and more adults have been putting dental care aside due to the costs attached to it. Dental insurance is a huge help in allowing you to prepare yourself for any form of dental emergency that may arise.

However, your dental emergency is not going to wait for six months or even a year for your dental insurance coverage benefits to kick in and wait for your waiting period to end. This will likely create further complications if your dental insurance has a lengthy waiting period.

Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that you’re completely out of luck or helpless when it comes to dental insurance. There are a number of dental insurance plans out there that have NO waiting period.

If you’re looking to purchase dental insurance that offers immediate benefits, keep reading to know your options of dental insurance that have no waiting periods.

What Is A Dental Insurance Waiting Period?

First and foremost, you need to understand what exactly is a dental waiting period. Basically, this is a waiting period in which it’s necessary for you to wait before some of dental insurance benefits kick in.

When you’re searching for dental insurance, you must’ve come across dental plans that have a waiting period. If you’re purchasing a dental insurance policy, it’s vital that you are aware of thich plans require a waiting period and the duration of the waiting period too.

During the waiting period, your dental insurer might not provide you dental coverage for some procedures. Dental waiting periods differ from one insurer to another, their policy and the type of insurance you’ve decided to go ahead with.

Dental insurance companies usually have a waiting period just to be sure that consumers simply aren’t signing up for insurance because they’ve an expensive dental procedure coming up, and then cancel the policy once it’s completed.

Types of Dental Coverage

There are several types of dental coverage plans. When you’re shopping for dental insurance, you’ll need to first decide what type of plan you are looking for. The difference between these plans is generally associated with which dental services are available in your network.

Let’s see some of the types of dental plans that you’ll likely come across.

Dental Health Maintenance Organization (DHMO)

DHMO plans work well for those who are looking for no waiting period dental insurance. You’ll have no waiting period for braces, root canal, or any other major dental procedure that has to be done.

Once you opt for a DHMO plan, you’ll be provided with a list of dental care service providers who will accept your insurance. However, you’ll have to visit a dentist who’s within your insurance plan’s network – you can’t utilize your insurance outside your network.

DHMOs are generally the more affordable type of dental insurance that you’ll find.

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)

In contrast to a DHMO plan, PPO plans allow you the flexibility of seeing any dentist – within or outside of your network. You may even be able to save costs if you see a dentist in your network, but you’re not bound to that as you can approach any dentist for no matter how minor or major your dental procedure is.

However, PPO plans generally are more expensive as compared to DHMO plans, but it might be worthwhile if you already have a dentist you trust and are comfortable with and they aren’t in your network.

How to Get Dental Insurance With No Waiting Period?

Several dental insurance plans have begun opening up the probability for customers to be able to enroll themselves in an insurance plan online. Dental insurance plans ten to classify their treatments and services into three distinct tiers.

These tiers are typically based on how often you require these services, as well as their pricing. The three tiers are:

  • Preventive: Preventive dental care comprises dental services you receive on a regular basis to maintain your oral health. Preventive services include cleaning and X-rays as well. There are several insurance plans that provide preventive dental care with no waiting periods.
  • Basic: Basic dental care comprises treatments done during routine oral health issues. Simple tooth extractions and cavity fillings are a part of basic dental care. However, even though some dental insurance plans provide these basic services without any waiting period, the majority of these insurance companies do indeed have a short waiting period before you’re eligible for these services.
  • Major: Major dental care services are some of the most expensive and intenset procedures and treatments that are used to correct major oral health issues. The need for bridges and denture creation are considered to be major dental care services.
    Unfortunately, even the most popular dental insurance companies have a waiting period when it comes to major dental care services – it could be a year of wait before you’re eligible for these services.

Compared to health insurance companies, dental insurers aren’t obligated to guarantee any form of “essential benefits” on their insurance plans. In simple words, this means that particular services covered in each plan can differ from the other.

Which is why, you should carefully compare dental insurance plans for the services provided and their waiting period before going ahead with a plan.

Dental Insurance Companies With No Waiting Period

We’ll be sharing some dental insurance companies that have no waiting period attached in their plan – let’s dig in!

Delta Dental

Delta Dental is definitely one of the few largest dental health care providers in the United States. It serves more than 80 million people and has a network of more than 500,000 providers. It solely focuses on dental insurance. Hence, why Delta Dental easily offers better prices than their competitors.

Delta dental offers a few types of insurance plans, and not all of them have a waiting period. Delta Dental has only one insurance plan that has no waiting period, at a monthly premium of $12.50.

This DHMO plan, called the DeltaCare USA, works alongside a copay structure rather than coinsurance rates that are associated with the PPO plans. Copays go by dental procedures and are generally reasonably priced.

There are no deductibles/annual maximums in their DHMO plan. However, the Delta Dental plan doesn’t offer coverage for dental services such as implants and etc. Just not that when you’re signing up for a Delta Dental plan, you’ll need to pay the whole year’s premiums one shot with an yearly payment of $150, and a $10 enrollment fee.

Be mindful that when you’re enrolling yourself into a new dental plan, the coverage for particular treatments may require a waiting period. Read up on you the specifications of your dental plan.

UnitedHealthcare

Even if you have good oral hygiene and go for routinely preventive dental care, you might still require basic services such as fillings or root canals at some given point of time. If you’re looking to purchase an insurance plan in which you don’t have to wait 6-2 months just for the policy to take place, UnitedHealthcare insurance is a good option.

UnitedHealthcare is known to be one of the biggest health insurance providers in America. Here, you’re offered a broad range of dental insurance solutions. And the best part is, it comprises preventive services with absolutely no waiting periods.

UnitedHealthcare has categorized its dental insurance policies in two levels – Primary and Premier. The Primary level plans cost around $17 – $42 for its premiums, $50 annual deductible and a $1,000 for its annual maximum.

However, do note that some of the Primary level plans cover major dental care services with a six month waiting period, whereas the other don’t.

As for the Premier level plans, they cost around $34 to $40 for its monthly premiums, $50 annual deductible but a much higher annual maximum of $1,500 to $2,000. But, the benefit is that the Premier policies cover major dental care services with no waiting time or a six month waiting period.

Many of their higher-tier insurance plans have no requirements of waiting periods for even the most basic dental procedures. Hence, no matter where you’re living or what your financial standing, UnitedHealthcare plans will most likely fit both your budget and needs..

Humana

Humana health insurance providers not only offer no waiting periods in most of their dental plans, but in fact the benefits and options available in their plans are known to be significantly amazing in the industry.

Individuals who want their dental coverage to begin as soon as possible, can opt from one DHMO plan, two PPO plans and a dental discount plan that offers low premiums.

It’s not easy to find DHMO plans with no waiting period. Humana’s Dental Value Plan has  a monthly premium of $14.99 and offers routine services such as cleaning and two dental exams per year – with no waiting time.

The Dental Loyalty Plus and Preventive Value Individual Humana’s plans provide PPO covered with their premiums to be $32.99 and $17.99 each month. The Dental Loyalty Plus plan consists of all three tiers of dental cae services – preventive, basic and major.

Whereas, the preventive Value Individual plan covers preventive and basic services only. Both of these insurance plans pay 100 percent of the preventive dental care services, with limitations to it.

Lastly, the Dental Saving Plus is one of the most affordable dental discount plans with a monthly premium of just $6.99. It’s vital to understand that isn’t a traditional insurance plan – no routine cleaning and checkups are included. Instead, you’ll be offered a 20 – 30 percent discount when you visit any of the dental care clinics participating in this plan.

Denali Dental

From Preventive to Major dental care, everyone has their preference to which is more important to them. If you are looking to have a no waiting period preventive care for your oral health care, Denali Dental may just be what you’re looking for.

Denali Dental has three insurance plans – the Ridge, Peak, and Summit plan. All of these plans are priced according to your location and can either be expensive or affordable, depending on your geographic area. Their monthly premiums are around $43, $50 and $67 respectively.

Their monthly premiums are evidently high, however, Denali Dental’s loyalty incentives may make paying this much premiums worthwhile – especially if you’d rather stay with a specific dental insurer for the many upcoming years.

Moreover, as compared to dental insurers who reset their insurance plans deductibles each year, Denali Dental’s plans have a lifetime deductible amount of $100 to $250 – and it doesn’t reset.

Just for your understanding, Denali Dental’s Peak plan coverage for its preventive services lie cleanings and exams, simply cover 80 percent and you’ll have to pay the remaining 20 percent from your own pocket.

However, rest assured as both the Ridge and Summit plans cover 100 percent of all preventive dental care services, which means your quarterly yearly cleaning will be completely cost-free!

Conclusion

Dental health care is a necessity in anyone’s life, even those with the perfect set of teeth and amazing oral health. When you’re looking to purchase a dental insurance plan with no waiting periods, you need to examine the costs of various dental insurance plans.

Moreover, you need to understand what is your priority when it comes to your dental care. We know it can feel overwhelming with the amount of information out there, so ask for quotes from dental insurance providers.

Hence, know and understand all your options before making a decision, good luck!

Charles Bains

Charles Bains started his insurance career as a marketing intern before pounding the pavement as a commercial lines agent in Orlando, FL. As an industry journalist, his articles have appeared in a variety of trade publications. His insurance television career, short-lived but glorious, once saw him serve as the expert adviser on an insurance-themed infomercial (yes, you read that correctly). Having recently worked for various organizations, coupled with his broader insurance knowledge, Charles is able to understand our client’s needs and guide them accordingly. He is a gem for Insurance Noon as his wide area of expertise and experience have been beneficial in conducting further researches to come up with solutions and writing them in a manner which is easy for everyone including beginners to comprehend.

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