Dental insurance... Halp?

I don't really understand fully what I'd be getting into by buying dental insurance. Also, there's this thing called a "dental savings plan" which constantly reminds you that it is NOT insurance, but it frankly seems better... Of course it seems better to me because I don't know what the heck I'm looking at, so it might be better or it might be worse. Ugh.

I know I will need 3 fillings, but possibly one of those will need to be pulled instead. I want the white fillings since they're for my front teeth, which is slightly more expensive than the silver. The cheapest out-of-pocket cost I found was $112 per filling, so a total cost for me of $336 just for fillings and no added services/fees. No way can I afford that (not until tax time in January), but I desperately need relief now, so I began trying to find insurance options.

The problem I'm seeing with almost every insurance plan, bar the super expensive ones, is a waiting period of 4-6 months and sometimes 12 for fillings to be covered. I've waited too long as it is, I cannot wait much more. I need to get this taken care of within the next month. The good thing about insurance is that many plans cover the cost of fillings by 80-100%, so little to no co-pay. The downside to cost is a deductible - most plans are $50. The cheapest insurance plans are around $120 a year.

Then there's the "savings plan". There's no waiting period before benefits start, no maximum savings, and I don't see anywhere where it says there's some sort of deductible before the discount can apply. The way they make it sound is you join, you flash the savings card at a participating dentist office, and boom - instant savings. Is it really so simple, though? It's slightly cheaper than insurance, $119 for the first year and $99 for every year after. With the savings card the fillings I need are estimated to cost $92 total, so after the cost to join the program it will be about $110 that I need at once ($28.25 for the first month) and then $8.25 a month after. This particular program I'm eyeing also has vision and prescription built in - vision being extremely useful for me as a glasses wearer. I do need new glasses too, but those can wait until next year.

It seems like for me the savings plan will be better just because of the wait time problem and built-in vision savings too, but I feel like I'm missing something, like it's one of those "sounds really good, but isn't" situations.

I'm sorry I don't know anything about this. But I noticed no one had replied to your post. So I thought I would. My wife & I used to have dental insurance through her work. When she retired we talked with our dentist about it & he mentioned the things you mentioned in your post. There are waiting periods, the plans are expensive, & there are things they don't cover. He said most of his patients who don't have employer-sponsored dental plans simply private pay. And that's what we decided to do. Perhaps if you have a particular dentist you're going to be seeing, you could talk with the staff in that office about this? Good luck with it...

I have private dental insurance through Delta dental. It costs $30/month, had a waiting period only for big things (which of course I needed immediately), and while it says it pays 80/20 it's impossible to find a dentist in that tier so it really is usually 60/40. I think cleaning and xrays are covered at 100%.

I went with that for a long time because I loved my dentist. He retired so I'm going to look for an 80/20 one now.

I have bad teeth so it is worth it to have this. I also use Care credit which gives you 6 months at 0% to pay off balances if I have a big one like a crown or root canal. (those are covered at 50/50 no matter the dentist).

It's tough to decide. I'm glad I found this and that I have it but really hope I can get at 80/20 dentist (although it really isn't that much difference usually). Good luck.