About Dental Insurance

Dental insurance has become part of people's budgeting and planning when it comes to paying for dental procedures. An insurance company typically contracts with a company to provide one or several levels of coverage for various procedures for its employees and their dependants. The level of reimbursement varies from plan to plan and from insurer to insurer. Most of the time, the insurance company will reimburse patients a certain percentage of its pre-determined fee for any procedure. Patients are sometimes surprised at the low fees in the insurance company's schedule.

Dental offices can be divided into two categories:

Insurance participating
A "participating" dental practice or a "preferred provider" has elected to sign up for an insurance company's plan in exchange for patients. They must have a fee schedule for most procedures in coordination with the insurance company. They are paid directly by the insurance company.

Fee-for-service
A "non-participating" practice or provider does not have an alliance with an insurance company. This type of practice does not accept payments from the insurance company directly. Rather, patients cover their own expenses for treatment and then are reimbursed directly by the insurance carrier.

In general, a fee-for-service practice has a philosophy of consistently treating patients with the most predictable treatment. Treatment is not recommended simply based on insurance coverage. The best long-term solution for any given condition is always the first choice of treatment

We choose to be a fee-for-service practice because we feel it is the only way we can provide quality and value to our patients on a consistent basis. We believe the insurance company should not be given the right to impose itself on decisions made between doctors and patients. We do, however, work with our patients to maximize their insurance benefits and facilitate communication with the insurance company.