Dental Insurance – Austin, TX

Understanding How Dental Insurance Works

Unlike medical insurance, dental insurance is meant to be used on a regular basis. For example, your teeth cleanings and dental exams are supposed to happen once every six months, which is why your plan includes coverage for these preventive services. This is much different than medical insurance, which is usually only used when you’re experiencing a serious injury or illness. By keeping up with your routine dental care at our office, you can actually save money in the long-term.

What Your Dental Insurance Plan Covers

Dental insurance plans can vary from one another, we recommend that you read your plan’s details beforehand and if you have any questions we are happy to help. With that said, most dental plans are broken down in the following way:

• Preventive Care – Includes cleanings, exams, X-rays, and sometimes fluoride therapy. Usually covers 100 percent of treatment costs.
• Minor Restorative Care – Covers basic restorative treatments like dental fillings and root canal therapy. Covers between 70 and 80 percent in most cases.
• Major Restorative Care – Covers more complex restorative treatments, including crowns, bridges, and dentures. Typically covers up to 50 percent.

We Welcome Self-Pay and Insured Patients

As a courtesy to our patients, we accept all PPO-based plans, electronically submit claims to your insurance on your behalf and we will follow the out-of-network plan benefits. We know insurance can be confusing and difficult to deal with at times, but we are here to help. Plans can vary in their coverage amounts, maximums, limitations, etc. We will do our best to contact your insurance carrier with the information you provide to us to ensure your eligibility at your appointment so there are no surprises. Please be prepared to upload your dental card when you receive your check-in link before your visit. If you are unable to upload it, please bring your dental card/ insurance information to your appointment and present it to the front desk when you check-in.

If shopping for an insurance plan, a few things to look out for:

• PPO/out-of-network benefits: This means that you can CHOOSE your provider. HMO/DHMO/DMO plans only allow you to go to certain offices that accept these plans. These tend to be the larger "dental chains".
• No Waiting Periods: Some insurance companies have waiting periods for treatment. This means that in the event you need a filling, they may say that the insurance policy must be in place for 6 months or a year before they will provide coverage. The same applies to crowns or what they consider "major" treatment. Basically, stay away from plans that have a waiting period if you can.
• No Missing Tooth Clauses: If you are getting insurance because you lost a tooth at some point in your life and you want to replace it? Make sure that the plan you choose does not have a "missing tooth clause". What this means is that if the tooth was missing or extracted prior to coverage with this plan, they will not cover any of the expense to replace it.
• Maximums and Deductibles: Ask what the yearly maximum and deductible will be with the plan you are considering, this way you will know how much per year the plan will allow.

What we feel strongly you deserve as a patient at our office:

• High-quality driven dentist
• Experienced staff
• One on one attention
• Reputable dental labs
• Proven dental materials
• Up-to-date technology
• Conservative and honest treatment plans
• Relaxed comfortable environment

Unfortunately, in-network dental benefit reimbursements do not support this quality of care, and we refuse to cut corners on our patients.