[2BNTV]

Originally Posted by Trish Crocker

Just a thought...I wouldn't let my insurance company dictate my dentist. First of all, dental insurance is not insurance..it is a benefit. The company gives you something like $1000 or $1500 per year and tells you how to spend it. Many dental insurance companies will allow you to go outside of their list of providers...the only difference is you may have to pay a little more if the dentist you choose does not agree to work for the amount the company chooses to pay. These companies are forcing you to look for a dentist that works cheap. There is a difference in quality and skills between dentists, including the equipment, products and laboratories they use. The average person (trust me, I was one of them!) believes that all dentistry is the same, a filling is a filling, a root canal a root canal, a crown is a crown...this is so not true. A good, skillful, qualified dentist will save you a lot of money in the long run. Your insurance company will probably not pay if you have a crown or filling and then, a year later, find that it needs to be redone because it was not done correctly in the first place. Look for someone you can trust, talk to other people...check with that doctor and see if his office will bill your insurance company for you and if it costs you a little more pay it. Think of all the money you spend on golf balls or going out to dinner....this is your health! Remember the old saying about being penny wise and pound foolish???

Trish:

I really want to thank you for posting this as I have a choice between two Medicare Advantage plans in CT. One doesn't include dental but I have dental thru my employer. It cost more, and covers more and I can still go to my dentists the same as before.

The other will cover dental and vision with the premium coming to almost the same amount, if I dropped my employers dental. My dentist is not in their plan and would be covered out of network and the plan itself has less coverage. They say I can still go to him but I would pay more.

BTW - My company dental has two options and I took the lesser option once several years ago and encountered a dentists who didn't perform his duties very well. When I switched to the better plan, I found my present dentists.

Thanks for confirming my thoughts as I think you are right in saying about being penny wise and pound foolish. $20 more a month is not worth the hassle. Beside my dentists is almost painless and I like it that way.

What you are saying is very true!!!!!!