​Dental Discount Plans 

The low monthly price of dental discount plans can be very appealing. They are substantially less expensive than traditional dental insurance and offer unique features that provide better access for major discount dental services immediately. On this page you will find unbiased information about dental discount plans including their positive features along with their negative ones.

Dental discount plans usually negotiate prices that are between 10-40% less than retail dental costs depending on the procedures. ​​​​​

Dental Discount Plans are not insurance. This means that these types of plans do not pay cash benefits toward your dental bills. A dental discount plan only allows a member to go to a dentist and receive a discount on their services and they are responsible for their entire bill at the point of service. 

Most Dental Insurance Plans first use a PPO network for the negotiated prices like a dental discount plan. But, the different is that after the savings are applied the insurance company steps in and pays cash benefits directly to your dentist for a portion of the remainder of the dental bill. Depending on the dental insurance company and the dentist, the member will then pay the balance at the point of service or later on when they receive the bill in the mail. 

Even though dental discount plans are not insurance and do not have cash benefits for paying dental bills, they can still be a good fit for certain situations. Some key features that make dental discount plans useful are:

1. They don't have any waiting periods on any of the dental discount services so you can use it right away to immediately save on major dental procedures.
   
   
2. With no cash benefits comes no limit to the usage. This means that you'll receive discounts continuously, even if your dental bills amounted to many thousands of dollars. 
   
   
3. The monthly payment is much lower than dental insurance and some plans even can give an entire family access for the same individual price. 

When you look at the cost of dental treatment, care, and procedures in the long term you'll realize that it adds up to many thousands of dollars over your lifetime. Dental insurance is designed to cover a substantial amount of those costs as long as you continue to carry the same dental insurance plan for many years, knowing that it is full coverage from the beginning. 

Full Coverage Dental Insurance provides coverage for Preventative, Basic, Intermediate, and Major Dental Services. However, since dental care is so expensive these plans typically have six or twelve month waiting periods for major dental procedures such as crowns, root canals, etc. 

But after you make it through those waiting periods, the dental insurance company is going to continue to pay each year for most of your dental bills, even when it adds up to thousands. Compounding these network savings and cash payments over many years will result in an overall much lower cost on your dental care versus dental discount plans.

There are some full coverage dental insurance plans that have no waiting period. These plans have higher premiums, but give members immediate access to network negotiated pricing and cash benefits for major dental procedures. 

Determining if a dental discount plan is the right fit for you, it is best to talk to one of our representatives at Dental Helps. Since we are independent, we work directly with various discount dental companies to offer a selection of different types of dental plans, including Dental Discount Plans and Dental Insurance. Feel free to give us a call if you have any questions or need some help finding the right plan for you at (800) 311-7092. You can also receive information about dental discount plans by providing your information below: