Jesse Smedley is a Principal of Oakbridge Insurance and the founder of iHealthBrokers. He founded iHealthBrokers in 2007, and Oakbridge acquired iHealthBrokers in 2025. He has spent nearly two decades teaching people how to save money on their health insurance and navigate Medicare, and he is the author of Medicare A to Z: Your Roadmap to Medicare.
Costs are a concern when comparing every type of insurance. Dental insurance is no exception.
Premium & Deductible
The first cost to identify is your monthly premium. On healthcare.gov, many health plans offer dental insurance and there are also stand alone dental plans. These are relatively inexpensive. In fact, in general, dental insurance is pretty inexpensive when compared health insurance.
Private dental insurance typically ranges between $35-$65/month. You need to pay this monthly to keep your insurance active. In addition, you’ll need to meet your deductible before your insurance contributes to coinsurance or copays. These are the upfront costs you should be aware of.
Copays and Coinsurance
The next costs you should look at are copays and coinsurance. HMOs will offer copays. Copays are set amounts for a specific service. For example, it might cost $100 for a cavity.
PPOs will have coinsurance which is a percentage of the cost. PPOs usually operate on a 100/80/50 split. 100% of the costs of preventative services will be covered by the insurance carrier. 80% of the costs of basic services will be covered (you’ll pay 20%). And 50% of the costs of major services will be covered. Remember, dentists set their own prices, so costs may vary.
Services and network
The network and services covered by your plan isn’t actually a cost, but it will affect your bottom line.
DHMOs are typically less expensive. Premiums are lower and copays are less expensive BUT they only offer coverage in network. So, if your dentist isn’t in network, cross this off your list!
Then there are services. Read your plan carefully. For example your plan will cover xrays, but maybe it’s only bitewing xrays and not panoramics. Perhaps only metal fillings are covered and not porcelain. Again, these aren’t costs to compare, but they will affect how much you spend for your dental care.
OOP Limit
The final cost to compare is out of pocket limits. With dental insurance, once you hit a certain threshold, you have to pay for the rest of your dental bills.
Many plans max out somewhere around $1000. If you need more extensive work, you’ll likely hit your limit pretty quickly and then be responsible for the remainder of the bills. There are plans with higher limits, for example, NCD. This is another cost to compare.
If you need help with your dental insurance call iHealthBrokers at 866-260-9829 or schedule a call today. Our services are 100% FREE!
