Keeping dental insurance Good or Not?

[Cermet]

I've been debating whether or not I'm going to drop my dental insurance or not to save a few bucks -- I've read conflicting reports on whether keeping dental insurance is good or not -- seem the thinking is that you should take the 20+ bucks you would spend on the dental insurance and put it away for your cleanings and such, but that would only work well if you have perfect teeth-- What happens when you a root canal or other expensive treatment.

Has anyone used any of the dental discount cards and services, are they any good?

[RioKwik]

If you can afford to keep it, do so. The one year I dropped it from my insurance because I didn't use it for anything other than a cleaning up until that point, was the year I could have really used it.

That year I needed to have four impacted wisdom teeth removed and then had to wait for other stuff until I got my dental coverage back. It cost so much out of pocket that I was on a payment plan for a good two years. If i had kept my insurance for another three months I would have had to pay about $200, which was nothing compared to what I did pay.

Plus, you never know when something is going to happen, even an accident so it is better to be covered than sorry.

[nishant20]

according to me, dental insurance is just a waste of money
in one's life, there are hardly any occasions when one goes to a dentist to get his/her tooth fixed
in extreme cases, like in accidents, people prefer to get a new set of tooth which now a days does not cost much
so in my opinion, spending a considerable amount of money every year on our dental part is just a waste of money

[shellerz]

We’re very lucky here in England to have free health care from the National health service which covers the vast majority of costs incurred from dental treatments. A check up for me from my local dentist is only around £16 – about $40 I think that works out.

However if you can afford to pay for private health care I would certainly recommend it, as you are going to need those teeth for the rest of your adult life!

[William]

I believe that due to the nature of everyday life in almost any place now a days it is best to possess full insurance/coverage in all areas. You just never know when you might fall or get in an accident and break a tooth or more, you know ?

[rmholla]

I would say it really depends on your age and how healthy you are, as well as what your local economy is like.

If you are healthy and not in your younger years where you are more likely to have dental emergency then consider dropping it and setting aside that money each month as a reserve. Should something happen ask the dentist for a cash discount price (which almost always works, and will work better if your local economy is slumping).

[janwei]

Well, due to Coca Cola only consumption as a beverage i happened to end up with ruined set of teeth and most of my teeth had to be removed and replace by crowns. One of this crowns cost me about 400-500 Euros wheras my insurance paid about the half and an additional insurance another 25%. I still ended up with a bill of more than 2000 euros. Without the insurance i wouldn't have any teeth anymore or a big loan to repay.