Free Dental Plan

Would you like free dental insurance?  Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it?

It is a little unbelievable - no one gives anything away for free - unless they want something.  There has to be a hook.  Right?  You're right.  There is.

First though, consider the idea of insuring yourself against visits to the dentist, tooth decay, gum disease, root canals, dental implants, wisdom tooth extraction or even dentures.  We're not referring to a dental plan by Delta Dental or People's Dental.  I'm talking about a dental PLAN.  YOUR dental plan.

Let me digress a bit here and tell you that I found an interesting site while researching news stories on dental fraud.  This didn’t quite relate to my search, but was very interesting nonetheless.  Go ahead and check it out:  http://heavystep.com/dental_insurance.htm, then come back.  The fellow makes a good case for dental insurance and would like to see a ‘universal dental coverage’ in place for Americans, but explains that universal coverage would put independent insurance companies out of business.  Makes sense to me.  The thing is, the insurance companies are pretty powerful and I doubt if they’d stand still for it.  Of course, Big Tobacco had a lot of money too and they were brought down a notch…

Anyway, this fellow goes through a lot of surgery through the years and spends quite a bit of his own and Medicaid’s (our) money to keep his teeth.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t keep his teeth.  He has periodontal disease like millions of other Americans (and Canadians and Brits and Ukrainians and so on) and begins to lose them – starting with the molars.

So the out-of-pocket money, Medicaid and his own insurance (once he was able to afford it) paid for all this dental work and surgery.  Still, he is losing his teeth.

Let’s get back to this dental ‘plan’ I mentioned earlier.  Which one is right for you?

Insurance ‘insures’ that the doctor is going to get paid, in whole or in part, for working on your teeth because you have a quiet disease you didn’t know you had.  They don’t cure this disease of course, they just temporarily fix the symptoms of the disease so that you get to keep them a little longer.  The disease doesn’t go away, but your teeth eventually will.

So compare the companies.  Which one is going to insure that you will keep your teeth healthy for as long as you live?  If you find the company, please e-mail me because I’ll buy all the insurance I can.

According to Dr. Bob Nara (and I agree) having dental insurance tends to put us in a sort of false lull about caring for our own teeth.  Heck, if they go bad, the dentist will fix them and you won’t have to pay for it!  

Well, eventually you will.  Unfortunately people’s focus is on the money.

Dental insurance is kind of expensive – not like a health insurance plan, necessarily – but it’s sort of like the ‘necessary evil’ a lot of us pay for through deductions from our paychecks.   You may say, “Hey!  I’m being responsible – I have children after all!”  Well, that is sort of like putting them in care of a nanny until they reach eighteen.  Isn’t it your job to teach the kids proper care for their teeth?  I know, I know… you do, but they still get cavities…  Well, don’t get on them about it.  It isn’t politically correct, you know – besides, if you are too hard on them, someone – even them - might turn you in to ‘child services.’  We don’t want to go there, right?

Enough ranting.  I’ve tried to make this point:  YOU are your own best dental insurance.  OK, so your dentist didn’t tell you about irrigating, and that food trapped in your teeth becomes banquets for the microbes thriving just below the gum line.  There should be enough material at the OraMedia site or in Dr. Nara’s books or a hundred other places on the internet these days to convince you that proper care of your teeth will not only save them – it could save your life!

That’s real insurance:  Knowledge.  Action.  Results.  Free.

As for the case for insurance, I suppose something can be said for coverage for emergencies and orthodontics.  Accidents happen and people will always want to be more beautiful, in fact, ‘teeth whitening’ is one of the most – if not THE most – popular dental topic searched on the internet.  Not prevention.  ‘Discount dental plans’ ranks right up there too, and is a growing business.

Why should you worry about all of this?  Brush your teeth, floss, irrigate, brush or scrape your tongue (yep – there is no sense doing half the job), do it right and do it diligently and you’ll have the best coverage you can buy.  Save your OWN teeth and insure yourself.  That is the 'hook.'  

-Tom

See Also:  ‘Make Your Dentist a Strangerwww.mizar5.com/stranger.htm and ‘How to Become Dentally Self Sufficient’ by Dr. Robert Nara www.mizar5.com/mm.html .

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