Dental Insurance for Kids

Dental Insurance for kids can be a life-saver. If you have been shopping around for child only health insurance, you’ve probably noticed that it’s a little easier to find thanks to ObamaCare and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program).

Many managed health care plans for kids and every day health insurance policies don’t cover dental insurance for kids. Starting in the early 90’s, they started to reduce the coverage which was usually covered by various other insurance companies.

In some cases, standard health insurance for kids will pay for reconstructive or oral surgery or dental work that’s the result of an accident or illness. But insurance companies can be pretty strict about even this kind of child only health insurance coverage.  In this when you’re shopping for kids health insurance be prepared to have several doctors state in writing that the dental work is medically necessary.

Generally, child only health insurance policies consider dental care a “budgetable expense” – something that ordinary families should be able to pay for out-of-pocket.

As a result, dental insurance for kids is fairly common as a stand-alone form of coverage. In many cases, this child only health insurance is marketed by dental associations in your area and in many ways operates like a managed care health plan. In exchange for your monthly premium, you’re covered for dental care from any dentist within your network.

Dental insurance for kids usually includes payment for regulary, ongoing care, such as regular cleaning, checkups and x-rays. Many times it also pays for the things most kids hate about dental work: fillings, tooth removals, inlays and root canals. Typically, dental insurance will not pay at all for cosmetic work on your kids’ teeth.

It’s also worth noting that dental insurance for kids are not as universally-accepted as health insurance for children is. If you already have a dentist that your children are comfortable with, there’s a good chance that they won’t be on a given dental insurance plan. If this is the case, you’ll have to find a dentist on the plan that you like – or skip the plan and pay cash for your child’s dentist.

Because this is a common dilemma, most dentists are open to offering credit terms to patients that medical doctors are not. This means that many times your child’s dentist will allow to make payments for treatment. It’s worth noting, terms can vary depending on which dentist you go with. It’s important to ask when you bring go to your child’s first consolation.