Question: I am self employed, and do not have dental insurance currently. I am wondering if a buying a family dental plan is really worth it or not.  I have two teeth that are starting to bother me and would like to see a dentist.  My wife and son are okay, but I would like for them to go in for a dental check up. The few dental discount plans I have reviewed do not seem like they are really saving you money when a crown still can cost up to $300–$400 that does not seem like a big saving to me.

I have looked at a few dental insurance plans as well, but with the waiting periods and cost of those plans being much higher, they too do not seem like I would be saving anything by buying them.  So what should I be looking for to help me with my dental cost?

Answer: On average the cost of crowns can run $500-$800 without insurance so I would say that the discount plans are saving you between $100-$300 dollars on a crown based on your post.  When you take into account that our dental discount plans run between $7.95-$9.95 a month for an individual that savings seems pretty good. I suggest calling a few dentist for crown rates without insurance so you can compare if the savings are truly there for you.

Depending on what state you are in we may so have dental HMO insurance plans. Our HMO insurance plans do not have waiting periods for their dental services to be covered and will normally have lower cost for their covered services then the dental plans do. So you may want to compare these plans as well.   With regards to our Dental PPO and Indemnity plans, I would agree that they may not be the best way for you to go due to the waiting periods. In this case for crowns waiting period can be up to a year or more.