Dental Care Insurance: What to take into account

When we think about our health and the general health of our family, we tend to think of hospitals, medicines and visits to the doctor. But what about our teeth? Nothing is more annoying than a sudden toothache. Or that one of our children can't eat peacefully because their teeth are giving them trouble. That is why it is advisable to take out dental insurance to help us and make us feel safe. But be careful, don't rush. Before taking out dental care insurance in Spain, it’s important to consider many factors, not just the price.

Qualifying Periods for Dental Care Insurance

Dental insurance, like most other types of insurance, includes qualifying periods - lengths of time which must elapse before some (although not all) treatments can be accessed. The length of the qualifying period may vary according to treatment. In any case, it’s a good idea to be aware which treatments have qualifying periods and how long these are. Qualifying periods are usually imposed on interventions or treatments which are very specific and/or expensive, rather than on common conditions such as cavities.

Copayments for Dental Care

Dental care insurance may vary in price depending on what’s covered, but many policies include co-payments. There will be services and treatments which are included in the insurance premium, but for the most specific or costly treatments you’ll almost certainly have to pay a surcharge, although this will always be much lower than the actual cost.

Medical team and fees

The dental insurance coverage you take out will usually offer you treatment from very similar medical teams, or even the same team, but it’s still a good idea to check this and find out which clinics you can go to and which professionals will treat you. In some cases, policies will also offer the option of being treated by dentists who are not part of the designated medical team. In addition, this information will provide you with knowledge about the fees, copayments and other issues that will help you make your decision.

Coverage with Dental Care Insurance

The coverage and cost of dental insurance depend on the insurer, so it’s essential to read the policy terms and conditions.

• Free: All policies give you a series of free services, such as consultations, routine check-ups, clinical treatments, assessments and budgetary quotes, dental emergencies, oral cleaning and x-rays. Caser Expat Insurance offers you 40 free services which, among others, include cleaning, treatment of children’s cavities and fluoride treatment. With Essential Smile Dental Insurance and a dental plan for children, you'll get free access to the main paediatric dentistry treatments for children under 15 years of age
  
  
• Paid for: These prices (copayment) are set in the policy, so before you sign the agreement you will know what you’ll have to pay if you need dental treatment. Orthodontics, periodontics, prostheses and implants are usually found within this category of service.
  
  
• Other: Consultations with maxillofacial surgeons are only included free of charge in a few policies, although there are usually significant discounts.

Discounts on your Dental Care Insurance

As we said before, with the insurance premium or fee you get a series of free services and others that require a copayment.  Discounts are usually applied to services with copayments and, before taking out a policy, it’s important to know how to claim these discounts. Usually, you have to get a budgetary estimate from the dentist before treatment and then deliver a receipt to the insurer afterwards to formalise the rebate. There are times when you’ll need prior authorisation from your insurance company for a treatment.

If you want to have access to even more benefits, Perfect Smile includes the reimbursement of pharmacy costs (up to €40 per year per insured person). And in any of the plans you will have an up to 50% discount available on different treatments. To see in detail what the advantages of the full coverage plan are, you can click on this link.

Children FREE

If you have dependent children, find out if your insurance covers them. There are many policies that include treatment for at least one dependent child. The age limit for which this is valid varies between policies. In addition, dental policies usually include more free services for insured children, such as paediatric dentistry.

In the case of Caser dental insurance, the Kids dental service is included in both plans: Essential and Perfect Smile. In addition, if you take the latter, you will have 24-hour medical and paediatric care and emergency service included.

Price

Of course, the price is always an incentive when choosing dental care insurance, although when it comes to health issues the price won’t be the main factor in making the decision. As a rule, depending on the cover and services, you can expect health insurance to range from € 80 to € 250€ a year, including your family; however, this must be taken as a guide price, since the final price will be given by the professional looking after you, who knows what you should do and how much it will cost. Finally, we must also think of this final price in terms of savings, because the real price - that is, without insurance - is much higher.

As we always mention, it is important to assess the coverage of the different insurances by comparing them against our needs. In this case, Caser offers you two different dental insurances: Essential Smile or Perfect Smile. Each of them with different prices and coverage. Therefore, before taking out either of them (or any policy), you can use the price calculator, a tool that Caser provides you with to help you find out which plan is right for you. You can use the price calculator at this link.

As you can see, the world of dental insurance offers you different services for different moments in your life. Whether you have a family or not, or whether you choose to have more or less coverage, dental insurance always offers you the security of having good professionals at your service and the latest technology for the treatments you need to receive.