When shopping for dental insurance online, it can become overwhelming quickly if you are not sure what you want in an insurance plan.  Here are some quick tips that may help your search for a dental insurance plan for you and or your family. 

1) What you type in your search: When searching online try to be more specific in your search. Do not just type “dental insurance” or you will may get too large of a selection that may not even apply to you in your state.  Do put something like California Dental Insurance for individual and or family or California HMO or PPO dental insurance plans. By doing this you will hopefully only pull plans that you want and not plan in TX if you live in CA.  

2) Type of Dental Insurance:  Have an idea what type of dental insurance you are searching for such as HMO, PPO Indemnity and or even Discount Plans.  By searching for a plan type this will also help to to avoid pulling up say a dental discount plan when wanting dental insurance.   

3) Name of the Dental Plan: Sometime it is not good enough just to know the insurance company name in your search if you are looking for the insurance plan your dentist takes. Example, many dentist take Delta Dental, but just knowing that is not enough information to start your search since there are many different Delta Dental Plans (such as their PPO Plans Gold Diamond, and Platinum to name a few. Delta Dental also has HMO plans depending on the state you live in.)  Ask your dentist which Delta Dental plan they take so that you do not buy the wrong one. Many dental insurance companies offer multiple plan options with different plan names.   

4) Know what dental insurance plans your dental office accepts: Often times people already have a dentist they are seeing before having dental insurance, and it is important to that to stay with that dentist.  Keeping your own dentist is important since it can take time to build up trust and having to change providers is not something many people want to do when they are seeing a dentist they like. Therefore if that is the case with you save yourself so time. Before starting your dental insurance search online ask your dental office what plans they are a provider of so you are only looking for them and not wasting your time on plans they do not accept  

5) When in doubt ask: There is nothing wrong with asking questions before buying a dental insurance plan. If you are not sure about the dental plan you are reviewing, or if you do not understand the terms and conditions of the plan, call member services for help. Most dental insurance web sites have a member service line you can call before buying their plan. It is better you call and find out, then to buy a dental plan that does not work for your dental care needs.