Dental Insurance

[athena_ny 1]

My medical covers oral surgery, but the removal of wisdom teeth (even impacted) is not considered to be oral surgery by my medical (United, called them). So the Dental has to cover for it and they explicitly do not cover anesthesia with nitrous gas - even if it is needed and/or recommended. So no good luck here... That's why I'll wait until September and take matters in my own hands.

@ milimelo: Do what you can in your country, I have the impression all dental insurances have a 1000-1500 Dollar per year maximum, so you should always save money in case you need something done!

Man, I knew there was a reason I didn't want to go with United. Good luck!

[Nikita2Charles 32]

What do I MEANT BY FREE SERVICE

Let say you have to pay $3000 from your pocket for some medical work that's not covered by your insurance company.

This is money you would have to pay ANYWAY. by using your FSA you get to use that money TAX FREE. pretty much you get to a break even point. cost 3000, paid 3000. The benefit now your income for the year is reduced by $3000.

It may not fit everybody's needs but good piece of advice

I can feel you, Most dental plan won't pay for a lot of stuff, specially with the HMO kind, I was with Delta Dental, Delta PMI. But there's a way to go around that. Right now it might be too late but it's something to keep in mind for the future. There's a Benefit at the workplace call

FSA

Flexible spending account: what it does, you set x amount of funds in there for the year. The Danger with that plan is USE IT OR LOSE IT. So if you know there are some major work you are going to do for the year, you can get a quote, then at open enrollment, set up that amount into your FSA account. So early on in the hear, have the Dental/Medical work done, then right away fill out your FSA reimbursement

AND VOILA

You have FREE Service, and FSA funds is not considered part of your income, as it's deducted from your paycheck on a pretax basis.

The best part of it, If you leave the company you don't have to return that fund.

An example

Set $2000 for the year

In March use $1900 plus leave $100 in case of emergency for the rest of the year. So if you lose or quite your Job, in February that's $1900 is yours to keep. FREE SERVICE. I hope that help

How is it FREE SERVICE when you are taking the pretax money away from your paycheck and setting it aside for the service? Admittedly you're getting it at a discount because you save the 30% or so of taxes but it's still not free.

I would double check your MEDICAL insurance like the person above me said. Normally they cover impacted wisdom teeth. I had all four of mine impacted taken out with day surgery at a hospital and it was all covered by my Medical insurance.

[akdiver 3]

What do I MEANT BY FREE SERVICE

Let say you have to pay $3000 from your pocket for some medical work that's not covered by your insurance company.

This is money you would have to pay ANYWAY. by using your FSA you get to use that money TAX FREE. pretty much you get to a break even point. cost 3000, paid 3000. The benefit now your income for the year is reduced by $3000.

It's still not a free service. That money that this person did not pay in taxes is money that the government will have to borrow to pay its expenses. All tax payers share in this added expense. So really, this person has just shifted their tax burden on to all the other tax payers. That's fine, that's legal, that's certainly what I would do given the chance, but let's call it what it is. There is no free lunch involved.

Cheers!

AKDiver

[kins 0]

What happens if your dentist can't remove the tooth and you need a general anaesthetic? Does it then come under medical insurance?

I recently had a wisdom tooth removed in the UK. The dentist attempted to remove it with only local anaesthetic but it wasn't budging. I was booked into the local hospital's day surgery unit and they removed it under general anaesthetic. It was a massively better experience and if I had any other wisdom teeth left I'd have them all removed that way.

[doodlebug 3]

What happens if your dentist can't remove the tooth and you need a general anaesthetic?

Well in the case of the OP's insurance I'd say that's when the doc breaks out the bottle of Vodka and gives it to you.

[Anna C. 4]

In that case it would be covered by my health plan since it would become an oral surgery. But their opinion on wisdom teeth removals was made pretty clearly to me on the phone: that's never gonna happen. E.i. nope whatever it takes, get through it.

So I end up paying for it besides having a health plan and dental.