Should You Buy Dental Insurance?
Last updated November 2025
If you aren’t covered, you can buy dental insurance. But first carefully evaluate available options.
Find out whether you already have coverage.
If you have kids, they could already have dental coverage. Most individual and small-group health insurance plans provide basic dental coverage for children under age 19.
Aside from “dental accident” coverage, health insurance plans usually don’t provide dental benefits to adults—but some do, so check. Some Medicare Advantage plans, for example, include basic dental coverage, and many “consumer-driven” and “high-deductible” health plans let you set aside money to spend on dental expenses.
If you can get coverage for a reduced premium, it’s probably worth getting.
If your employer or your spouse’s employer offers you the option of buying dental coverage and pays a portion of the premiums, it’s probably worth it. You will have discounted premiums and the effect of paying them with pre-tax earnings provides a second discount roughly equal to your tax bracket. Unless the dental plan available to you is exorbitantly expensive, the reduced premiums should be easily offset by the savings.
If you are thinking about buying dental insurance through the state’s healthcare exchange, note that the premiums for the plans it offers are not subsidized.
If you have to pay for coverage on your own, determine whether it’s worth the price.
Unlike insurance policies you buy for your home, car, health, and life to guard against large and unpredictable expenses, you probably have some idea of what your dental expenses will be in the coming year. So, plan ahead when deciding whether to buy dental insurance.
Most standalone dental plans are a form of prepaid insurance that effectively spreads out your costs over the year. To avoid oversight by state insurance regulators, many of these plans don’t even describe themselves as insurance, but rather as discount programs or clubs. Examples include Aetna Dental Access, Avia Dental Plan, Careington, and Wellpoint.
For an annual premium these plans cover most or all of the costs of routine examinations and cleanings, and offer lower-than-average prices for more expensive treatments—as long as you use participating dentists. If you don’t, these types of plans will reimburse you, but for lower amounts than they do for in-network dentists.
In general, we find that even low-use families will save money (typically hundreds of dollars a year) with these plans, and high-use families will save a lot, especially if they use participating providers. Before signing up, check on waiting periods, especially if you know you’ll soon need expensive restorative work; with some, you’ll have to pay for continuous coverage for 12 months before full benefits kick in.
Keep in mind that provider networks for standalone dental plans are typically poor.
The biggest problem most consumers have with many dental plans—and this is especially true of the prepaid/discount dental plans—is that few dentists participate as preferred providers. Some plans count fewer than 10 percent of dentists as preferred providers, and few top-rated dentists work with dental insurance plans. If you have dental insurance, you can usually use any dentist and submit expenses to get reimbursed. But what you get back will almost always be less than what you paid the dentist.
Before signing up for coverage, check whether your current dentist participates or compare the plan’s list of providers against top-rated dentists. If a dentist you like doesn’t participate, don’t join.
Don’t forget about your FSA.
You can use a flexible spending account for dental care. By setting aside pretax earnings, you effectively get a 20-40 percent discount on out-of-pocket medical costs.
