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How to Get Dental Insurance

Before diving into how to get dental insurance, it’s important to understand which kind of dental insurance will work best for your unique situation. Determining how much coverage you need, deciding on the right type of plan and choosing an insurer that listens to your needs are top priorities.

At Aflac, we offer primary dental insurance with a host of helpful benefits like no waiting period for routine care, the freedom to work with any of our participating dentists and affordable monthly rates. We also offer supplemental dental insurance to help cover treatments and procedures not covered by your primary dental insurance policy.

How Does Dental Insurance Work?

Every dental insurance plan is different, but each one is designed to help prevent and care for your teeth and gum issues. Usually, you pay a monthly premium to keep the dental insurance policy active.

In some cases, you may need to pay a deductible – or minimum amount of money toward your dental work before benefits kick in. With our dental insurance, your deductible can decrease every year you own the plan.

In other cases, there may be a cap on the amount of coverage you can receive for dental services.1 You may also face waiting periods for specific treatments before receiving benefits.

What Does Dental Insurance Cover?

When you shop for dental insurance, you may want to consider which treatments and procedures you think you’ll need in the future. For example, if you know you will need to get dentures, you can explore the coverage and waiting periods within specific dental insurance plans and see which option best fits your needs.

At Aflac, we provide a variety of dental services. Depending on the plan you choose, you can expect some coverage for:

  • Preventative Care: Exams and cleanings
  • Basic Services: Simple dental care
  • Major Services: Major dental care
  • Optional Hearing and Vision Coverage: With our dental insurance, you can add hearing and vision coverage to your plan, helping make it easier for your overall health.
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How Do I Get Dental Insurance?

Now, we’ll break down what’s required in every step to determine how to get dental insurance:

Figure Out Your Dental Coverage Needs

First, we recommend considering which dental treatments and procedures you may need in the future. Next, you’ll want to consider if you need to provide coverage for dependents. If you need dental coverage for your children and spouse, it may be a good idea to get dental insurance that includes family coverage.

You may be able to get dental coverage for your spouse or dependents through Aflac's dental insurance plan. Chatting with an agent can help you clarify how much coverage you may need.

Decide on a Type of Dental Insurance

With some dental insurance plans, only certain dentists are considered "in-network," and you'll want to ensure you select a dentist within that network to help bring the costs of treatments down.2 There are a few kinds of dental insurance you’ll want to understand before choosing a policy.

PPO stands for preferred provider organization and facilitates a relationship between dental providers and insurance companies. If you choose an in-network provider, you can receive dental services at a reduced cost. You can still get some coverage with out-of-network dentists, but you may not get the same benefits. Our dental plan is considered a passive PPO, so you can see providers in and out-of-network without the same penalties typically found in active PPOs.

HMO stands for health maintenance organization and is like a PPO dental plan, but the policyholder can only get services from in-network providers and must be referred by a primary care physician. Due to less accessibility to outside dentists, these insurance plans are usually less expensive.3 You can’t see an out-of-network provider, even if you are willing to pay out-of-network fees.3

Choose a Dental Insurer

If you decide to shop for dental insurance, there are many companies and plans to consider. We recommend exploring all your options before making a choice.

Why Aflac Dental Insurance Is Worth It

Now that you know how to buy dental insurance, you can decide if it’s the right fit. We believe dental insurance is worth it because taking care of your oral health early on may prevent serious dental treatments and procedures later.

At Aflac, we offer full coverage dental insurance to help you get the services you need. You can also add on our supplemental dental insurance plan if your primary dental plan doesn’t quite meet your coverage goals.

Still have questions?

Explore your dental insurance options.

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