As I mentioned last week, we just cancelled our cable because we got a digital converter box. A few days before, while I was pondering what we’d do with the money we were spending on cable, I opened a letter from our health insurance provider.
The letter reminded me that I was eligible for dental insurance for about $12/month. This would cover two free cleanings a year and give huge discounts on any work that needed to be done.
Well, I’m not sure that I need dental insurance. Being married has increased my already good dental hygiene. I now floss daily, in addition to brushing. Micah and I are both pretty conscientious about our teeth.
But I had a scare a month ago which now makes dental insurance much more appealing. For some reason, the gum has pulled up a bit on just one tooth. It may be from overbrushing. Anyway, the newly-exposed tooth surface was causing me a lot of pain.
Micah been to see a dentist some years back about something similar and they said that it was overbrushing. They also had him start rinsing with ACT twice a day. I bought a soft brush and started rinsing and now everything feels better.
Before the solution kicked in, I began worrying about my teeth. What if there was something that would require surgery? What if I got a cavity? My dentist told me I have some deep, cavity-prone crevices in my teeth that he was keeping an eye on. I have four fillings already (despite good brushing it’s hard to get into these crevices).
I asked Micah what he thought and he said that it made sense to reroute the cable money to dental insurance. It’ll prove peace of mind, it won’t cost much more than we were paying for cable, it’ll help us catch any problems early (since we weren’t getting regular checkups), and I must be a masochist because I really enjoy going to the dentist.
Until this last month, dental insurance was one of those things that I didn’t think we needed right now. But my tooth scare has reshaped my thinking. Since we can afford it, I think it’s better to go on the side of caution.
Related Posts
- Cell Phones and Self-Insurance
- Help Mrs. Micah choose her health insurance
- Renter’s Insurance: We go one better…
If you've found this article useful, why not get new posts in your RSS reader or in your e-mail? Your e-mail will only be used for new posts and you can unsubscribe at any time.
8 responses so far ↓
1 A.J. // Oct 27, 2008 at 10:51 am
my mom would be proud!
2 Aaron // Oct 27, 2008 at 11:43 am
Great post for today Mrs. Micah. I just got my wife in for a dental checkup a few weeks ago, and the results were a little worse than we expected. About $3600 all said and done. This would be enough to completely empty our emergency fund + the little extras we’ve started building towards other things. Not good.
We don’t have dental insurance, so right now I’m looking into the “discount dental” plans. Aetna, GE, etc. Has anyone had any experience with these plans? I’m trying to decide if it’s actually worth it, or if the numbers on their websites are all fluff.
As for you MM, I really think that if you have the dental insurance available (and the extra money for it) it would be a great thing to get. Even if the only reason is that you’ll go in for more routine visits; I think that would have helped a LOT in our situation.
3 mrsmicah // Oct 27, 2008 at 12:44 pm
@AJ, I was confused until I remembered your mom is a hygenist.
@Aaron, I’d talk to your dentist and ask them if they take those discount plans. We had some good experience with discount prescription cards,.
4 Kacie // Oct 27, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Dental insurance is a great thing. Preventative care is MUCH cheaper/easier than reactive care.
And, no matter how healthy your dental habits are, you can still chip a tooth, develop a cavity, or some other dental mishap.
And at $12 per month, I don’t think there’s any reason not to have the coverage.
Glad you’re signing up for it!
5 fern // Oct 28, 2008 at 11:33 am
I wouldn’t pass up dental insurance that’s so cheap. I have a similar plan and i consider it worth it’s weight in gold, altho I, too, haven’t had any serious dental problems beyond a filling, and even that was years ago.
I like the way you equated the savings from eliminating the cable bill and applied it to something else. I do that often to make savings more meaningful. For instance, I might say that the $230 i earned last month from freelance writing will pay for 3 weeks worth of groceries! Or, it could cover my electric, cable, phone and internet, sewer and water fees!
6 Aisha Smith // Oct 29, 2008 at 7:54 am
Hi,
I have some quality sites on credit, mortgage,debt,real estate and other financial topics. I would like to have you as my link partner. I can assure you that you will not regret by going for a link exchange with my sites. I am willing to give you some healthy links (both text and banner) from the content pages of my websites.I have also some financial blogs to link back to your website.
So if you feel interested, feel free to contact me at smith.aisha25@gmail.com with your website link details.
Looking forward to your esteemed reply,
With Regards
Aisha Smith
7 Kelly from Almost Frugal // Oct 29, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I think you can’t go wrong with 12$ a month insurance. But, I would also get an electric toothbrush. It’s very, very worth it (and the replacement heads make great holiday presents!).
Trackbacks
Leave a Comment