Dental insurance is an option that many people have at work but don't always take advantage of. Getting dental insurance can mean the difference between getting good dental care and letting your teeth suffer the consequences. The problem with that is that when you don't take care of your teeth, your body begins to suffer the consequences. This has been proven in cases such as the
young man that died because he didn't have dental care. There are hundreds of similar cases where people just couldn't afford to go to the dentist.
If you don't go to the dentist on a regular basis, you will likely end up feeling ill in one of several ways. It could be in the form of a toothache, but the reality is, it can go much deeper than that. When you have a tooth that is rotting, there is a possibility of infection setting into your gums. You can also get such diseases as gingivitis, a gum disease that destroys your teeth. From there, other areas of your body can be affected.
If you lack dental care, you may want to consider that as a possible cause of stomach upset and symptoms of very serious health issues. The heart can be affected. Lack of dental care can also rush the onset of diabetes, stroke or heart disease. These are very serious health issues that could be prevented simply by having dental insurance available. Some companies don't even offer dental insurance. It makes no sense to offer health insurance and not include dental as part of the plan.
Your overall health is at risk when you don't have dental insurance. Not having dental insurance runs in direct correlation to inability to get good dental care. That, in turn, correlates with many serious health issues that might seem unrelated to teeth problems. Regular dental check ups make a big difference in the health of your teeth and gums. When you have problems chewing, you might be more inclined to have stomach problems. That is a minor result to what can happen if you don't take good care of your teeth. The results of not getting your teeth taken care of in a reasonable amount of time are things that we don't like to think about. It isn't to say that you will die if you don't go to the dentist. However, why would anyone risk it. Where there is even the slightest possibility that it could happen, you should make every effort to go to the dentist. That usually means that you should get dental insurance because it is necessary to your dental health and thus your physical health overall.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
EMPLOYERS MULL DENTAL SCHEMES
A third of companies are considering adding a dental benefit in 2010, suggests a new survey from Denplan. The dental plan provider’s survey of 6,000 employers also found that 65% take broker advice before purchasing benefits and 32% base their decisions on broker recommendations.
Three-quarters of respondents said they believed that plans enhance employee wellbeing while 53% of the 1,500 employees surveyed said they regarded them as a “tangible, useful benefit”.
Three-quarters of respondents said they believed that plans enhance employee wellbeing while 53% of the 1,500 employees surveyed said they regarded them as a “tangible, useful benefit”.
Dental cover
Access to NHS dentistry appears to be returning to its pre-2006 dental contract levels, but the so-called efficiency savings demanded by the new coalition government could see this hard work undone.
There is growing concern that Chancellor George Osborne’s emergency budget will result in NHS finances coming under increasing strain over the next four to five years. The Chancellor said he would honour an earlier pledge to ring fence increases in health service funding in real terms, but the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS employers, believes cuts to other areas, such as local authorities, may have an indirect impact on health expenditure.
NHS Confederation chief executive Nigel Edwards recently says: “Although health spending will continue to rise year on year, all NHS trusts will find they are challenged to do more for the money they have.”
If this is the case, it seems almost inevitable that NHS dentistry will suffer. Morag Peterson, dental product manager at health insurer CIGNA, points out that the money for dentistry will be in the whole healthcare budget and the primary care trust (PCT) will be free to allocate these funds as they wish to.
“So, although NHS funding as a whole has been ring fenced, because money is limited it is highly possible that dentistry will take lower priority when it comes to how and where PCTs allocate their cash. The new coalition government is committed to exercising limited central control over how NHS money is spent locally so the outcome is likely to vary by locality,” she says.
Although it is still unclear what changes the government will introduce, it has committed to undertake a review of NHS dentistry as a whole. At the beginning of June, Earl Howe, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for health with responsibility for dentistry, said the government’s proposed reforms will be announced once they have consulted with the profession and patient groups. The Steele Review of NHS dentistry, published in June 2009, made a number of recommendations to improve quality and access to NHS dental services and some of these have begun to be piloted by the Department of Health. However, there is no indication that the new government is seeking to put any further investment into this.
There is growing concern that Chancellor George Osborne’s emergency budget will result in NHS finances coming under increasing strain over the next four to five years. The Chancellor said he would honour an earlier pledge to ring fence increases in health service funding in real terms, but the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS employers, believes cuts to other areas, such as local authorities, may have an indirect impact on health expenditure.
NHS Confederation chief executive Nigel Edwards recently says: “Although health spending will continue to rise year on year, all NHS trusts will find they are challenged to do more for the money they have.”
If this is the case, it seems almost inevitable that NHS dentistry will suffer. Morag Peterson, dental product manager at health insurer CIGNA, points out that the money for dentistry will be in the whole healthcare budget and the primary care trust (PCT) will be free to allocate these funds as they wish to.
“So, although NHS funding as a whole has been ring fenced, because money is limited it is highly possible that dentistry will take lower priority when it comes to how and where PCTs allocate their cash. The new coalition government is committed to exercising limited central control over how NHS money is spent locally so the outcome is likely to vary by locality,” she says.
Although it is still unclear what changes the government will introduce, it has committed to undertake a review of NHS dentistry as a whole. At the beginning of June, Earl Howe, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for health with responsibility for dentistry, said the government’s proposed reforms will be announced once they have consulted with the profession and patient groups. The Steele Review of NHS dentistry, published in June 2009, made a number of recommendations to improve quality and access to NHS dental services and some of these have begun to be piloted by the Department of Health. However, there is no indication that the new government is seeking to put any further investment into this.
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