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Thursday, March 27th
Avia Dental is a platform that offers discounts for customers on their dental visits without the need for traditional insurance. Open since 1994, this discount service provides coverage for families and individuals. Promising the ‘lowest dental fee schedules” in the US, Avia Dental stands out as a great way to save your smile without hurting your wallet. As a bonus, there is no wait to start using your Avia Dental savings. As soon as you pay, you can jump right in and start seeing your preferred dental care provider. However, Avia Dental is only available in 29 states in the US.
Pick from three plans
To start searching the available plans and prices at Avia Dental, you'll want to click on the dropdown menu and hit "Affordable Dental Plans.” From here, you'll be able to see the details for the three plan tiers at Avia Dental. You can choose from Individual, Individual +1, or Family plans. The individual plans include 40,000 dentists, up to 50% off your regular dentist visits, and no risk of being denied coverage. However, the policy doesn't state whether more complex visits are covered or what the discount might be.
Huge but confusing database of providers
The database on Avia Dental isn't for different insurance plans, but rather a list of dentists that take Avia Dental coverage. In our test area, Avia Dental showed over 20 different dentists and orthodontists that accept the Avia Dental discount card. However, the list shows multiple doctors at each location, which can be confusing if you see "Greenberg Dental” 7 times in the scrolling list of dental care providers with the same street address. You can also search for a specific dentist or orthodontist to see if your current care provider is covered by Avia Dental. (Also, for what it's worth, that particular dentistry franchise has a very poor reputation in the test area, so we're not sure we'd be thrilled if the dentists in this network were all comparable to that one.)
Prices from $9.25 to $15 per month
Avia Dental is extremely affordable on a month-to-month basis. The costs start as low as $9.25 per month for a single individual. If you choose the Individual +1 plan, the cost is $13.25 per month, and the Family plan is $15 per month. However, each of these plans has an "initial payment” which is steeper than some other discount coverage sites. For the Individual plan, the fee is $29.25, the Individual +1 is $33.25, and the Family plan is $35 to get started. This processing fee is non-refundable if you decide to cancel your coverage.
Full refund within 30 days
Avia Dental promises that if you cancel your membership within the first 30 days, you will be reimbursed for all charges after you've sent your discount card back to them. If you pay any special fees (different from the processing fee listed on the plans page for residents of Tennessee and Vermont), you will also be refunded for that.
Includes free vision and prescriptions
On top of dental coverage, Avia Dental includes discounts for your vision appointments as well as for prescriptions. These are lumped in with your plan, so you don't have to pay anything extra to enjoy discounts for a range of medical needs. The prescription plan offers you access to discounts of up to 20% on your prescription medications, and the vision benefits offer standardized discounts and prices for things like an eye exam ($5 off) or a new plastic lens ($50 flat rate).
Not a lot of buzz for Avia Dental
While Avia Dental is well-rated overall, the amount of feedback for this dental discount provider is pretty spotty. On third-party review sites, the average score is around 4.2 stars, but there are only a handful of ratings. Avia Dental does hold an "A+” rating from the Better Business Bureau, but without a higher quantity of customer reviews, it's hard to say how trustworthy this discount provider is. Given that newer companies have more feedback than this one, we'd like to see Avia Dental improve its online presence a bit more.
Needs more reviews to compete
The prices are incredibly low at Avia Dental, which makes it worth checking out just on that basis. However, with fewer details on the actual discounts than competitors and a limited number of user reviews online, Avia Dental doesn't quite make it to our top picks. Still, it's definitely worth checking out for the low costs and included vision and prescription coverage.
Taking care of your teeth is one of the most important parts of your overall health and wellness. Dental appointments should be part of your normal routine and attended regularly, not just when you have a problem that needs to be addressed. Whether you're looking for a hygiene checkup or cosmetic concerns like tooth whitening, visiting your dentist regularly can keep you happy, healthy, and smiling with all those pearly whites.
However, as with many medical and preventative care appointments, the cost of dental work can get pretty high. A recent study shows that the national average cost for a standard visit (dental exam, cleaning, and x-rays) is around $203 per visit. If you're not one of the lucky folks who get dental with their job benefits, grabbing your own dental insurance is a sure way to make sure you save money and keep your teeth healthy at the same time.
If you need other procedures like fillings, crowns, or root canals, your total cost at the dentist could be thousands of dollars (crowns can cost up to $1,800 per tooth). While you can't do much about the cost of the dentists themselves, there are some resources to help you find affordable dental insurance to keep costs down.
A recent study compared different monthly costs (including preventative visits) and found that those with insurance paid $800 less per year than those without. Plus, if you get insurance, many of the basics are free of charge, making it less likely that you will need more complicated or expensive trips to the dentist in the future.
Now, when you decide to grab dental insurance, you'll want to keep a few things in mind. Like health insurance, your dental insurance company will have a network of accepted providers. If you have a dentist you really love, you'll want to make sure you grab insurance that is taken by your current dentist. In-network insurance policies will usually cover 100% of preventative dental care, up to 80% of basic procedures (fillings, root canals, and extractions), and up to 50% of major procedures like crowns, implants, and treatment for gum disease. Keep in mind many plans do not include orthodontics (such as braces), but most insurers or brokers offer at least one plan that does include specialist care.
In general, you can find a few types of dental plans. First is the Preferred Provider Organization (PPO). This is the common "network” approach where dentists join a PPO network and set up their fee schedule with the insurance provider. You can go out of network with PPO plans, but you may have higher out-of-pocket fees. The other main option is the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plans which have a more restricted network requirement. For HMO (sometimes called DHMO in dental insurance), you are not able to go out of network and still use your insurance benefits.
If you're ready to support your dental health and enjoy the security of covered preventative care, but don't know which dental insurance service to choose, we've put together some factors to help you decide:
To help you find the best dental insurance for your sparkling smile, Top Consumer Reviews has researched and ranked the top providers and brokers out there today. Whether you prefer total coverage for dental and orthodontics or a simpler option that focuses on preventative care, there's a dental insurance plan out there waiting for you. This way, you can enjoy your pearly whites and save some money in the process!
Select any 2 Dental Insurance Plans to compare them head to head