Drs. Annie Wallander and Greg Furdek

Drs. Annie Wallander and Greg Furdek

In return for your time, health and life force, your employer compensates you. Compensation has many forms, most obvious is the salary/wages you receive. The other forms of compensation fall into benefits.

I’d like to focus on the dental benefit, which is most often in the form of “Dental Insurance.” Your employer pays a premium to an insurance company (ie. Delta Dental). It will cost your employer many hundreds of dollars per year for a single individual and well over a thousand for a family plan. (The major employers in this area have purchased very good plans for their workers and should be commended.) In turn, the insurance will cover or help cover your dental procedures up to a yearly maximum amount. Most plans will help pay out until they have paid $1,000 per year. At the end of the year, it starts over.

In dentistry, more than other health care fields, it is easy to make a diagnosis and fix issues when they are small. These issues are usually in the form of decay of the teeth or periodontal disease (gum and bone). Addressing these issues in their infancy means tiny, quick fixes. As they progress in severity they quickly become more uncomfortable, expensive and require more time in the dental chair. By utilizing the basic diagnostic and preventative benefits of a dental plan, these issues are found and fixed fast, easy and inexpensively. Almost all dental plans cover these procedures (X-rays/exam/cleaning) at 100 percent.

Our frustration in the dental world comes from situations like this: A middle age individual works locally and has had dental insurance through his employer for the past 15 years and never came in until “things hurt.” The numerous issues have now grown into major issues. It only takes one major issue in a tooth to surpass the yearly maximum that the insurances normally pay. With a mouth full of major issues, the individual feels overwhelmed with the daunting bill it would take to fix everything. This is where $15,000 to $20,000 of dental benefits that were not utilized in the past come back to haunt us all. They are gone! This situation is a common occurrence in our area. By ignoring the yearly benefits you rightfully earned, you make it difficult on yourself, the dentist and your employer. Conversely you are enriching the insurance companies, like the non-profit Dental Dental (the biggest dental insurance in Wisconsin). It shouldn’t surprise you to see Delta Dental sky boxes at all the major professional sports stadiums and their executives making insane salaries of millions.

Please use the benefits your employers are paying a lot of money for. Remember, those benefits are ones you are paying for with your time and life force. New Holstein, Chilton and Kiel have exceptional private dental offices. The quality of dentistry from our local private dentists surpasses that of larger surrounding communities. If you have been putting off your dental health, it is time to get back on track. We are here to help you at New Holstein and Kiel Family Dental. No matter how bad it is or how long you have avoided the dentist, please let us help you keep up your oral health.

Kiel and New Holstein Family Dental are a Tri-County Preferred Businesses. This content is part of that program.

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