Dental care is important for your health as well as your appearance. Unfortunately, many people put off the dental care they need because they are unsure if they can cover the costs. There are many ways to pay for the dental treatments that you or your family needs, even those that may seem too expensive. If you’re considering braces, a tooth implant, or another procedure, here’s how to budget for dental treatments.
How to Budget for Dental Treatments
Consider Dental Insurance
If your upcoming dental treatments aren’t an emergency, you have some time to plan. For example, if you’d like to get braces or dental implants in the future, consider getting a dental insurance plan now. If this isn’t available through your employer, you can get a private dental insurance account yourself.
Be sure to read the policy documents carefully and understand what is covered, when, and how much. You’ll still need to budget for monthly payments and deductibles. There will also be annual coverage limits, so your dental treatments may not be completely covered, but substantially reduced. Do the math and make sure that a dental insurance plan makes financial sense beforehand.
Ask About Price
Before you can budget for dental treatments, you’ll have to know how much the treatments are. Ask your dentist, orthodontist, or another professional how much they estimate the treatments will cost beforehand. This number might seem intimidating at first, but budgeting for dental treatments over time can make this amount much more manageable. When you ask about price, ask about payment plans as well.
Find the Lowest-Interest Payment Plan
You don’t have to pay for your dental treatments all at once. Like any large purchase, it makes sense to pay in installments, over time. There are many ways to go about this. You might use a loan, credit card, payment plan through the dental office, or another strategy. Finding the payment plan with the lowest interest will reduce the overall cost.
Dental Financing Through Your Office
Many dental offices offer payment plans with no interest or low interest rates. BDG provides dental financing through Sunbit to help patients budget for dental treatments. You can be approved for up to $6,000, with terms as long as 24 months. It’s easy to apply online, either at your home or in our offices, and 90% of our patients are approved. You can also get extended financing through CareCredit with 0% interest, no annual fees and an easy application process.
Reduce Monthly Expenses
If your budget is very tight, there may not be much room left for additional expenses. Consider where you might be able to save a bit extra or earn a bit extra.
Going line-by-line through your purchases on small indulgences like lattes or lunches is pretty tedious and, unless these are daily expenses, probably not very helpful. Instead, consider where or how you can reduce regular monthly expenses. There are a few budgeting tricks that can help you save money by lowering these larger expenses. Remember, these changes don’t have to be permanent; they’re just ways to help you budget for dental treatments until you can pay off the sum.
- Are you really enjoying your streaming services, or do you mostly spend time scrolling through titles? Could you use a free streaming service like Hoopla instead?
- Consider how many minutes, texts, and data you’re actually using on your phone. Can you switch to a cheaper phone plan with a smaller carrier?
- Consider how fast your home internet connection really needs to be. Could you lower your speed a bit and save with a cheaper internet plan? Or, might you qualify for the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program?
- Talk to your bank or credit union about consolidating your existing debt. You might save more than you think on interest by consolidating.
- Have you looked at your car insurance rate lately? Shopping around and comparing rates might help you save substantially.
- Could you cancel your gym membership, yoga class, or similar service briefly and work out at home, with friends, or use a free online class?
Automatically Save
Once you’ve fine-tuned your monthly budget, set up automatic deposits with your bank to send these extra funds straight to a savings account. This way, you’ll know exactly how much you have to work with once you’ve budgeted for your dental treatments.
With these plans in place, you may be surprised at how much you can save and how quickly you can pay off dental treatments. If you’re wondering about dental implants, braces or other dental treatments, but you’re concerned about the costs, talk to your dentist. We’ll discuss payment plans and other options to make treatment affordable for you.
