The Day I Think I Figured Out A Dental Plan

This dental stuff is no joke.

After working a casually busy morning with Shaun and getting a visit from Jenny + Family on their way to the zoo, I hurried home to take an all-important nap before attempting to tackle the beast that is Dental Insurance. Rar. No, wait, not yet. I read a little bit of "Neverwhere" and feel compelled to try my hand at modern fantasy, but I also really want to write about a coffee-shop, so I churn out a few pages of something promising and then decide it's time to get my dental insurance lasso out and see what I can't wrangle with a good Google search. 

I quickly come to discover that everything coming up for insurance brings me to a website that looks like some eighth-grader's web-design homework assignment. I'm supposed to give my credit card information to these people? I'd rather leave copies of my social security card in aisles of Grocery Outlet. But seriously, did everyone just copy and paste the same bullshit from everyone else's shitty website? I see the same smiling families on twenty different home-pages. That's an exaggeration. Really, though, I wish websites like these wouldn't pretend like there are actually people out there who get this excited about dental insurance. Just give me the nitty-gritty. I get it. Smiling is fun. But not when I'm trying to figure out how to keep myself from going bankrupt in the process. 

That said, of course it's the nicer-looking websites that get most of my attention. At first I'm thinking it's going to be United Concordia. They have a pretty nice site and the layout is easy to follow. I figure out that, for a monthly bill of 45 bucks, they'll pay for 60% of each filling, which are all priced differently according to my current dentist, resulting in a grand total of about 1,700 dollars (including the year contract @ 45 per month). 

I keep looking. There's got to be something better. 

I have to learn the difference between "insurance" and "plan" and "PPO" and "HMO." A lot of plans don't seem to cover "Posterior Composites." Some websites don't make any sense. Some plans seem too good to be true, and when I find out which local dentists support those plans, the reviews of the place are frightening. If there's one time I'll trust Yelp, it'll be with dentists. Anyhow, the search continues, I start keeping track of numbers, doing math, making comparisons, reviewing, researching, staring blankly and feeling like an idiot, until I finally come across Delta Dental.

Fingers crossed, I think Delta Dental is the way to go. 

For a 100 dollar enrollment fee, I'll get a discount on all the recommended services, and to take care of all my fourteen cavities, it'll be about 1,000 dollars (instead of 2,596 without). Of course this is still a lot of money, but it's certainly more manageable, especially if I space out my dentist visits. Really, I just want to take care of Tooth 13 and 12 before they rot and fall out of my mouth or, worse, require surgery. Those two teeth, plus the 100 dollar enrollment, will cost me about 330 for that visit alone. 

Can I do that? Do I have a choice? 

It's going to be an interesting couple of months, that's for sure. 

So I take a break from my research and head out into Midtown with my camera on a lazy path toward Weatherstone for an employee-discounted dinner. It's Second Saturday and the people are out enjoying the nice weather, the music and the art. I meander through the growing crowds, stopping here and there to watch a band, to poke my head into an art gallery, mainly sticking to the alleyways and avoiding people, sort of in a fuzzy funk after spending the last two hours crunching numbers. I make it to Weatherstone and say hello to Allie and order a mocha with a tuna sandwich, which is so delicious that I'm glad I took a photo of it before devouring it in minutes. Allie shares her mom's horror story of a blood infection caused by a cavity. Thanks. Then I'm heading out, heading home, taking a couple more photos and feeling lonely, missing Jenny, realizing that missing her now is nothing compared to how I'll miss her in September, and I hurry home to lose myself in more number crunching. 

Delta Dental still seems like the best plan. I'm pretty stuck on it. 

Jenny stops by for a quick second on her way out to visit her mom and brothers. It's only a minute of time, but I cherish it for the rest of the night, finishing this blog post and then shutting down the brain for a while with some good old fashioned video-gaming. Tomorrow I open at Old Soul and tomorrow I'll hopefully make up my mind about dental insurance, fill out the proper forms, check my finances and get that ball rolling. Better sooner than later.

- Left to Fry