Canadian Personal Finance Blog

How are your teeth? Mine are not in great shape and I have had a history of bad teeth, and it hasn’t got much better as I got older. Currently I have 4 Crowns in my mouth and at least 3 teeth that I would guess will soon become crowns.

Crowns are a wonderful thing that for some reason is viewed as a Prosthetic for most insurance plans, and thus are rarely covered more than 50% by most Dental plans (and in some cases not at all). What does this mean, financially?

Each crown with installation has been approximately $1000 each (that does not seem completely out of whack with what I have heard from other folks, so I don’t blame my dentist for this charge). This means I have been out of pocket almost $2000 so far for the crowns that I have had put in, and that is a LARGE chunk of change, as I had not planned on these expenses, but I will be in the future.

Do I have other options? Yes, I could have the teeth extracted, but then I must get either dentures or a real prosthetic, both of which are not covered much under most dental plans.

Other interesting dentistry related expenses might be Orthodontic work, for you (adults are getting braces more and more) or for your kids. This is usually only covered 50% by most dental plans. A lot of times if both parents are working they can get almost all of this work done, but for us lucky single income families we only get about 1/2 of the expense covered (unless it is for a medical condition like a cleft pallet, in which case it is mostly covered under Medicare (and rightfully so)).

That ability to cover both 1/2’s of a coverage shortfall that dual income families (that both have benefits plans) is yet another advantage that dual income families have over single income families.

My kids wonder why I keep bugging them to brush their teeth? For your financial future, that’s why!!!