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!!!

Well, that was the question that resonated in my head after leaving my dentist yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I needed to have a crown put on the root canal, because the tooth was in bad shape, but holy cow $900.00 !

Now here is the financial part of it, out of that only about $450 to $500 will be “covered” by my “insurance company”, and I am out of pocket for the rest, because I am getting a porcelain crown (my insurance covers a lot more of a metal one), but the porcelain one has a life-time guarantee? Very confusing.

I have always found what is covered by insurance plans (especially dental) very arbitrary, and I wondered who makes these decisions? Evidently at my company (a large high tech firm) since the company “self insures” (i.e. Sun Life runs the program but the money comes directly from my company) the company decides what is covered (I was surprised when I figured that one out), so my company decides, but I don’t have any chance to appeal this either {grumble}

The other problem is that since my wife does not have an insurance program, I have been told that the other half which is not covered by my “insurance company” might be covered by her “insurance company”, but I will never know. Remember my favorite rant about dual income families getting unfair advantages over single income families (I should Divorce My Wife?) add this to the list. {grumble}

Now this rant is not ragging on my dentist (he does a great job dealing with a paranoid lunatic like me) but I am not happy about the arbitrary nature of how “what is covered in insurance plans” is decided (especially in big companies).

–C8j

Dear Reader,

So as you can tell I am a mercenary bastard and will do most anything to make an extra buck or two (witness the ads plastered all over this BLOG if you are unsure of this), so let’s ask ourselves how we can put a few extra bucks in our pockets (and review a few of my initial rants):

1. Stop paying those ridiculously high banking charges (remember?)
2. Use some coupons when you shop (hey a couple of extra bucks is nothing to sneeze at)
3. Get a Credit Card that PAYS YOU to use it. PC Financial has a nice one (if you like shopping at Loblaws that is), and gives you cash. CIBC has one that pays cash as well. For heaven’s sake don’t PAY to get money back or points (like that CIBC Aeroplan Gold, only if you are a traveling salesman would that work).
4. Join Petropoints or whatever other “I give you points for shopping here” program you can find (as long as it is free). I also am a member of the CAA, so I get money back for buying gas at Sunoco
5. Stop buying those bloody “Lattes” will ya? What’s wrong with the free coffee at work!

OK, so that is the rant for the day, put YOUR money in YOUR pockets, I BEG YOU!