Financial Policy

Here at Pingree Smile Center, every patient’s personalized dental treatment plan will include an explanation of all applicable fees, and a breakdown of all costs before treatment is rendered. Our team will try our best to estimate all insurance coverage.

All charges are payable at the time of treatment. Your Pingree Grove dentists and the entire team understands that budget and financing for the required treatment can be burdensome and for your convenience, we offer a range of payment options to meet your needs and help you get the quality dental care you need and deserve.

We accept Cash payments, Visa, MasterCard, Discover and most insurance benefits. We also offer in-house financing through CareCredit® allowing you to complete necessary dental treatment including cosmetic treatment like teeth whitening, veneers, implants and braces with a payment schedule that fits your budget. CareCredit® offers many repayment policies that include interest free financing up to one year.

If special arrangements are needed, please talk to your dentist and we will be sure to come up with a personalized solution for you.

Dental Insurance

Many people believe dental insurance works like medical insurance where all the necessary services are covered under their insurance plan. This is NOT true. Dental insurance is more of a savings plan than an actual insurance plan.

Traditional dental insurance plans usually have a limit of about $1000 or $1500 per year. This limit has been the same since late 1970s when these plans started being offered in the marketplace. However, cost of dental care has risen significantly and where $1000-$1500 used to be able to support a significant amount of dental care in the 70s and 80s, it barely covers the cost for all preventative and some restorative treatment these days.

More than 2500 dental insurance plans are currently in place with different variations, different dental benefits allowed, different annual maximums and deductible, etc. We will do our best to help you understand and work with your insurance policy, find out the allowed annual maximum, any deductibles and eligibility for services.

At Pingree Smile Center, we will offer a courtesy overview of insurance coverage, submit all insurance claims for you and accept assignment of benefits. We will fully attempt to help you receive full insurance benefits. However, it is important for our patients to understand that all insurance benefits quoted are an ESTIMATE and our patients are ultimately personally responsible for the remaining balance on their account. Please remember that an insurance policy is a contract between you, your employer and the insurance company, not us.

Dental insurance policies can change on a regular basis, often without clear communication from the insurance company to the patient. We encourage our patients to become familiar with their dental insurance coverage. We also recommend our patients take the time and understand which policy they are selecting during the selection period. A cheaper policy may not be the best one to provide adequate coverage to insure your family as those policies may not provide necessary routine benefits that you and your family will need to get the proper dental care you deserve. Changes in eligibility, maximums, or benefits could result in unexpected out of pocket costs. Ultimately, all charges for the services rendered are patients’ responsibility should the insurance company not pay.

We will address all of your concerns about staying within your insurance policies limitations and provide alternative options should your dental treatment needs exceed your allowable benefits.

We accept most traditional and PPO dental insurances. Please contact us with exact insurance information for more information.

Insurance

We accept most traditional insurance plans including PPO’s from many different providers. If you do not see your provider listed here, please give us a call and we will let you know if you are covered.