Dental discount plans provide you, the consumer, with a substantial discount each time you visit a participating dentist or specialist within the network of the plan. Unlike dental insurance, which does not immediately cover pre-existing conditions and has mandatory waiting periods for these issues of a full year, a dental discount plan allows you to see a dentist almost immediately (usually within 1-3 days, depending on the plan) and will instantly provide you with savings as high as 60% off of what you would normally be required to pay.

I'll give you an example of a dental discount plan in action here. Let's say that you or your spouse need a new upper denture and the cost of getting this taken care of is $1,252.00, which is the national average. In this example I'm going to use zip code 80150, which is the Englewood, Colorado area. There are 405 participating dentists within a 50 mile radius of this zip code, at the time of this writing.

The cost of joining this plan for an individual is only $99.95 per year for an individual or $149.95 per year for an entire family. The cost of your spouses upper denture by using this plan is only $694.00. That's a savings of $558.00!

Now deduct the cost of the plan from that amount. $558.00 - $149.95 = a savings of $408.05! The other good news is that you've only just begun to save money. You have an entire year to get your families dental care taken care of. Anything from cleanings to braces is included.

If you've been considering a dental plan for yourself or your family, you really should look into the real possibility that you'll save a ton of money by using a dental discount plan instead of insurance.