It’s a season of surprises, but that doesn’t mean your dental bill should catch you off guard! Before you have a dental procedure or treatment, ask your dentist to submit a pre-treatment estimate to Delta Dental.

A free pre-treatment estimate, sometimes called a pre-determination or pre-authorization, gives patients an approximate idea of how much a dental treatment will cost, what is covered by their benefits, and what will need to be paid out-of-pocket.

When your dentist requests a pre-treatment estimate, they will also submit a proposed treatment plan and any relevant X-rays to help the Delta Dental consultant make their determination. After reviewing your benefits and assessing the information submitted by your dentist, Delta Dental will respond to you and your dentist with an estimate of how much of the treatment cost will be covered by your dental plan and how much you will be expected to pay yourself.

The estimate is based on the type of plan you have, your eligibility, your current plan benefits and the amount remaining in your annual maximum. Estimates are usually returned quickly, but in more complex cases, an estimate can take longer.

Pre-treatment estimates can help you budget for dental procedures. They can also help you and your dentist decide how to proceed with a treatment. Pre-treatment estimates are especially useful for more costly procedures such as crowns, wisdom tooth extractions, bridges, dentures and oral surgery.

This season, plan ahead for dental expenses by getting a pre-treatment estimate – and save the surprises for trick-or-treating.