Dental insurance plans work like health insurance: you or your employer pay a monthly premium. After the deductible is reached (if there is a deductible), the insurance pays all or part of your qualified dental expenses, up to a stated maximum. The insurance company generally pays the dentist directly for its share of your dental expenses, although some plans may require you to pay the entire dentist’s bill upfront and then seek reimbursement from the insurance plan.

With a dental membership plan, there is no middle party between you and your dentist. That means there are no deductibles or claim forms, no pre-authorization requirements or pre-existing condition limitations, and no yearly maximums or waiting periods. Uninsured patients simply receive immediate treatments and discounts for the clearly laid out services in their selected plan.

With dental discount plans, patients pay a third-party administrator a yearly fee to access discounted rates from a network of dentists. The third-party administrator selects the dentists in their network, controls pricing, and collects payments from patients. With a dental discount plan, you must obtain services from a dentist in the network, and conditions of the plan may be complicated.

With a dental membership plan, you choose the dentist you want to provide your dental treatment. Typically, this improves what dental practices call “case acceptance” — simply put, it means patients are more likely to get the treatment they need, and to follow their dentist’s recommendations when it comes to maintaining good oral hygiene.