The Arizona Dental Insurance Market in 2024

Introduction

Arizona has several thousand dentists and other dental professionals serving a population in excess of 7 million. According to 2018 dental data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 60 percent of the adults in the state visited a dentist at least once during the prior 12 months. However, the same data indicates 11.5 percent of Arizona seniors have lost all of their natural teeth due to decay or gum disease. The percentage more than doubles (30.8) for seniors when you expand the group to seniors who have lost six or more teeth to gum disease or decay.

Given Arizona’s problem of tooth loss and its effect on eating habits and nutrition (not to mention appearance), the issue of proper oral care becomes all the more urgent. Arizona does have a variety of programs providing dental care for low-income populations but for those who do not qualify for them, the state has a robust dental insurance market with a variety of dental networks available. The information below covers a recent analysis of 30 dental plans in Arizona or you can get dental rate quotes matching your profile.

Top Arizona Dental Plans

DentalInsurance.com reviewed thirty Arizona dental plans for a hypothetical applicant age 33 years old and living in Phoenix. The average monthly premium for aforementioned profile was $46.82 across the plans. 93.3 percent of the options examined were dental PPO plans. The remainder represented indemnity dental insurance and a dental discount card.

The lowest cost option was the “500 Series Dental Savings” dental discount program offered by Careington. This plan was not insurance but rather a program where an enrollee could get reduced prices on dental care from dentists within the network There was no limit on the amount of discounts annually nor was there a deductible for this option. Among the traditional insurance plans reviewed, the lowest priced PPO plan by MetLife had a monthly premium of $17.55, while the highest priced plan had a monthly premium of $105.99, though it combined vision benefits with traditional dental coverage. Benefits varied widely among plans and some options even included vision care benefits alongside dental benefits.

96 percent of the Arizona dental plans in this study had limits on the annual spending by the plan on covered dental care. This limit is known as a maximum benefit. The lowest maximum benefit was $500 in the first year of coverage and the highest was $10,000 (NCD Complete by MetLife). Some of Arizona PPO plans examined had a maximum benefit that increased after multiple years of enrollment. For example, Renaissance Dental’s MAX Choice Plus had a $1,000 maximum benefit during the first year of enrollment but that amount increased to $2,000 in the second continuous year of enrollment and raised to $3,000 in the third year of continuous enrollment.