Dental expenses can be quite high.  You never know when you’ll need it, which is why it is vital to have dental insurance.

Some time ago, I shared a post discussing my desire to save money on dental care.  In it, I outlined the costs of a wisdom tooth removal that I was going to have done.  I’m still waiting on that, but that’s another story for another day.   Anyway, in giving details on the estimated costs to my readers, I got some varied responses on what people would do.

Well, there is one aspect of dental costs that I find hard to debate: the importance of dental insurance.

Now, I’ve spent some decent money in recent years on dental care, after a lifetime of teeth that held up really well.  I suppose at some point, we get problems. That’s the thing that I suppose some folks might not think too much about, is that these problems can come up out of the blue without warning.

I was reminded of this in a conversation I had with somebody younger than I, with much less work experience.  He shared a story about how he got into an accident a few years ago, and the aftermath of it.  One of the problems he encountered was the loss of a couple of front teeth. Yikes!

That’s no fun as it is, as it required major dental work and replacement “fake” teeth to be put in. Beyond that, there’s also the cost factor. You see, this guy had no dental insurance at the time.  He made that comment to me, while adding that he was still paying it off after a few years!

He basically stated that the dental bill was significant, and fit into his finances just like another monthly payment that was to be made.  In other words, sort of like housing or a car. Not that we want any debt, but I suppose those types of debt seem to be more “mainstream”.  But dental debt? Over several years?

It got me thinking how close people could be to losing money in different situations.  As we’ve discussed here before when discussing math and money, it can be hard work to recover from money losses based on simple math.  In the case of this dental care example, I had 3 quick takeaways:

1. Keep dental insurance, and don’t just brush it off (lame pun intended) as unimportant because your teeth have always been good.
2. Review your insurance coverage in general, as we need to take stock periodically to see where we may be underinsured
3. Remember to protect against losses.  This can take many forms, including health care, investing, etc.  Bottom line is to not just think about upside and potential, but think about the floor. In other words, consider risks and downsides of situations and not just the upside.  I’m all for positive thinking, but realism and caution has its place too!

My Questions for You

Have you or anybody you know gone without any type of health insurance for an extended period of time?

Have you ever been hit by big expenses that could have been prevented?

What do you think about the idea of taking dental care and insurance seriously?

This past New Year’s Eve was really laid back for me.  We didn’t venture out, after being out of town until that evening. Had a good mini-trip, but the real fun occurred upon getting back in town.

You see, I did not use up my entire FSA allocation. Because of time constraints and really some procrastination as well, I did not make a few appointments I needed to make. The money allocation was only slightly excessive, but it just didn’t get used. The good news is that I didn’t desperately need medical care for anything, which is nice.  The flip side is that it left me with about $300 to spend on health care items – or else I would lose the money.

Lesson to Everyone: Make and follow a plan to use up all of your flexible health pre-tax dollars, and get the process started early in the year.

To use up the money at the 11th hour, I went to a local Walgreens drugstore and bought as many relevant OTC items I could purchase. Here’s a sampling of my last minute finds:

• Contact lens solution – 5 bottles
• Contact lens cleaner
• Ibuprofen bottle
• First aid kit
• Bandages
• Burn gel
• Antiseptic cleaner
• Gel foot soles
• Cough drops
• Children’s cough medicine
• Tooth pain gel
• Antibiotic ointment

You name it, I was buying it! It was sort of like a shopping spree, where you have a matter of 3 hours to buy things or the money’s gone. The difference is that money was already mine:)

As odd as it may seem, the reality is that most of the things there were things I needed. Well, maybe not the gel soles, and not the tooth pain gel. But they couldn’t hurt to have:) Otherwise, the other things are items that I could probably use anyway.  Besides, I thought it made sense to stock up since many OTC products may not be eligible for pre-tax savings in 2011 (but hey, at least we have the 2011 payroll tax holiday to even it out!). That’s right – FSA eligible expenses are different in 2011. In the end, all was not lost, and it ended up being kind of fun.

A funny moment was when my daughter, getting caught up in the buying frenzy, asked if a singing stuffed animal counted as a medical purchase because laughter is good for the heart. I LOVED THAT! I have to say, since it was on sale for like $8 I bought it for her.

Interestingly, there were many others there who were in the same boat when it came to using up their funds. I had two people approach me asking if I was doing the same thing they were and trying to use up funds. It was like a bonding experience, as we ran into each other in the various aisles, trash talking with each other about how many more band-aids each other would purchase. One guy said that he and his wife had over $1,000 to spend! He was apparently calling family and friends asking if they needed anything at all. Anything.

I guess this is New Year’s excitement as you get older, eh?

We’ll have things planned out better this year, though I have to say, it all worked out pretty well in the end.

What about you?

Do you successfully plan out your pre-tax health care expenses (as best as possible, of course), or do you find yourself catching up at year end?