I feel really stupid asking this, but do babies need vision plans or dental insurance? If there's a problem with baby's teeth, would that be a pediatrician's area of care or a dentist's?
We're supposed to sign up for our new health insurance plans at work and there's separate signups for dental and vision plans.
I can ask the HR guy on Monday, but wondered if anyone knew offhand.
Re: Do babies need dental and vision insurance?
I have known babies under 12 months of age, 6 for that matter that had to go in for their eyes. One of the babies ended up being blind and the other was cross eyed. The vision was very necessary for them.
As for dental, I'm not sure..
I'm enrolling my child in both. If he happens to have jaw, gum, or even teeth issues, most of those cannot be treated by a pedi.
As for vision... you never know what could happen. You may need to take your child to a opto for appointments. Like, if he has optic nerve issues or something like that.
I'd say yup. Do it.
I'm not planning on signing LO up with my dental or vision until at least next year open enrollment.
You do know that you don't sign LO up during your open enrollment, you sign them up when they are born, right?
As a dentist I can tell you the youngest I've seen a child in my office has been around 3. The pedi may recommend you bring them in when they get their first tooth but IMO it's pretty uneccessary. And if there were any sort of oral surgery problems (cysts, jaw issues, etc) this would be covered under medical.
Isn't vision more for glasses/contacts? I would think any major eye problems would fall under the care of an opthamologist, which is medical.
My friend's little girl needed glasses around 6 months old, so I would recommend the vision insurance if you can afford it. Not sure on dental though... I would do it as a precaution because teeth should be coming in during baby's first year.
Yes, I know. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can before making a decision for the next year because we can't switch entire plans, we can only add a baby to an existing plan.
My baby's due after the open enrollment deadline but before Jan. 1 when the new benefits kick in, ( which adds another layer of confusion I have to ask HR about) so I'm just trying to figure out which plan to go with that I can add him to later.
remember all babies under 1 get a free exam through infantsee.org as well for vision. Most vision problems that they'd have would be medical (ie nerve issues) so check that you might not need vision and medical both, but just medical.
Dental - we will add DD this year, our dentist starts seeing them 'officially' at 3. He's done annual checks since the first tooth came in for free, but she's never had xrays, etc.
Smart and cute - I like it.
I also work at a dental office and I agree with the dentist who posted on this page... people ask a lot if they should bring their one year old in because they have read that they should, but the dentist I work for says unless it looks like something is wrong in their mouth wait until they are 3. Even when they are 3 and come in most of the time they are too squirmy and not patient enough for a cleaning, so she does a quick exam and where I live an exam is 65 dollars (she usually doesn't even charge for kids who are under 4). Knowing that, I wouldn't enroll for dental until my LO is 3.
Vision... I'm really not sure about. I will probably just wait to see if she has any eye problems and then enroll is she did.
I don't get vision insurance, but this is just bad advice for dental. Last year I needed emergency wisdom tooth removal, people get teeth infections, my husband got a crown that he wasn't expecting and will need another this year, and just recently my friend passed out in a store, hit her face on the ground and broke 7 of her teeth, requiring over $20,000 worth of work done to them. Teeth are very expensive and really need to be taken care of.
I remember when I was a kid, my class went to the nursing home and asked a big group of people what they would go back and change if they could---and ALL of them agreed, they would have taken better care of their teeth.
Luckily, DS was on our dental insurance policy. Some babies have 2 teeth by the time they are 1 while others have a mouthful. Do what you are comfortable with, but know that the insurance would be for a possible accident not cleanings.
Getting insurance is a personal choice, please just realize that you are considering more than just cleanings.
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