Brighter.com dental plan - any experience

I recently read a report on marketwatch about the Discount Dental Plan from Brighter.com.

The claim is that because the Dentist gets his money at the time of the appointment he exchanges a lower fee for not having to file claims with insurance companies.

Any body have any experience with this?

thanks

I'll bite: $9/mo=$108/yr. The average dental visit isn't even that much. It has been my experience that Dental insurance of any kind is a giant game. They mark up the services, then cover half, up to a limit. If you call the same dentist and say "how much if I pay cash" you'll end up right around the same spot, and not pay any premiums.

Plus, would you trust a business than can't do math with prices:

Exclusive Member Savings Pricing Details
Procedure Retail Your Price You Save
X-Rays $69 $20 64% (Should be either $25 your price or 71% off)
Cleaning $98 $29 64% (Should be either $35 your price or 70% off)
Crown $1178 $473 51% (Should be either $577 your price or 60% off)
Extraction $186 $51 64% (Should be either $67 your price or 73% off)

LordB said:   Begun the shill posts have. We must be appearing on google for discount dental plan or something.I think these companies are just in the current news cycle. I saw a story on lifehacker about discount plans a few days ago. The opinion there was they don't do much, about the same discount as asking for the cash payment rate.

Stubtify said:   I'll bite: $9/mo=$108/yr. The average dental visit isn't even that much. It has been my experience that Dental insurance of any kind is a giant game. They mark up the services, then cover half, up to a limit. If you call the same dentist and say "how much if I pay cash" you'll end up right around the same spot, and not pay any premiums.

But how will you know what the negotiated insurance price for the service is if you don't have the insurance to begin with? I'd go without insurance if there was enough transparency to judge.

Stubtify said:   There are only so many common dental procedures. It isn't that hard to call the dental office and ask for a list of prices for common procedures. Cleaning/xray, filling, etc.

Common ones aren't my problem. Mine are usually "Amalgam (3 face)-Resin" or something equally strange.