Dental insurance isn’t a scam — but it’s also not insurance

The thing about dental insurance is that it isn’t really insurance — it’s more like a half-helpful discount plan with a maximum. And once you reach the maximum, you’re on your own, often to the tune of hundreds and thousands of dollars. As though going to the dentist needed to be less fun.

In the realm of all things health care, dental exists as a sort of overlooked stepchild. The American medical system doesn’t really consider dental care an essential service, despite mounds of evidence linking a healthy mouth to the well-being of the rest of the body, from better pregnancy outcomes to a healthier heart. Dentistry has always been siloed off.

Dental coverage has been off in its little — largely unregulated — corner, too. According to the American Dental Association, more than one-third o