Where can you get dental care for less?

Yeah, and I'll admit when Ian Schaeffer's piece first landed on my desk I thought, okay, dental schools, I've heard of those, this will be a quick read. And then I started going through the actual list of options and I thought, wait, why don't more people know about half of these?

And the very first thing Ian says is almost annoyingly simple. Start with your own dentist.

One phone call. That's it. A lot of dentists offer a cash discount if you're paying out of pocket, or an in-office membership plan that covers your routine care for a flat yearly fee. And it's not always advertised. You just have to ask.

That's exactly how it works. Your dentist is not going to lead with it, but if you call and say hey, I don't have insurance, what do you have, you might be surprised what they say.

One call. That's the whole instruction.

So here's the thing people get wrong. They hear student dentist and they picture someone just winging it. But that's not how it works. The student does the procedure, and a faculty member, a licensed dentist, checks every single step.

Every step. Ian actually says it twice in the piece, I think on purpose. The supervision is built in.

That's a better way to put it than I would have come up with.

He does, and he's refreshingly blunt about it. He literally says bring a book. Appointments run long. This is not your thirty minute cleaning and you're out the door.

And most of them start with a screening to see whether your case is something they can take on. So you'd call ahead anyway.

Rather than going one by one through the list, I'll say this: out there you've got dental programs in Glendale and Mesa, and then there are hygiene clinics, which are cleanings and preventive care, spread across Mesa, Tempe and Phoenix, and there's even an evening clinic run by Mesa Community College, which I thought was interesting.

Or if you just don't want to give up your morning. And in Las Vegas there's the UNLV School of Dental Medicine and the College of Southern Nevada Dental Faculty Practice. The full list with addresses and phone numbers is in Ian's guide, which is called Dental Care in Retirement. Get the guide.

Call first. Every time.

So these are federally funded. And the key detail is they serve patients whether or not they have insurance. The fees go on a sliding scale based on your income.

That's the design. And Ian gives a specific place to find one near you, which is findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov. It's linked in the article.

Legitimate. Go look.

Care at no cost to you, for a day or two at a time, first come first served. Phoenix hosts them most years.

First come, first served, so you probably want to show up early. But yes. Real dental work, at no cost to you, right there in your community.

It really is. And I think the reason more people don't know about these is that they're not recurring on a fixed calendar. They happen when they happen. So it's worth checking the schedule. Ian's guide lists where to look.

So the setup is this. There are people who have both Medicare and full coverage under that program. That's what they call dual eligibility. And if that's your situation, your state may cover some adult dental care.

Right, and in Nevada it's Nevada Medicaid. But what's covered and what the yearly limits are is different in each state.

Completely different programs. Ian's guide walks through both, so that's worth reading if this applies to you.

Yeah, if you're getting help from a Medicare Savings Program, that alone does not include dental. Ian is pretty clear about that. You need full Medicaid, not just the savings program help.

It's an easy assumption to make. And if you're not sure exactly what category you fall into, that's a question for one of our advisors, because the rules matter and they're specific.

There are five things he flags. I'll do the two that catch people off guard the most, and the rest are in the guide.

First one: know what's included. Because some of these programs cover only cleanings. Others do crowns, dentures, implants. You cannot assume. If you need a crown and you sign up for a program that only covers cleanings, you've wasted a trip.

That one can really catch people off guard. So ask before you go. The second one that I think people underestimate is this: get it in writing. Ask for a written treatment plan with prices before any work starts.

It's the one move that gives you real information instead of just a gut feeling about whether you're getting a good deal.

Same instinct. Good instinct. And Ian also flags that a lot of these lower-cost clinics want payment up front, so go in knowing that, don't be caught off guard by it.

Strict, is the short answer. He says lower-cost clinics often have strict cancellation rules. So if something comes up, call them as soon as possible. Don't just no-show, because you could lose your spot or have other consequences.

Which, if you're going to a dental school or a federally funded clinic, you're already in good shape. But it's worth knowing that the standard doesn't drop just because the price does.

That's really what it comes down to. More time, less money. For a lot of people in retirement, that math works.

Time is the one thing you potentially have more of. Using some of it to save real money on dental care is not a bad deal.

And they're not mutually exclusive. You could go to a dental hygiene clinic for your cleanings and a community health center for bigger work. Mix and match based on what you need.

Neither had I until I read this. Ian's piece kind of repositioned the whole thing for me. It's not find the one perfect option. It's build the approach that fits your situation.

All four of those things affect which options make the most sense.

Not just a list of options, but one who can look at your specific situation and say here's where I'd start.

And part four is coming, which is going to look at what the dental benefit in your Medicare Advantage plan actually covers. Which I'm told is a very different conversation than what people assume.

There usually are.