Our Dental Membership Plan

What the DNTL SPOT membership plan includes

The membership plan is a single annual payment of $359 that covers the preventive care most people need in a year, and discounts everything else. For one person, for twelve months, it includes:

• Three cleanings. Most dental insurance covers two. The third matters more than it sounds — patients with a history of gum inflammation do measurably better on a three-visit cycle, and under insurance that third visit is usually out of pocket.
• Two comprehensive exams, including the full gum charting and oral cancer screening we do at every dental checkup.
• X-rays. The diagnostic images that find decay between teeth and infection at the root tip, neither of which is visible to the eye.
• One emergency visit. An urgent exam and the X-ray that goes with it, which we would otherwise charge $79 for. Worth having in place before you need it.
• Up to 20% off dental procedures. Applied to treatment at our regular fees — fillings, crowns, root canals, extractions and the rest.
• Access to 0% interest financing for up to two years on larger treatment plans.

That is the whole plan. No tiers to compare, no add-ons, and no fine print that turns up at the front desk afterwards.

What it costs, and how the math works

$359 a year is under a dollar a day. The useful way to judge a membership plan is not the headline number but what you would have paid without it.

Price out three cleanings, two comprehensive exams and a full set of X-rays at standard fees and you are already past $359 before a single filling. The plan is built so the preventive half of your year pays for itself, and the discount does the rest.

Where it pulls further ahead is on treatment. Twenty percent off a crown, a root canal or a set of fillings is real money, and unlike an insurance plan there is no annual maximum that stops paying in October. If you need a large treatment plan this year, the membership plan discount applies to all of it.

We will do this arithmetic with you honestly. Ask the front desk to price your specific treatment plan both ways — as a member and as a non-member — before you join. If the plan does not save you money, we will tell you so. It is not in our interest to sell a membership plan to somebody who will not use it.

Membership plan vs. dental insurance

This is the question worth getting right, because a membership plan and an insurance policy are genuinely different products rather than cheaper and dearer versions of the same thing.

A membership plan is a direct agreement between you and this practice. You pay us, we provide the included care and discount the rest. There is no insurer in the middle, which removes most of what people find exhausting about dental benefits.

• No waiting periods. Insurance commonly makes you wait six months for basic work and twelve for major work. The membership plan is active the day you join, including for treatment you already know you need.
• No annual maximum. Most dental policies cap out around $1,000 to $1,500 a year, which is less than a single crown and root canal. Your discount has no ceiling.
• No deductible to satisfy before anything is covered.
• No pre-existing condition exclusions. The cracked molar you already have is treated like any other.
• No claim forms, no pre-authorizations, no denials. Nobody reviews whether your treatment was necessary after the fact.
• No missing tooth clause, the exclusion that catches people out when they finally go to replace a tooth lost years ago.

What insurance does better: if an employer is paying the premium, insurance is usually the better deal, and you should take it. A good PPO with a $1,500 maximum that costs you nothing beats any membership plan. We are in network with fourteen PPOs — Aetna, AlwaysCare, Ameritas, Anthem, Cigna, Delta Dental, GEHA, Guardian, Humana, Lincoln Financial, MetLife, Principal, United Concordia and United Healthcare — and if you have one of those, we will verify your benefits and use them. We do not participate in Medicaid or Medicare.

The membership plan exists for the people in between: self-employed, retired before Medicare dental coverage they assumed existed turned out not to, between jobs, on a plan that excludes dental, or paying for an individual policy whose premiums and exclusions make it poor value. For those patients a membership plan is usually the better arithmetic, and always the simpler one.

Who the membership plan suits

It suits you if:

• You have no dental insurance and are paying out of pocket anyway.
• You are self-employed or retired and looking at individual dental policies that cost several hundred a year before they pay for anything.
• You have treatment you already know you need and cannot wait out an insurance waiting period.
• You have a treatment plan large enough that an annual maximum would run out partway through.
• You want your family covered without comparing policies — each family member can join the membership plan individually.

It is probably not for you if:

• Your employer already pays for a decent PPO. Use it — we will bill it.
• You are on Medicaid or Medicare, which we do not participate in.
• You genuinely only come in once every few years and do not intend to change that. The membership plan rewards people who show up, and it is priced around three cleanings a year.

What the membership plan does not cover

Worth stating plainly, because plans that hide this are the reason people distrust them.

It is not insurance. It is a membership that includes specific preventive care and discounts everything else. Treatment beyond the included visits is discounted, not free.

Restorative and cosmetic work is discounted, not included. A crown, a root canal or a set of fillings comes off our regular fee schedule with your member discount applied.

Care we refer out is not included. Surgical implant placement, complex endodontic retreatment and some oral surgery go to specialists we work with, and those practices set their own fees.

It cannot be combined with dental insurance. If you have coverage we will use it, which is almost always the better outcome for you.

It is non-transferable and tied to this practice. If you move away, it does not travel with you.

It runs for twelve months from the day you join, and renews annually.

The Invisalign member offer

Members get a separate offer on Invisalign that is worth understanding before you decide, because for the right patient it pays for the membership plan several times over:

• A free Invisalign consultation, including the digital scan and a preview of your finished result before you commit to anything.
• $500 off Invisalign treatment.
• Free teeth whitening afterwards, once the aligners come off and the attachments are removed — which is exactly when whitening works best and gives the most even result.

The arithmetic is straightforward: the $500 discount alone is more than the annual membership plan fee, and the post-treatment whitening is a further saving on top. If you were considering Invisalign this year, joining first is simply the cheaper order of operations.

How to join, and when it starts

Joining takes a few minutes at the front desk or over the phone. There is no application, no underwriting, no health questionnaire and nothing to be approved for.

1. Call (516) 226-9160 or mention it when you book online.
2. Pay the annual fee by credit or debit card — Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express are all accepted.
3. Start using it immediately. Your membership plan is active the same day, with no waiting period, and you can use it at that very appointment.

That last point is the one people do not expect. If you come in for an examination, find out you need work, and join on the spot, the discount applies to that treatment plan. You are not waiting six months for it to take effect.

Using your membership

Tell us you are a member when you book, and again when you arrive. We check the membership plan is current and the discount is applied to your estimate before treatment starts, not worked out afterwards.

You still get a written treatment plan with costs itemized before anything begins — membership does not change that. What changes is the number at the bottom.

Your whole family can join. Each person holds their own membership plan, so a household of four holds four memberships rather than one shared allowance that runs out on whoever books first.

For larger treatment plans, the 0% interest financing runs alongside the membership plan rather than instead of it — you take the member discount first and then spread what remains over up to two years. Details are on our financial information page.

Serving Hewlett and the Five Towns

We are at 1455 Broadway in Hewlett, with free parking outside. Members come to us from Cedarhurst, Lawrence, Inwood, North Woodmere, Lynbrook, Far Rockaway, East Rockaway, Atlantic Beach, and Valley Stream.

Monday, Wednesday and Sunday hours make it realistic to actually use three cleanings a year without taking time off work, which is the difference between a membership plan that saves you money and one that sits unused. New to the practice? Our new patient resources page explains what to bring to a first visit, and our services page covers what we treat.

More questions about the membership plan

Is a dental membership plan the same as insurance?

No. Insurance is a policy with a third-party insurer, with deductibles, annual maximums, waiting periods and claims. A membership plan is a direct agreement with this practice: you pay us, we provide the included care and discount the rest. Simpler, and with no ceiling on the discount.

What happens if I need major treatment right after joining?

Your discount applies immediately. There is no waiting period and no pre-existing condition exclusion, so a tooth you already know is a problem is treated like any other.

Does the membership plan cover treatment at 100%?

No, and any plan claiming that deserves scrutiny. It covers the listed preventive care in full — three cleanings, two exams, X-rays and one emergency visit — and discounts other treatment by up to 20%.

Can I join for just one visit and then cancel?

The membership plan runs for twelve months from the day you join. It is priced around a full year of preventive care, so it works out best for people who use all of it.

Do I have to pay monthly?

No. It is a single annual payment of $359, which works out at under a dollar a day. We are happy to discuss 0% financing for treatment costs on top of that.

Is there a limit on how much I can save?

No annual maximum, which is the main structural advantage over insurance. Whether your treatment plan is $400 or $9,000, the member discount applies to all of it.

What if I already have dental insurance?

Use the insurance. We are in network with fourteen PPOs and will verify your benefits and bill them directly. The membership plan is designed for patients without coverage, and the two cannot be combined.

Can children join?

Yes. Each family member holds their own membership plan, including children, and each gets the full set of included visits.

Does the emergency visit expire if I do not use it?

It is included in your twelve-month membership plan and does not roll over. Most members never need it, which is the point of having it in place beforehand.

Where can I see the full fee schedule?

Ask at the front desk or call (516) 226-9160 and we will price your specific treatment plan with and without the membership so you can compare real numbers rather than percentages.

Check Time Slots Call (516) 226-9160