{"id":128677,"date":"2024-03-21T22:52:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T02:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=128677"},"modified":"2024-03-21T22:52:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T02:52:05","slug":"having-and-using-dental-coverage-benefits-overall-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=128677","title":{"rendered":"Having and Using Dental Coverage Benefits Overall Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0<\/strong>THINK<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the latest health and insurance issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Poor dental care not only raises the risk for several serious medical issues, it also costs families and businesses. Americans lose 92.4 million hours of work or school each year due to unplanned, emergency dental care.<\/p>\n

Brushing, flossing, and getting routine dental checkups can do more than brighten your smile. A growing body of research shows they can improve your overall health and reduce your chances of life-threatening medical conditions like heart disease and cancer.<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0research has shown<\/a>\u00a0improper oral healthcare can raise the risk for several diseases and conditions, including arthritis, diabetes, pneumonia, and respiratory infections. Oral health issues can even impact fertility and contribute to pregnancy complications like premature birth and low birth weight.<\/p>\n

Dental health problems also can lead to costly workplace absenteeism and lost productivity.\u00a0One study calculated<\/a>\u00a0Americans lose 92.4 million hours of work or school each year due to unplanned, emergency dental care.<\/p>\n

For businesses, this\u00a0means offering employees dental coverage\u00a0\u2013 and encouraging them\u00a0to use\u00a0it\u00a0\u2013\u00a0can lead to a healthier workforce far beyond their teeth and gums.\u00a0Studies show having and using dental coverage can help avoid costly hospital and ER visits. That can translate into fewer missed days of work due to medical issues and a more dependable workforce \u2013 saving both employers and employees money in the long run.<\/p>\n

A\u00a02022 national study<\/a>\u00a0confirmed the cost savings that come from routine dental care, finding \u201cpreventive dental care is strongly associated with significantly lower healthcare costs.\u201d The study followed nearly 12,000 adults with diabetes and\/or coronary artery disease over a five-year period. Those who saw a dentist at least once a year spent about $550 less per year on healthcare costs compared to those who did not have a dental visit.<\/p>\n

Capital Blue\u00a0Cross\u00a0uses a comprehensive\u00a0approach to\u00a0encourage\u00a0employees\u00a0in its group plans<\/a>\u00a0to make the most of their dental\u00a0coverage.<\/p>\n

First,\u00a0it\u00a0offers plans\u00a0with low or no member cost-sharing for diagnostic and preventive services. Preventive dental care is one way to help ease the financial burden of chronic health conditions. In addition, Capital includes enhanced dental benefits to treat gum disease for members with certain chronic health conditions. The enhanced dental benefits are available on most dental plans.<\/p>\n

To encourage use of the dental benefits,\u00a0Capital\u00a0engages\u00a0in ongoing communication and education about its\u00a0dental plans.\u00a0For customer companies,\u00a0Capital\u00a0can provide\u00a0a\u00a0dental wellness awareness toolkit, with resources\u00a0that\u00a0explain\u00a0the benefits of\u00a0oral\u00a0wellness.<\/p>\n

And for those who cannot easily fit a dental visit into their busy schedules,\u00a0Capital even offers a teledentistry app<\/a>\u00a0that provides convenient access to licensed dentists without an office visit. The app, which can be downloaded on your smartphone or tablet, provides consultations, second opinions, and follow-up care.<\/p>\n

You can find more useful articles at\u00a0<\/strong>https:\/\/thinkcapitalbluecross.com\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nJERRY REIMENSCHNEIDER
\nSenior Public Relations Specialist | Brand & Market Strategy
\nhttps:\/\/www.capbluecross.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0THINK\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the … Continue reading Having and Using Dental Coverage Benefits Overall Health<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-think"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/denist.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}