A consumers may have a difficult time figuring out if their dentist is in-network or out-of-network. Some dental plans have multiple networks, and their dentists may participate in all or only some of them.

With a dental HMO insurance plan, members must visit their selected network dentist for treatment. If they visit another dentist, even if that dentist participates in the network in most cases the member will not be covered unless they switch to select that dentist as primary.

With a PPO plan, patients gain the flexibility to visit any licensed dentist, but can save the most money and extend their coverage by going to one of the plan’s select PPO network dentists.