Leading Dental Insurance Companies in 2023

Big Brands & Big Values

By Mark Kelsey Insurance Industry Expert & Author

Updated on May 22, 2023

Dental coverage is a unique field of insurance and several of its biggest brands are not known from other areas such as homeowners insurance or health insurance. This guide will provide a quick outline to help you with:

Important Dental Brands You Should Know

There are many dental insurance companies operating in the U.S., selling policies to individuals as well as groups (e.g. business employees, unions). Below are a list of dental insurance companies with whom DentalInsurance.com has positive customer service experience over a long-term period.

MetLife Dental

Metlife is the single largest insurer of dental care in the U.S. Their network includes over 146,000 dentists and related dental care providers (e.g. oral surgeons) and their negotiated dental rates are 30-45% less than average retail prices. To review plans from MetLife and learn more about the company, visit our resource on MetLife Dental. Examples of MetLife dental plans include:

Delta Dental

Delta Dental is a network of 39 independent companies operating under a shared brand (similar to companies using the Blue Cross Blue Shield brand). Together the 39 Delta Dental companies cover 80 million Americans, providing care through 128,000 dentists and over 198,000 office locations. For a more detailed discussion, see our article Delta Dental Insurance.
Examples of Delta Dental plans available at DentalInsurance.com include:

Guardian Dental

Guardian is a top-ten dental insurer in the United States, with over 120,000 dentists and related professionals in their network. Read more on our Guardian Dental page. Guardian's most popular plans include:

Renaissance Dental

Renaissance Dental's dentist coverage combines national and regional PPO networks to offer broad choice and value with over 300,000 dental access points nationwide. Their Indiana-based customer support operations answered more than 57,000 phone calls last year, with 99% of calls answered on first contact. For more information as well as sample plans, read our discussion Renaissance Dental. Our inventory of Renaissance dental plans include:

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield

Anthem has a wide selection of insurance plans, offering differing levels of service coverage and maximum annual benefits. Anthem dental insurance enjoyed a total dental membership above six million people in 2020. Learn more on our Anthem Dental page.
DentalInsurance.com's offerings of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield dental plans include:

Humana

While famous in the Medicare Advantage and health insurance markets, Humana also has a sizable dental insurance business. With a large variety of coverage options and 335,000 participating dentists, Humana is a major player in the American dental insurance market. Compare plans and learn more about the company by visiting our Humana Dental article. Examples of Humana dental plans include:

Ameritas

While not as well known as some of the other brands in this article, Ameritas has offered dental insurance since the late 1950s and vision insurance since the 1980s. Combined these lines of business produced $1 billion in revenue in 2020. Ameritas has one of the most largest dental networks in the country with approximately 557,000 access points. Learn more using our resource on Ameritas Dental. Examples of Ameritas plans available at DentalInsurance.com include:

Dominion National

Founded in 1996, Dominion National is an insurer offering dental and vision coverage to residents in the mid-Atlantic states. In this region, Dominion National has acquired over 900,000 customers. This membership represents a diverse collection of customers from individuals and employer groups to associations and municipalities. For more information, see Dominion National Dental. Dominion National's most popular plans include:

Nationwide

Dental plans from Nationwide are issued from a company that is among the biggest insurance providers in the world. Nationwide made $46.6 billion in revenue in 2020 and was ranked #2 in corporate life insurance, #8 in auto insurance, and #9 in commercial insurance. Our inventory of Nationwide plans include:

Empire BlueCross BlueShield Dental

New York State is the primary market for Empire BlueCross Blue Shield. They are individual licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, separate from other companies such as Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York, Highmark Blue Shield of Northeastern New York, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield.

Which Dental Insurance Company is Best?

Wall Street ranks dental insurance companies according to financial health, profits, and growth. Consumers, on the other hand, have much more subjective criteria for rating dental insurers. For example, which insurance company:

Has my dentist in-network
Covers the dental treatments I am most likely to use
Has coverage conditions that won ’t leave some of my dental care uncovered due to waiting periods or low limits on how much the insurance company will spend on annual dental care

The following are links to DentalInsurance.com resources covering plans with specific coverage considerations (e.g. no waiting periods, braces coverage, implant coverage, teeth whitening, etc.) that are popular with consumers.

Dental Insurance No Waiting Period

Waiting periods are insurance restrictions where a customer must be continuously enrolled in the plan for a given period (e.g. 6 months) before the insurance company will pay for a dental procedure restricted by the waiting period (e.g. a crown). Waiting periods are normally applied to high-priced dental treatments.
Interested in a dental plan with no waiting periods? See our article on Dental Insurance No Waiting Period which includes a list of plans across the nation that lack waiting periods.

Dental Insurance that Covers Braces

Most dental plans lack coverage for orthodontic care (such as braces) but there are plans on the market covering these services. To explore which ones are available in your region, see Dental Insurance that Covers Braces.

Full Coverage Dental Insurance

Dental benefits are not standardized but there are plans with benefits covering preventive, minor, and major dental care. This coverage is sometimes called "Full coverage dental insurance."”" Read our Full Coverage Dental Insurance resource for a more detailed discussion of full coverage as well as examples of full coverage insurance.

Dental Insurance Covering Implants

A dental implant is a metal post surgically inserted into the upper or lower jaw. The post operates similarly to a tooth root. A crown (or other device such as a bridge) is attached this post. Dental implants are a common procedure for people missing a tooth. The treatment is a major dental procedure and costs thousands of dollars so quality dental insurance is a necessity if you are facing this procedure. For more information on implants as well as examples of plans with implant coverage, see Dental Insurance Covering Implants.

Dental Insurance Covering Teeth Whitening

Many procedures in cosmetic dentistry are uncovered by dental insurance. Consequently, services such as veneers are typically paid out-of-pocket by patients with no financial assistance from a dental plan. However, an increasing number of dental plans are adding coverage for teeth whitening, which is among the most common of cosmetic dental procedures. Our page on Dental Insurance for Teeth Whitening includes a list of plans that cover some form of teeth whitening.