Louisville Dentist Offering Dental Membership Plan- Sentinel News

SENTINEL NEWS
By Abby Walker

Friday, July 20, 2018
Shelbyville, KY

Millions of Americans do not have access to dental insurance, but one Shelby dentist is helping offset costs with his new dental membership plan.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, more than 108 million Americans did not have dental insurance in 2012. Children from families that lack dental insurance are three times more likely to have dental needs than children with public or private insurance. Lack of dental insurance among children is even more common than lack of medical insurance – for each child without medical insurance there are at least 2.6 children without dental insurance.

Dental visits are much more difficult to afford for those without dental insurance –costs can easily add up to hundreds of dollars. Because of this, people without dental insurance often fail to get dental care. But Dr. Mark Hewlett of Hewlett Family Dental is trying to make dental services more accessible to everyone with his new dental membership plan.
“We started our dental plan as a way to help our current patients and potential new patients offset the costs they would have when going to the dentist, and also help them have more of an avenue of success going into the dental office,” Hewlett said.

Hewlett said that many people stop coming in for dental care after they retire because dental insurance is one of the first benefits they lose. He said others fail to get dental care because their jobs never provided them with dental insurance in the first place.  So he decided to create a membership plan designed to help make dental care more affordable for these people.

The membership plan

Hewlett Family Dental offers various membership plans for different family sizes. An individual membership plan starts at $295 per year and the plans increase in size up to a family four, for a cost of $695 per year, plus $150 extra for any additional family members.

The annual fee includes:

• Two dental cleanings

• Two oral exams

• Four bite-wing diagnostic x-rays

• Two fluoride treatments

• Periodontal evaluations at each visit

• Oral cancer screenings at each visit

•Panorex every three years

The plan also allows patients to save 20 percent on general dental procedures.

“[We’re] just looking for an avenue to help people into the office. It’s not that uncommon nationwide to have offices offer [dental] membership plans,” Hewlett said. “We researched a lot of them throughout Kentucky and around the country, and decided that it was time for us to do it.”

Hewlett Family Dental has offered this membership plan for patients since March, and Hewlett says he is looking forward to more people signing up for the membership.

“Our goal is to help more people be able to have an avenue into the dentist and have them feel like it’s not too expensive to come,” he said.


For more information, visit www.hewlettfamilydental.com and click on the “membership info” option under “new patient form” tab to download the application. Then bring the completed application along with your payment to Hewlett Family Dental, 223 Midland Park, Shelbyville KY, 40065

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