According to the Surgeon General, 164 million work hours are lost each year due to dental-related illnesses, and children miss 51 million school hours each year due to oral health issues.1 Providing employees and their families with dental benefits can help keep them at work and productive. Plus, preventive dental care can reduce the occurrence of costly dental issues.
A healthy smile is important—not only to oral health, but for overall health, too. Dentists can detect more than 120 symptoms of nondental diseases—including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and osteoporosis—during a routine oral exam.2 Having dental coverage helps members get the care they need to stay healthy while also helping to keep overall health care costs down.
1 Office of the Surgeon General, “National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health,” web.
2 James W. Little et al., Dental Management of the Medically Compromised Patient (St. Louis: Mosby, 2012).