I once went ten years without visiting a dentist. After I got married, my wife made me go. The dentist told me I could come back for a cleaning once a year if I really wanted to, but it wouldn't be necessary. If you take care of your teeth, you won't have to pay someone else to do it for you.
My FIL has been doing his dental in Mexico for close to 30 years, and he has zero complaints about their work. The only downside is that he only goes to Mexico once per year, so if he ever has a problem he may have to wait a few months to get it fixed. He's never had a problem so bad that he's paid a US dentist.
Isn't preventative care covered under all of the ACA plans? If you go that route, your ~200/year in cleaning fees is fully covered. I don't plan on any major expenses beyond that, but I also plan to have enough money in retirement reserves to handle the occasional emergency (roof, furnace, car accident, dental) without separately budgeting out each one of those as it's own expense category. They just go under "incidental irregular expenses".
Sol - Just have to point out you must be one of the lucky ones to have been born with good teeth and lower incidence of plaque buildup, as that is not something everyone has no matter how good their hygiene - it really is genetics. My husband brushes 3X daily with good quality toothpaste using a sonicare brush, flosses and uses anti-plaque mouth rinse daily. He still has to have cleanings every 6 months due to plaque buildup and has had crowns and cavities galore. He grew up with fluoridated water, and has always been pretty anal about his dental care so there is absolutely nothing he can do other than keep up his routine and continue to see our (excellent) dentist every 6 months.
Taking good care of your teeth and gums is a given, but sometimes your body has issues that make it necessary to have more frequent cleanings and that has nothing to do with how well you brush and floss.
You have to opt in for dental (and pay more) to get any tooth/gum coverage that isn't caused by illness or injury, so no, your yearly or 2X year visits for cleaning or x-rays is not covered under the ACA.
We have ACA without dental coverage. Our dentist discounts our visits for cash payments and our costs are under $350 for the two of us visiting 2X a year for cleaning/xrays (which was less than the yearly dental coverage cost). We figure if there is something like a crown or any large $$ procedure that is discovered, we can wait until the next open enrollment to add dental at that time. If it is an emergency, then we'll do the minimum needed to fix so there is no pain or difficulties eating/talking, and eat the costs for that since that's the gamble we're taking on not having dental coverage at this time. But we're also figuring that any major issues we should have fair warning about and be able to add the insurance before paying out thousands.
We're not technically doing a separate budget for dental or medical expenses; it's all rolled into the general emergency fund pool.