Dental Coverage for Fairfax County Families
Fairfax County is one of the nation's highest-income large counties, anchoring the DC metro's Virginia suburbs with Reston, McLean, and Tysons Corner — a massive concentration of federal contractors, tech companies, and government employees where many self-employed contractors and startup employees buy dental and vision coverage on their own.
Families buy dental coverage for two different groups: children and adults. Adult dental care isn’t an essential health benefit under the ACA, so a health plan in Virginia doesn’t have to include it. Fairfax County residents shop for health plans on Virginia’s Insurance Marketplace, and adult dental still has to be bought separately.
Adult Dental vs. Pediatric Dental in Fairfax County
Children and adults are treated differently: a Marketplace health plan must make dental coverage available for children 18 and under, in the plan itself or as a separate dental plan, while adult dental is optional. Check what your Virginia’s Insurance Marketplace plan already includes for the children before you buy a separate plan for them.
Under a family dental plan, each person’s claims count against their own deductible until the family cap is reached ($50 per person and $150 per family on SecureDental PLUS), and preventive care generally skips the deductible.
Choosing a Family Dental Plan in Fairfax County
Before you choose a plan in Fairfax County, look up each family member’s dentist in the plan’s own provider directory and call the office to confirm it is in the specific network the plan uses. Networks change, and a practice can be in one insurer’s network but not another’s.
If braces are likely, read the orthodontia terms first: plenty of dental plans leave them out, and SecureDental PLUS limits them to the Premium tier, paying 70% after 12 months up to $500 a year and $1,500 over a lifetime.
Check waiting periods before you buy. HealthCare.gov notes that separate dental plans can have waiting periods before they cover services for adults; on SecureDental PLUS, basic care waits 1 month and major care and orthodontia 12 months, while cleanings have no wait.
Know where the line sits: a dental plan covers care in a dentist’s chair, while an emergency department visit for a dental abscess or a jaw injury is a health insurance claim. Medicare’s hospital directory lists 3 hospitals with emergency services in Fairfax County, including Inova Fairfax Hospital, Inova Mount Vernon Hospital and Reston Hospital Center.
Call (713) 575-9904 to compare family dental plans for your address in Fairfax County, with the network checked before you apply.