( How to embed this graphic on your own website.)

What is our infographic about?

Medicare Advantage tends to market itself as an upgrade over traditional Medicare, in part because it can include dental coverage — something traditional Medicare has excluded since 1965. But when it comes to that coverage, there seems to be quite a mismatch between what people have and what they’re aware that they have.

That’s the mismatch our infographic explores. Nearly every Medicare Advantage enrollee has access to a plan that includes some level of dental coverage — and most are already enrolled in one. Yet, as our statistics show, a surprising number of them don’t realize it.

For those who’d like to dig deeper into what a Medicare Advantage dental plan can offer, our infographic also includes a checklist of the features found in the strongest plans.

What data is our infographic based on?

The statistics we’ve used in our infographic come from three different papers.

Cai (2025)

This study was the first of the three to catch our eye. The paper is titled: Use and Costs of Supplemental Benefits in Medicare Advantage, 2017-2021.

It evaluated self-reported survey results from over 21,000 Medicare Advantage enrollees and found that only 54% reported knowing their plan included dental coverage (the statistic featured in our infographic).

That was a bit surprising to us — that one of the major selling points of MA plans is the “extra benefits” that they often include, yet only a little more than half of enrollees reported that they were aware that their very own plan actually featured dental benefits.

Freed (2021)

The waste associated with the Cai study’s “46% unaware” statistic is even more astounding once you realize how common it is for Medicare Advantage plans to offer at least a basic level of dental benefits. Surprisingly, the vast majority do, as documented by this paper: Dental, Hearing, and Vision Costs and Coverage Among Medicare Beneficiaries in Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

This study found that 94% of Medicare Advantage enrollees are in a plan that offers access to some level of dental coverage (the statistic used in our infographic). In describing these plans, the authors also reported that:

• 86% of enrollees with dental access are offered both preventive and more extensive benefits.
• Among those with more extensive coverage, 78% face an annual dollar limit — averaging $1,300 — and 59% of those enrollees are capped at $1,000 or less.
• 64% of enrollees with preventive benefits (exams, cleanings, x-rays) pay no cost sharing for them, though an annual dollar cap still typically applies.
• The most common coinsurance rate for more extensive services, like fillings, extractions, and root canals, is 50%.
• About 10% of Medicare Advantage enrollees must pay a separate premium just to access any dental benefit.

As you can see from that list, what is offered can vary widely among plans. And for any consumer, sorting through and comparing plan specifics might feel overwhelming.

Simon (2025)

As an arbitrator of what dental benefits the best Medicare Advantage plans offer, we chose this paper: Medicare Advantage Dental Benefits: Comprehensive Coverage Available In Fewer Than Half Of US Counties.

This study evaluated the dental benefits offered by every Medicare Advantage plan nationwide in 2023, county by county, to determine how many counties had access to a plan meeting a genuinely comprehensive standard of dental coverage.

To make that determination, the authors set criteria — based on expert consensus and prior research — for what a truly comprehensive dental plan should include:

Dental coverage checklist —

• No extra premium for dental coverage. A comprehensive plan shouldn’t require you to pay an additional monthly premium — on top of your regular Medicare Advantage premium — just to access either preventive or more extensive dental benefits.
• No restrictions on covered services. The plan should cover the full range of dental care a patient might realistically need — not just cleanings and exams, but also restorative work (like fillings), root canals, gum disease treatment, extractions, and prosthodontic care (like dentures, bridges, or crowns).
• No copay or coinsurance for preventive care. Routine preventive services shouldn’t come with any out-of-pocket cost at the time of the visit.
• No prior authorization or referral required for preventive care. You shouldn’t have to get advance approval from your insurer, or a referral from another provider, before you’re able to schedule routine preventive dental care.
• Coverage for at least two cleanings a year. The plan should cover a minimum of two routine dental cleanings annually — the standard interval recommended for most adults.
• An annual benefit maximum of at least $1,500. This is the total dollar amount the plan will pay toward your dental care in a given year before you’re responsible for the full cost of anything beyond it. A higher maximum offers meaningfully more protection against the cost of more involved dental work.
• Coinsurance of no more than 30% on non-preventive services. For care beyond routine preventive visits — fillings, root canals, and similar treatment — the plan should cover at least 70% of the cost, leaving you responsible for 30% or less.

How realistic are these dental plan guidelines?

The list above comes from our Simon (2025) source, and that paper explicitly states that their definition of a “comprehensive” plan is their own defined standard, not an official government or CMS category. So, admittedly, those dental plan characteristics might be considered a bit of a pipe dream.

How likely is it that you can find that level of dental coverage in a MA plan?

That’s really the bigger question, and the Simon paper provides an answer.

When that standard was applied to the dental coverage of all Medicare Advantage plans nationwide, the results were striking. While 98.4% of U.S. counties had at least one MA plan offering some kind of dental benefit — with the average county having a choice of nearly 35 such plans — only 39.9% of counties had even one plan that met the full comprehensive standard. In the average county, only about 1.7 of those nearly 35 plans actually qualified.

What does that mean for me and which MA plan I choose?

Those numbers suggest it’s far from guaranteed that you’ll find a genuinely comprehensive dental plan available where you live — in fact, in most counties nationwide, none currently is. But that’s exactly why the checklist above is still important.

Since “dental coverage” can mean anything from a bare-bones preventive-only benefit to substantial coverage for major dental work, don’t assume all plans are equivalent just because each one advertises a dental benefit. Before enrolling — or if you want to check the plan you’re already in —

• Look up the plan’s Evidence of Coverage or Summary of Benefits document and compare it against the “comprehensive plan” criteria above.
• FYI: If anything is unclear, your plan’s member services line or your dentist’s office can often help confirm exactly what is covered.

And remember this…

Very few Medicare Advantage plans are going to check every box on that list — and that’s okay. But the “best” plan for you is probably the one that checks the most boxes. Even with some missing, each box that is checked still works in your favor, making that plan a meaningfully better choice than one that checks fewer.

How to embed this infographic on your website.

Feel free to embed this infographic on your own website. It must be shown in its entirety, without alteration. (Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.) The code below already includes a link back to us, so no extra attribution is needed on your end.

Instructions: Use the embed code found in the box below. If you have difficulty with getting the infographic to render properly, try pasting the code into your site’s raw HTML or code editor — not a visual/rich-text (WYSIWYG) editor. (In WordPress Classic Editor, use the Text tab; in the Block Editor (Gutenberg), use a Custom HTML or Code block.)

Want to learn more about dentistry?