The Advantages of a Dental Plan in Brazil
HAVANA TIMES – After having that tooth extracted at the Instituto Odontológico de las Américas (IOA), I realized that dental problems can last a long time. And it’s not that the prices there were the highest, although they are not cheap, but when you add up all the treatments I need, the total amount would be too much.
Then I thought it was time to get a dental plan, but how? Which one should I choose? Where should I go?
I asked advice from a brother in the church I attend whose work is related to this area, and he recommended DentalUni. I remembered that when I worked at Condor supermarket, I had signed a contract with that company, but I never used it, and when I left my job, it was automatically canceled.
To be honest, I still don’t know how everything works. I’ve just signed a contract, naming my wife and daughter as beneficiaries. The plan costs 107.70 reais per month, and it’s a basic plan, which doesn’t include more expensive procedures like braces.
Depending on the number of people you include, the number of services you want, whether you want the plan to be activated immediately or to take a few months to start, the price can range from 24.00 to more than 200.00 reais per month.
Then you download an app where you can unlock your virtual card, which will be used to access the plan until your physical card arrives, which takes about 30 days, according to them.
I had some trouble with it because, like most computerized systems in this country, it doesn’t work very well. Sometimes it’s slow, other times it simply crashes, and in general, they have user-unfriendly interfaces.
Although I signed up for a basic plan, it includes over 50 procedures, including periodontics, which I made sure to check.
The monthly amount to be paid is manageable for our family income, which currently is around 5,000 reais (about 800 dollars), although for low-income families, it’s a bit less feasible.
The current minimum wage in Brazil is 1,500 reais.
I haven’t sought the services of any clinic yet. But everything can be done through your virtual card. You can search for the nearest clinic and set up a convenient day and time.
Read more from Osmel Almaguer’s diary here. He’s a Cuban living in Brasil.