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The main question people are asking is, “What’s the difference between Dental Insurance and Discount Dental Plans?" There are distinct differences between the way “traditional dental insurance plans" and “discount dental plans" work. As a general rule, dental insurance is utilized by large groups and businesses to cover their employee’s dental care. Dental insurance requires paying monthly premiums for defined coverage. Dental insurance is not readily accessible to individuals and families, unless provided by their employer.
Some drawbacks of dental insurance include annual spending maximums, deductibles, waiting periods for certain procedures, and limitations and exclusions on care. There are also tedious claims forms to fill out and submit. Dental insurance usually covers the cost of preventive services (such as cleanings and exams) only after deductibles are met. Annual deductibles vary from $25 to $50 per covered individual, depending on the policy. The cost of deductibles should be considered when calculating the overall costs associated with dental insurance. While you are able to use any dentist, the monthly premiums for dental insurance may be as much as $30 per month for individuals and over $100 per month for family plans.
Discount dental plans, on the other hand, are available for the millions of Americans that do not receive dental benefits through their work or business. Discount dental plans are designed to provide consumers access to dental networks at reduced rates. These plans, are commonly known as “referral" or “reduced fee" plans, and are not considered an insured dental plan.
Discount dental plans are affordable to join and are the most widely available dental programs for individuals and families. These discount plans work differently than dental insurance plans, yet provide consumers with real and substantial savings on most dental procedures. Discount dental plans are membership-based programs that usually provide coverage on an annual basis. Consumers pay a membership fee in exchange for secured discounts on most dental services, such as dental exams, routine cleanings, fillings, extractions, root canals, dentures, crowns, and braces.
These plans typically save our members 30% to 80% on most dental procedures when visiting a participating network provider. Most discount dental plans provide a “fee schedule" with the discounted fees listed out in the membership materials to ensure consumers will receive their promised savings.
While there are several differences between traditional dental insurance plans and discount dental plans, they can also be used together in certain situations to maximize savings.
Today's fervor for environmental preservation has also hit the medical industry as researchers, scientists and doctors are discovering the importance of the newest emerging field called environmental endocrinology. Doctors are now learning how environmental endocrinology, or the effect of daily stressors like light, food and crowding on multiple endocrine systems, controls the rate of aging and the quality of life. This also covers reproductive endocrinology, converging to become what we call menopause medicine.
Envronmental endocrinology has roots in the earliest calendars, which historically were lunar calendars, based on the time interval from one new moon to the next, or also known as lunation. In colder countries, the concept of the year was determined by the seasons, specifically by the end of winter. But in warmer countries, where the seasons are less pronounced, the Moon became the basic unit for time.
Calendar consciousness first developed in women because their natural body rhythms corresponded to observations of the moon, and as it turns out, 28 days is not the true average of the natural female cycle. In ancient mythologies it is clearly related to the full moon, but in the modern world the female cycle is disturbed by what some researchers believe to be the existence of artificial lights and the use of artificial hormones. Many light sources including TV and computer screens, have probably perturbed the female cycle, and shortened it.
A woman's menstrual cycle responds to many subtle environmental cues and one of these is the presence of other women. Those who work closely together, or who live together, can set off each other's menstrual cycles. It happens via pheromones-chemical substances that are secreted by the skin. After the nasal receptors pick up the scent, the pheromones stimulate their endocrine systems, driving their menstrual cycles towards a similar pattern.
There's also evidence for photoperiodicity controlling estrogen reception along with the obligate melatonin response. Melatonin blocks estrogen receptors. Once light increases with the waxing moon, melatonin secretion diminishes, and allows more estrogen.
Doctors who are studying environmental endocrinology are in the vanguard of an elite group of forward-thinking physicians and researchers trying to put the scientific method back into medicine, spearheaded by a researcher named T.S. Wiley.
The courses focus on the following topics: Insulin and cortisol metabolism over the course of a lifetime; the interplay of insulin, SHBG and estrogen; the effect of quality of sleep on sex steroid production; the seasonal variation in hormone fluctuation through shunt physiology; the action of sex steroids on immunological, emotional and neurological disorders; how to use the Wiley Protocol for the side effects of menopause, hot flashes, migraines, joint pain, incontinence, hemorrhaging, endometriosis, hypo and hyperthyroidism, fibroids, PCOD, insomnia, acid reflux, gall bladder disease, thinning skin, vulvodynia, low libido, IBS, depression and anxiety; the connection of insulin and sex hormones to cancer; C-reactive protein and cardiovascular risk: the eyes of the hippopotamus; non-Genomic actions of steroid hormones in the reproductive tissue; complex actions of sex steroids in adipose tissue; and the cardiovascular system and brain: insights from basic science and clinical studies
"Since my involvement with Wiley and environmental endocrinology, I have become more keenly aware of the nuances of hormonal interaction and understanding the molecular aspects of hormonal relationships," said Courtney Paige Ridley M.D."It answers the questions being posed regarding cancer and other dysfunction afflicting not only menopausal women but those women with significant alteration of cycle created by interaction with our estrogen toxic environment."