Best Dental Insurance Companies for October 2025

Delta Dental is the leading provider of standalone dental insurance and is a great all-around choice, especially if you think you’ll need a fair amount of dental work. The plan Investopedia analyzed provides excellent coverage for all three levels of care (preventive, basic, and major) and the highest maximum coverage limit of the 17 providers we researched. We gave the company high marks because of its low complaint record. 

To come up with the top dental insurer list, Investopedia examined each company’s PPO (preferred provider organization) plan that had the lowest premiums and provided coverage for all three tiers of care. For Delta, that’s the Premium PPO plan. It covers 100% of preventive care, such as exams and cleanings, before you have to meet the $50 to $100 deductible. 

Depending on your state, the plan covers 50%-80% of basic care (such as fillings), major care (such as implants) after you’ve paid your deductible and met a waiting period of six to 12 months. Those coverage percentages are about as good as it gets for lower-premium PPO dental insurance.

Even better: Your maximum coverage limit is $2,000 to $2,500 each year, depending on your state. That’s the highest max Investopedia found among the competition. 

The tradeoff is your premiums may be higher for this Delta Dental plan than for plans at other insurers. And note that this plan is not available in every state. 

Delta’s customers seem to be very satisfied. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) complaint index shows Delta customers made a lot fewer complaints to state regulators than expected for a company of its size. 

Delta Dental also beat out the competition to win a few other categories in our analysis.

Best for Braces

Delta tops our list of the best dental insurance providers for braces because it offers:

• the most PPO and health maintenance organization (HMO) plans with adult braces coverage
• the highest lifetime coverage
• the best orthodontics coverage of the companies we researched

Best for Implants

With the Delta Dental Premium PPO plan, you get 50% to 60% coverage for tooth implants, and you may have a shorter waiting period than with competitors’ plans. Those factors put it at the top of our list of the best dental insurance for implants.

Best for Older Adults

Older adults may be more likely to need major care, such as dentures and periodontal treatment, and the Delta Dental Premium PPO provides great coverage for those services. Its implant coverage also helps make Delta the best dental insurance for seniors.

The Physicians Mutual plan we examined has the best costs relative to the value it delivers. The Economy Plan has a relatively low premium with no deductible or cap on annual coverage. Investopedia also gave the company points because it operates in most states and has a large network of providers. 

On the downside, customers don’t seem to be thrilled with the company. Physicians Mutual garnered slightly more complaints to state regulators than expected for a company of its size over the past three years. And the company’s underwriter, Ameritas, came in dead last in the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Dental Plan Satisfaction Study.

MetLife takes the title of best dental insurance with no annual maximum, thanks to its two HMO plans with no coverage caps, low premiums, and no waiting periods. HMOs dominate the field of plans with no annual maximum, so for this category, we primarily examined HMO plans rather than PPOs. 

One of the main drawbacks with MetLife is that you can only buy its no-annual-max plans in California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. And if you get one of the plans, you’ll need to make a copay for most services, including preventive cleanings and office visits.

As with most HMO’s, you have a much smaller choice of dentists than you would with a PPO.  

Ratings are mixed regarding MetLife’s customer satisfaction. In the J.D. Power dental plan survey, MetLife scored below average but still ahead of some large competitors. But relative to its size, the company received fewer complaints to state regulators over three years than expected.

Among the companies that offer dental insurance with no waiting periods, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield shines. The sample plan we examined has low costs compared to its large coverage cap. It also covers a relatively high percentage of the heftier expenses associated with basic and major dental procedures. 

All of the plans we combed through for this category let you use the insurance right away for preventive, basic, and major care expenses. But Anthem’s Essential Choice Incentive policy has the best annual coverage limit Investopedia found for plans in this realm, with coverage maxing out at $2,500 a year. While the plan’s deductible ($50) is about average, once you’ve met it, you get some of the Dbest coverage (60%) for basic services and major care (30%) we saw. 

However, this coverage comes at a cost. Premiums for the Incentive plan are relatively high. And it may not be available in all of Anthem’s limited coverage area of 14 states. 

DentaQuest gets very few customer complaints compared to its size, and it ranks above average on the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Dental Plan Satisfaction Study. Both of those factors show customers are generally satisfied with DentaQuest.

The sample plan Investopedia analyzed, the Personal Dental Plan Plus, has relatively low premiums and fully covers preventive care before you have to pay a deductible. It pays 50% of eligible basic care expenses and 30% to 50% of covered major care costs (depending on your location), which is not bad.

On the other hand, the plan has a higher deductible ($100) and premium than some competitors and a lower ceiling on how much it will cover in a year ($1,250). And there is an 18-month waiting period for major care such as root canals. 

The Personal Dental Plan Plus is available as a PPO in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia. It’s available as an EPO in Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. The EPO does not cover any out-of-network care. 

Spirit’s monthly premiums are the lowest of any company we considered for this list. For example, with the sample plan we examined, the monthly premiums are about one-third Delta Dental’s for the lowest-priced PPO that offers preventive, basic, and major care coverage. And most Spirit plans have a $100 lifetime deductible, which could save you hundreds of dollars over the years. 

Spirit offers plans with no waiting periods, some with coverage caps as high as $5,000 by the third year. 

That said, the company’s annual coverage limit on its cheapest PPO is low in the first year, giving it a poor cost-to-value ratio, according to Investopedia calculations. 

Spirit is also stingier than the industry standard in how it classifies some types of care. For example, X-rays are not considered preventive care on some plans and, therefore, are not eligible for 100% coverage. And unlike many competitors, Spirit classifies fillings as major care rather than basic care that gets more coverage. The most Spirit will pay for fillings in the first year is 50%. But at year three, you can get up to 80% of the cost of fillings covered.

One other thing to keep in mind is that Spirit’s underwriter, Ameritas, seems to have issues with customer satisfaction. Customers made more complaints to state regulators about Ameritas than other insurers of similar size. It had a worse complaint rate than 10 other companies Investopedia analyzed and was ranked last in the J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey.