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Guardian® Dental Insurance Review


ConsumersAdvocate.org Rating: 9.8 / 5 ()
164 Customer Comments & Reviews - see all comments
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Guardian Direct is a division of Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, which is among the largest mutual insurance companies in the nation. Founded in 1860 and headquartered in New York, Guardian offers a wide array of products, including dental insurance. Guardian employs numerous agents across the country and holds a superior rating with the BBB and excellent ratings for financial stability.

Guardian Direct® Dental Insurance - Overview

Guardian Direct's dental insurance is part of a series of comprehensive individual insurance products offered on guardiandirect.com, including accident, critical illness, vision and pet insurance. 

Guardian Direct dental insurance plans can cover regular exams, cleanings, x-rays, root canals, crowns, implants, and braces. Consumers can choose from a number of Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans or a Dental Health Maintenance Organization (DHMO) plan based on their needs, budget, and state.  


 

Qualification

Consumers interested in dental insurance from Guardian Direct can enroll immediately through their fast, safe and secure website guardiandirect.com.  Guardiandirect.com also provides a provider lookup to help find a dentist in the Guardian network or confirm their existing dentist is a part of the network. 

After providing their zip code, applicants are shown the plans that are available for them in their area.  To purchase, they need only enter who needs to be covered, home address, phone number, gender, birthdate and email address along with a valid form of payment.  


Plans

Through Guardian Direct, consumers have access to three tiers of PPO dental insurance plans. The first, Bronze, is for people who are only expecting to get cleanings and the occasional filling. The second, Silver, works best for those who anticipate needing dental work beyond the occasional filling. And the third, Gold, is best suited for people who want the maximum amount of coverage possible. In the states of FL, IL, NY, and TX, DHMO plans are also available. The PPO plan tiers' offering is as follows:

Coverage

Preventive services include the most routine dental services, such as oral exams, cleanings, and X-rays.

Basic services include dental services, such as fillings and simple extractions.

Major services include more complex dental services such as crowns, oral surgery, and implants.

 

GUARDIAN DIRECT PAYS

PLAN BENEFITS

GOLD ADVANTAGE

SILVER ADVANTAGE

BRONZE ADVANTAGE

Preventive Services

100%, No Waiting Period

80%, No Waiting Period

100%, No Waiting Period

Basic Services

70%, After 6 Month Waiting Period

50%, After 6 Month Waiting Period

50%, After 6 Month Waiting Period 

Major Services

50%, After 12 Month Waiting Period

50%, After 12 Month Waiting Period 

0% (Not Covered)

Implants

50%, After 12 Month Waiting Period

50%, After 12 Month Waiting Period

0% (Not Covered)

Child (under 19) Orthodontia

50%, After 12 Month Waiting Period

0% (Not Covered)

0% (Not Covered) 

DEDUCTIBLES

 

 

 

Preventive Services

$0 In-Network

$50 Out-of-Network

$0 In-Network

$50 Out-of-Network

$0 In-Network

$50 Out-of-Network

All Other Dental Services 

$50

$50

$50

MAXIMUM PAYOUTS

 

 

 

Total Benefit Maximum

1st Year Max: $500

2nd Year Max: $750

3rd Year Max: $1,000

4th Year & Beyond Max: $1,500

1st Year Max: $500

2nd Year Max: $750

3rd Year Max: $1,000

4th Year & Beyond Max: $1,000

1st Year Max: $1,000

2nd Year Max: $1,250

3rd Year Max: $1,500

4th Year & Beyond Max: $1,000

Implant Maximum

Lifetime Max: $1,000

Lifetime Max: $700

Not Covered

Child (under 19) Orthodontia Maximum

Yearly Max: $500

Lifetime Max: $1,000

Yearly Max: $500

Lifetime Max: $1,000

Not Covered

Dental Insurance at Guardian Direct

Guardian Direct's easy online enrollment process, comprehensive plan breakdown, and supplementary research material all make for a solid choice of dental insurance. After consumers answer a few questions designed to determine which plans best suit them, they can begin the enrollment process. Since Guardian Direct is highly rated by the BBB, consumers should have confidence that the company can meet their dental insurance needs.


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164 Customer Comments & Reviews

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markhhunt
6/21/2022
I'm not going to spend any more hours of my time trying to get back into my account with Guardian. It was a working account and then they broke the website AND NOW NOTHING THEY DO WORKS TO GET ME BACK INTO MY ACCOUNT AFTER 5 CALLS AND HOURS ON THE PHONE AND COMPUTER. So I hope that bill gets paid somehow..... Customer service is polite but completely ineffective. This company does not have a Twitter account that I can see.


D
David B
3/17/2022
Absolute worst! Like other comments here they can't even recognize any of the 3 "Member #'s they provide on bills & website AFTER 4 MONTHS OF MEMBERSHIP. Payments set up on their website keep getting cancelled because they don't recognize the ID# then after 4 months of this they cancel the policy!! Even though I paid the 3 payments over the phone when their system rejected. The customer Service agents are idiots and will not even send you to a supervisor for help. Oh and their mailed notices are a month old when you receive them. AND they don't send any email notifications. THE WORST.


kkamath
2/24/2022
Absolute worst. After 5 months and 5 calls and hours of wasted time providing documentation they do not resolve claim and keep asking for same thing. The call center folks are absolute worst as well as there is no online paper trail of all the documents we submit on any claim. I have no idea how such a company can be in business, and even more surprised how companies (like my employer and other credible Fortune 500 companies) can use them for employer provided insurance.


dgrant1983
2/15/2022
Good coverage on paper, but terrible policies that never allow you to use the full value of their benefits. By far the worst dental insurer I have ever been offered through an employer. Slow to pay providers, old crappy website, dental policies from the 1970's when silver fillings were all the rage.


marusja732
2/7/2022
I purchase the Guardian Dental through marketplace and paid first month premium. Few weeks passed but no ID card has been received. I tried to sign to my account online but their system informed me that they do not have me in their database. Since then I've been calling Guardian every other day just to hear that they report my problem to the "back office" and it "will be resolved in 3 to 5 business days". It's been a month already for Christ sake! Few calls back Guardian rep even gave me my "ID number" which still is not recognized by their system. Does mistrial "back office" even exist? If it does what takes it so long to enter my info in the proper database? In the meantime they have no...Read More


rjmaddale
1/30/2022
I believe ConsumerAdvocate and others sites serve badly potential customers. Their reviews are based on company literature, rather than actual experiences. Would we base a car's safety performance on manufacturer's promises? Regardless of ConsumerAdvocatereviews, our experiences have been so far from positive that I've reported Guardian to the BBB and to my state's insurance commission for potentially breaking state mandates. 1) Website quoted us a premium, which their agent confirmed. She called a week later to apology that both quotes were wrong for reasons she could not explain. I'm sorry now that we agreed. Even to this day, Guardian website quotes are less than we actual...Read More


jasminemurrell
1/13/2022
This company is a scam and advertising for dental services that you will never receive. They take people's money during a vulnerable time when people are seeking medical care and promise something that will never be delivered. For two years I was paying money to this dental insurance company and never being able to reach a dentist in good standing to take care of a tooth. The first dentist was known on the reviews to remove the wrong tooth. It's evil they pry on the poor people trying to take care of themselves and only taking their money and promising to provide a service which they will never give.


D
David L
1/11/2022
I have been with Guardian Dental for a few years. My dentist is complaining about having to re-submit claims for work done, provide a lot of additional information, and then when you do pay the check bounces!!!! My company is paying for the coverage so what is the problem and why are you writing bad checks? My dentist tells me that, at a lot of conferences, they have said that Guardian has quit paying the bills since August last year.


J
Jeffrey M
11/22/2021
Their website is terrible. Very slow and not user friendly. I have had to call them more than once because they incorrectly denied a claim. Each time they reprocessed and paid the claim.


P
Paul
11/19/2021
I started Guardian Direct dental insurance on January 1. 2020 and finally used it on September 9, 2021, for a routine checkup. Not only have they NOT paid anything for that $288 checkup bill, but they refuse to refund me for my November premium, given I canceled my policy on Oct. 31, 2021, and have been on Medicare since Nov. 1st. I told them I canceled my Guardian policy on healthcare.gov, but they told me I had to cancel a few days earlier or by Nov. 5, and I had to call them. I was never warned about this, and I told them I am discontinuing my coverage, don't have any claims for November, so why steal my money? They said it was company policy (to steal money??), that it wasn't ...Read More



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