Shoreline dentist, Eric Yao, is now offering the Quality Dental Plan, an innovative healthcare solution, to his patients. Along with other forward thinking dentists, Yao developed the Quality Dental Plan, to help families and individuals afford quality dental care.

“Statistically speaking, more than 60 percent of Americans don’t have dental insurance,” Yao, whose dental practice is located at 1515 N. 200th St., said in a press release. “This means that a large majority of people here locally delay dental procedures, which is not good for dental health or overall healthcare.”

In an effort to find an alternative to the available insurance, he worked with his front office team to figure out how much money was going to insurance companies, claim forms administration and collections costs.  They also calculated how many hundreds of extra dollars families were spending by not catching potential problems that they could have found during a simple annual dental exam.

After discussing the numbers with other dentists across the country, Yao determined that they could offer their patients free initial exams, free exam x-rays, free teeth cleanings and as much as 20 percent off their usual fee structure by creating their own in-house dental savings plan.

“Even here in Shoreline we see kids in our practice who are in chronic pain because a simple cavity was not caught in time,” said Yao. “That cavity was not caught because the parents perceived that they could not afford dental care.”

The development of the cost-saving Quality Dental Plan, which the doctor says may prove to be a model for healthcare reform across the board, is something that Yao says he’s proud to be a part of.