By having a dental insurance policy, perhaps found for you by a good dental insurance broker, you get frequent specialist help, to keep your teeth and gums in good shape, provided by help you could not provide on your own.

With the costs of dental treatment (which ranges from regular check ups to root canals and beyond), rising at a greater pace than inflation, it's always a good policy to shop around.

Which, of course, is time-consuming and, frankly, can be very confusing, unless you find someone like a dental insurance broker, who really knows what they are doing.

The hassle of it all could easily put the most determined of dental insurance shoppers off for good - and that's a shame, because the right policy can be a great deal and ensure that you and your whole family have a budgeted way of maintaining your dental health.

Step in dental insurance brokers, whose reason for being is to sell policies that are right for their customers. They make a commission, that's true, so they have a vested interest in selling the right business.

Key facts about dental insurance brokers:-

1) They make a commission from selling you the policy

2) Sometimes they make a bigger commission for different insurers, so they could have a big interest in selling you something that might not be quite right for you

3) The commission could be a one-off or it could be paid monthly (which might be in your interests as they need to sell you a product that is right for you, or you could stop)

4) The good ones build their businesses on referral, so doing a good job is vital

5) They often get better deals than you could on your own, because they can buy policies in bulk

6) There are times when they get special promotions not available to the public

7) As a one stop shop dental insurance brokers can save you time and money

8) If a policy is not working well, they may work on your behalf to tell the supplier and get it fixed

9) Once in, you can forget about big bills - you know what it is going to cost you every month

10) Because of their buying power, dental insurance brokers can sometimes get a quicker start up on your cover (often there is a time-lag when you start off in case you had underlying teeth problems)

Using a dental insurance broker means that you maybe pay a little extra as part of their commission. this is offset by their buying power, which can bring discounts.

When you have a dental insurance broker working with you, listening to your needs and providing a dental insurance policy that fits what you and your family want, they can save you time and hassle, as well as maybe even being a bit cheaper too.