Dental coverage is a scam. I priced dental insurance for my startups for three years. The only plans available to companies with less than 50 employees have benefit caps that were less than the cost of the yearly premiums! You get "free" cleanings and x-rays but it still makes much, much, much more sense to take the cost of the premium and put it in a health savings account for your employee to spend on dental care (or any other qualified medical expense).
At least in my area (NYC) the value of dental insurance is also they negotiate very low prices with their providers. For a root canal the difference was 50%.
I don't have numbers, but back when I had no dental insurance, my dentist reduced the price without any prodding. I'd be surprised if this wasn't common.
Even medium to large company dental plans tend to have around a $1500 coverage cap (at least in Washington state). I priced out a couple of these as an individual to see if it made sense for me, and it ended up being something like $600 per year for $1000 max coverage that only covered 80% of the actual cost incurred.
Depends on where you live: around DC, the rates for dental coverage are about equal to the cost of your yearly premiums but the companies have negotiated pricing maximums which are significantly cheaper than what you'd pay out of pocket unless you love haggling.
