While major medical plans often focus on covering costs for unexpected events like sudden illness or extensive surgery, coverage for long-term health through dental, vision and hearing (DVH) is sometimes undervalued or overlooked. These are important aspects of overall health that should be supported with insurance because each of them plays a fundamental role in our quality of life. Read more to understand the individual importance of each component and how supplemental DVH insurance can protect you throughout life.

Prioritizing Dental Health

Sophie, a nurse and mother of three, suspects that the brushing and occasional flossing she and her children do each week may not be enough to avoid certain medical conditions now or in the future. Her suspicion is not unfounded, as roughly 50% of all adults in the United States have mild to moderate forms of periodontitis, an advanced stage of gum disease, which involves chronic inflammation of the gums.¹ This condition may stem from poor or lack of consistent oral care from a younger age.

Research also suggests that such chronic inflammation increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.¹ Additionally, some bacterial and viral infections that originate in the mouth also appear to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.² This means going to the dentist regularly can be a vital, if not life-saving action.

Encouraging Vision Health

As someone that works late some evenings, Sophie is often driving home on dark roads which causes her eye strain. She also wears eyeglasses with a long-expired prescription, in addition to multiple hours a day spent looking at computer screens. The result is unnecessary headaches and difficulty focusing.³

Given her circumstances, she would benefit from a supplemental plan that helps ensure she stays current with her lens prescription which could help lessen her headaches and promote more focus.

Sophie also knows her children spend multiple hours a day on their digital devices. Additionally, children’s eyes are still developing and vision changes can occur rapidly. Ignoring the need for new glasses or contacts can lead to academic difficulties, hinder athletic performance and even contribute to developmental issues.³

But these problems can be prevented with DVH insurance that helps keep life on track.

Valuing Hearing Health

For many, you only have to open your front door to hear the sounds of traffic, sirens going off and music blaring from a restaurant down the street. These kinds of sounds are called noise pollution, which National Geographic Education considers to be any unwanted or disturbing sound that affects the health and well-being of humans.⁴ Decades of scientific evidence also show that noise causes or contributes to hearing loss, annoyance, sleep disruption, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disturbances and exacerbation of anxiety and depression.⁵

Sophie is all too familiar with the various sounds coursing through her home daily. Much of it is technology-based, with notification chimes from laptops and phones to videos streaming on big screens. She is aware too of the loud noises at her kids’ school and at their extracurricular activities. While Sophie can certainly take steps to reduce the noise in all their lives, it is also necessary to have coverage that supports everybody’s hearing health.

A DVH Insurance Solution

To help avoid certain health problems or mitigate the severity of them, caring for our dental, vision and hearing is vital. These three aspects require continual monitoring and maintenance throughout our lives. A great way to address them is with a dental, vision and hearing bundle plan that can offer multiple benefits as well as help protect individuals and families.

Dental, Vision and Hearing Select from ManhattanLife is an ideal option to support long-term wellness in these health areas. It offers financial protection in unforeseen situations that are painful, inconvenient and expensive. Under this plan, you can choose dental insurance only, dental and vision, dental and hearing or all three.

Overall highlights of this plan include being able to choose your dentist in network or out of network, along with glasses, contacts and hearing aid benefits. For Sophie, it means fewer surprises, improved budgeting and confidence that essential services are already covered. But this plan does not only work for individuals and families. It covers seniors as well.

From the Senior’s Perspective

Dental, vision and hearing care is a good habit to develop when you are young. All three can have a major influence on the quality of one’s health in their senior years. Medicare plans cover a lot, but for many older Americans, these plans usually do not pay for long-term dental, vision or hearing costs.

According to a recent survey, one in 12 seniors postponed or did not seek a consultation about their medical problem or get a recommended medical test, treatment or follow-up examination due to high costs.⁶ Supplemental DVH Insurance could make a difference for seniors during the years when they may need it most.

Is Dental Vision Hearing Insurance Worth It?

The human body is far too complex and unpredictable to not be proactive about these aspects of our health. That is why having a supplemental insurance plan in place is worth it, as it can offset the costs that may arise with appointments and treatment related to dental, vision and hearing.

Staying vigilant with your health is key and ManhattanLife offers this supplemental plan to help you accomplish that. Dental, Vision and Hearing Select can provide a steady foundation for supporting your health and financial peace of mind, turning proactive planning into meaningful support for years to come.

• DVH Select Web Page
• Speak to an Agent
• Become an Agent/Producer

Works Cited

1. The American Journal of Medicine. April 2024. Oral Health and Cardiovascular Disease. https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(23)00755-6/fulltext 

2. Harvard Health. January 2025. Gum disease and heart health: Probing the link. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/gum-disease-and-heart-health-probing-the-link  

3. Optometrist’s Clinic, Inc. Will Wearing Glasses with an Outdated Prescription Harm My Eyes? https://www.optometristsclinic.com/will-wearing-glasses-outdated-prescription-harm-eyes/  

4. National Geographic Education. March 2024. Noise Pollution. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/noise-pollution/

5. American Public Health Association. October 2021. Noise as a Public Health Hazard. https://www.apha.org/policy-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-briefs/policy-database/2022/01/07/noise-as-a-public-health-hazard   

6. The Commonwealth Fund. October 2021. When Costs Are a Barrier to Getting Health Care: Reports from Older Adults in the United States and Other High-Income Countries. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/surveys/2021/oct/when-costs-are-barrier-getting-health-care-older-adults-survey