Dr Pamela Moragliano Muniz never thought she'd end up fixing teeth for a living.

I thought I'd become I don't know a professional hockey player or something like that.

Her dreams of glory on the ice didn't pan out and her father suggested a dental hygienist school.

And I got right into dental hygiene school and who knew I absolutely fell in love with it I felt like I was finally going to school

with a purpose for the first time and I felt that if I was going to place my hands on another human

there's such a responsibility that comes with that.

Moragliano Muniz became a hygienist but she didn't stop there. She completed her doctor of dental medicine

degree, became a dentist, and in 2014 bought her own practice in Salem, Massachusetts.

She was excited to get to work, helping her patients, and building her business.

But she soon found herself spending much of her time

and navigating the complex rules of dental insurance plans.

For example, some plans only allow

two dental hygiene visits the year and sometimes it's twice within the

calendar year doesn't matter really when it is but then there's some that say no

no no we only allow two hygiene visits but they have to be six months and a day apart.

So you just have to kind of follow all of the rules of that plan.

In the course of sifting through the intricacies of these plans, Maragliano Muniz began to ask herself some fairly existential questions.

What is dental insurance anyway? Why isn't it part of medical insurance?

And what were her patients getting when they signed up for it?

Eventually, she came to a realization. I think the number one problem is the fact we call it insurance.

For the Freakinomics Radio Network, this is the economics of everyday things.

I'm Zachary Krakett.

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