Dental Insurance vs. Discounted Dental Plan

I'm still struggling with this decision.  My new job doesn't provide dental insurance and my husband's work only offers a plan through Aflac.  I don't like Aflac.  I've had policies with them before and found filing claims to be a pain.

I'm not sure dental insurance is worth the expense.  A plan that is similar to the type of coverage that we are used to will run us about $100 per month.  We'd get free cleaning twice per year but for fillings, spacers or other work, we'd still be responsible for anywhere from 40% - 60% of the cost. Most have a $150 family deductible and a cap of only $1000 in coverage per person per year.

$100 x 12 = $1200 per year in premiums for the possibility of getting $4000 in dental bills covered + free cleanings.  We've never actually hit our max before though.

In 2014, we paid $80 per month for dental insurance through my employer.  My work did cover a portion of our premiums so I'm not sure exactly what the total premium was.  It was better coverage than what we will get paying $100 per month buying the insurance policy on my own.

In 2014, we paid about $650 out of pocket and the insurance covered $1327 in Dental work for our family of 4.

So for $960 in premiums deducted from my paycheck, we got the discounted rate that the insurance company negotiated with the dentist on many procedures and they paid out $1,327. Definitely seemed worth it. But like I said, I don't know how much my employer contributed to the premiums and we won't be able to purchase that good of coverage on our own.

I had planned on setting the $100 per month aside every month and just paying out of pocket. Based on our dental expenses in 2014, it looks like that won't be enough.  I'd need to save closer to $200 per month.  And then I have to consider the fact that insurance companies usually negotiate a lower price than what I would get.

My other option would be to purchase a discounted dental plan.  I've looked at some from $100 - $200 per year that would give us a discounted rate at the dentist.  There are so many options though, its very confusing.  Each plan has different networks of dentists and percentage discounts.

Has anyone had any experiences they could share about either purchasing their own dental insurance or having purchased a Discount Dental Plan?