The most common annual maximum on a dental plan is $1,000 to $1,500, and that ceiling has barely moved since the early 1970s. The American Dental Association made the point in December 2025: many plans still carry the same cap they used roughly fifty years ago. A maximum set in 1973 is, in plain dollars, still the maximum in 2026.
Run that $1,000 through the BLS inflation calculator and the erosion is the entire story. One thousand 1973 dollars buy what more than $7,300 buys now. The benefit a worker was promised has quietly shed most of its real value while premiums kept climbing. A single crown or root canal can use up the whole year of coverage in one visit.
Nothing in a standard dental plan ties the maximum to prices, so inflation does the cutting that no insurer ever has to announce. The cap stays a round, familiar number, and every year it pays for a little less of the same mouth.