Ameritas Dental – cleaning not covered?

I've been living in the US for 6 years but I just now got the courage to see a US dentist. Before doing anything they required a comprehensive exam (a lot of xrays and poking in my gums) and concluded what I went there for in the first place: I need cleaning (I assume ultrasound, just like in europe?) The exam was covered at 80% – why? My Ameritas dental benefits distinguish 3 types of measures: preventative: 100%, basic: 80%, major: 50%. I can't imagine exams to be anything than preventative measures – how do you prevent something from happening if you don't even know it's there?

Anyway, the dental office gave me a treatment plan that says the cleaning is $85:

"scaling with severe gengiv" (the assisstant who measured my gums said it's not serious, but the treatment plan says "severe"…) – $61 "top fluor varnish: appl mo" (my old dentist in europe used to spread something on my teeth after cleaning, so I assume this is it) – $24

But the insurance covers $0 out of this. Why? Again, this sounds absolutely like preventative measure, everyone is getting their teeth cleaned at least once a year if not twice (I hope), how is this not covered at all? What can I do to verify with my insurance? Should I wait for some claims to appear in my ameritas member profile?

submitted by /u/Fadeev_Popov_Ghost
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