Tax deduction question - insurance co-pays/non coverages

This is a stupid question I know, but I am on TD more than any other site and I figure you guys could explain this better than trying to read things on the IRS site or results from google.

Got married last April, I am an independent contract, wife is a teacher. We have insurance (medical, vision and dental) through the county school system.

In each of the three cases, there are caps on what they cover - say with the dentist they only cover 50% of certain items, or with the eye doctor they will only do up to a certain amount for frames, so we have had to pay something to both the eye doctor and the dentist this year. Can we claim the out of pocket costs as a tax deduction?

Also, in the case with the dentist, we were there the Monday before Thanksgiving; they submitted the entire cost of the visit to the insurance co. Got our end of the year statement from the insurance company within the last couple of weeks, saw that they only covered a portion of the visit. Got a bill from the dentist yesterday for the unpaid portion. If I write a check now and mail it, can the expense be counted toward 2011 and claimed on the taxes we are about to file, since the cost was incurred in 2011, or since the money didn't come out of pocket until 2012 are we not able to count it?