Rob needs to have his wisdom teeth out. Before our consultation appointment, I looked around on the internet to find out what kind of cost I could expect for this, and whether there was any possibility of it being covered by health insurance (we don’t have dental insurance). I came away from that research having only the vaguest idea: some people said their health insurance covered it, some people said it was covered only if surgery was required (that is, not if the teeth could be pulled), others said health insurance never covered it no matter what; some people said the anesthesia alone was $2000, others gave that as the total cost of the whole procedure. My guess is that some of the cost varies based on where people live, and the rest varies based on what the situation is with the wisdom teeth themselves (that is, how complicated the particular set will be to remove).
I felt I wasn’t getting ANY solid information, but I did come away with two valuable impressions:
1. It was not likely to be covered by health insurance.
2. It was likely to be a “thousands” expense, as opposed to “hundreds” or “tens of thousands.”
Something I found soothing is that many people reported their dental insurance DID cover it, but only a percentage of it, or only up to $1000 of the cost, or other things of that sort. (I would not have found this soothing if we DID have dental insurance.)
Anyway, I can now add our particular numbers to the huge and varying collection on the internet. The consultation with the oral surgeon was $275. That included x-rays, because the dentist who referred us had done only bite-wings and not whatever kind it was she needed. If you have dental insurance that will cover x-rays at the dentist office but not with an oral surgeon, this would be good to know.
Our health insurance won’t cover it, as I suspected. “Only if needed as a result of traumatic injury,” the billing clerk told us. “So, if I were to hit him with a bat….?,” I suggested. “It would be a very difficult angle to get right,” the billing clerk said.
The cost of the wisdom-teeth removal will be almost exactly ten times the cost of the consultation: $2,740. That covers two teeth that are totally sideways and under the gums ($670 each), and two teeth that are at the normal angle and have broken through the gums as they should ($500 each). (The oral surgeon: “He’s teething!” Swistle: “No wonder he’s so cranky.”) It also covers half an hour of IV unconsciousness ($400). The procedure will be done in the oral surgeon’s office, not at a hospital.
So from now on, my mental estimate of wisdom-tooth removal is $3,000. To give you an idea of costs in my area, my experience-based mental estimate of what braces cost is $6,000.
About 4 years ago, I had the unfortunate luck of needing my wisdom teeth out (I suppose I am late bloomer in the teeth dept because I was in my mid-20’s). I ran the numbers, too, and learned it would be decidedly cheaper to have them removed at the dentist’s office versus the oral surgeon. Though I did live to tell about it, in retrospect, thousands of dollars would have been well worth it to not have to endure that procedure fully awake and without a Xanax. Also, dental insurance is like an oxymoron or something. I think we pay a monthly fee to be told, “No, that won’t be covered either.”
I love the billing clerk.
My husband didn’t have to have his wisdom teeth out. I am hoping our kids inherited that.
THANK YOU! for you advice about the dentist. I do have dental insurance, but it is really crappy dental insurance, except for routine care like x-rays. Making sure that the dentist does the most extensive and necessary x-rays in office during our annual visit will allow me to save a fair amount of money in the long haul. I am so happy I read through this post.
Also I think the billing clerk was quite quick on her feet and clever with a response.
Chiming in to agree with Sarah – i beg of anyone considering it, even if it’s cheaper, DO NOT get wisdom teeth removed by a dentist. It is reeealllly a surgery one should be knocked out for. I too speak from experience, and it was NOT a good experience.
My oral surgeon gave me two options, to either be put completely under or to just have laughing gas and still be sort of conscious. I did the latter and that was fine for me. Not sure if everyone is given the option, though. The pain came later when the laughing gas wore off and the Xanax made me vomit.
(This is a different Alice than the writer of the post I am replying to.)
And by Xanax I meant Vicodin. I apparently shouldn’t be commenting on posts this close to my bedtime.
When I had mine out (all four) the oral surgeon told me that my insurance would only pay for 30 minutes of being out and he recommended I pay for another 30 minutes, just to make sure I didn’t wake up in middle if things didn’t go smoothly. I paid, I didn’t wake up and I’m glad. :) I feel like waking up in the middle would be a million % worse than being awake the whole time.
Long story short – check on the time.
My health insurance covered the bulk of the cost of mine, with the rest (the cost of the actual office visits maybe? The bills were Byzantine) covered by the dental insurance (which I no longer have). The major drawback was that the health insurance would only cover them being removed as they became impacted, not all at once– so I had them out in pairs between age 19 and 23. I remember at 17 running into a dentist who wanted to knock me out and take them all at once following a cleaning (!!) but my mother was with me for the appt and of course wanted to check the insurance beforehand… Hence I ended up waiting.
One word of advice: the full anesthetic is likely really, really unnecessary. For one, it’s by far the most dangerous part of the procedure. Secondly, it’s expensive (some practices push it, sadly, as a money maker). And finally, local works fine even when the teeth are really impacted. Mine were super impacted by the time I got them extracted (and none had surfaced at all) and the oral surgeon was able to do each tooth in less than 10 minutes. I had local anesthetic, not full, each time, and I’m really glad. (Even for the one he went at with a saw type thing!) It was horrible, but not as horrible as waking up from anesthesia. And it was over fast.
This was 5-7 years ago, so costs were of course lower than they are now, but I’m in a large city where things are generally very expensive. I remember it costing around $600 per tooth, which the insurance covered all but $75 of for each one. No cost for the Novocain. And the one extra impacted one was around $800. I’m sure it would have been a lot higher with full anesthesia.
Another tip– if Rob doesn’t need them out pronto, and he’s likely to go away full time to college & have the college health/dental insurance plan, he could wait.
Oh, well– reading the other comments, it appears I’m in the minority opinion about the anesthesia! Local was fine for me, but then I’m really leery about the complications possible with full. I was more scared of that than the extraction.
Also, rereading, it sounds like Rob needs them out sooner rather than later :-/
Local was fine for me too (back 22 years ago). My dad was a dentist. He took me to his friend, the oral surgeon (free!). I got a vicodin IV – the doc told me I’d feel like I just drank a 6 pack. Since I was 19 and my dad was there (and I wasn’t really a drinker) I was mortified. But he was right, I was fascinated that he was yanking out teeth and I didn’t feel a thing. I do remember the surgeon and my dad chatting so much during the procedure that I was like ‘hello, you’re only halfway through yanking things out of my head!’ but I didn’t mind because I felt nothing. Frankly, I can’t imagine needing more than a local, I didn’t even know they would actually put you under for this procedure.
I had twilight sleep for my wisdom teeth and it was fine–not general (which I have also had and which is WAY worse!)
I wonder if Twilight Sleep is what Rob is having, or if it’s general anesthesia. She referred to it as being “out,” but $400 seems too cheap for general anesthesia. I looked up Twilight Sleep and it mentions “IV sedation,” so perhaps that’s what she’s talking about. The other options she mentioned were Novocaine and “light sedation,” so maybe instead light sedation is the Twilight Sleep. I sure hated coming out of general anesthesia. My mom has had Twilight Sleep for a few procedures, and says she doesn’t feel conscious during the procedures, and wakes up easily, feeling as if she’s had a refreshing nap.
My dentist suggested I had my wisdom teeth out a few years ago (I declined as they aren’t bothering me and came in fine) and the way he described the sedation sounds like the twilight sleep. He said that I’d be basically conscious during the procedure, able to respond to requests and such, but very relaxed. However, I wouldn’t remember anything about the procedure afterwards. Honestly, I think it sounds creepy, but that could just be me. I never had it priced, so I comment there.
so I *can’t* comment there.
(And btw, he wanted them out because they aren’t the easiest to thoroughly clean around as they are way back there.)
My dad is a dentist, and I’m 99% sure it’s twilight sedation. Full general anesthesia requires being in the hospital and being intubated so your airway stays open. Twilight and IV sedation are the same thing, and are also used for other medical procedures like colonoscopy. It’s called twilight because you can still respond to some commands, like “open your mouth”, but you won’t remember anything. I’m guessing the drug they use is Versed. Also, I highly recommend picking up Rob’s prescriptions before the surgery, because the last thing you want to do is stop at the drug store on the way home. Good luck!
I’m sure this type of thing isn’t all over the place but one option is to volunteer for research and they pay you to get them removed…well at least I think they did years ago because we have friends who used them with all of their kids but it looks like now this group just does it for free.
http://www.ppdi.com/Participate-In-Clinical-Trials/Volunteer-for-a-Study/Dental-Research-Clinic.aspx
Anyway, don’t know if this is an option for anyone else out there where they are.
Two out of my three children needed wisdom teeth removed. Even with Insurance it was about $800 out of pocket. (per child) Thankfully, they were at different times so we could be prepared and not go hungry for months. It is so common and so many people get it done. We had it done in the dentists office and they both were put out. Thankfully, my daughters take very good care of their teeth and it has worked out well. 16 years of pediatric dentistry and all three with orthodontia. Dentist visits are so expensive and in our area, there are few to choose from. Good luck on this journey!
I am hoping the girls inherit my teeth – I only had one wisdom tooth, and it was the kind they could just pop out like a regular tooth, no surgery required. Otherwise I had best start saving now. Sigh. Thanks for managing my expectations / mentally preparing me far in advance, as always!
Yup, that’s pretty much what it cost for my husband to get his taken out. About $1500 per tooth. So, $6000 for all four. Then, he needed to get root canals and crowns on the four molars next to the wisdom teeth, because the rot there had spread to those molars. Another $1500 per tooth. We’ve spent almost $15K this year on his teeth (a few more thousand on some gum surgery thing too). Moral of the story? Don’t neglect your teeth. Don’t avoid the dentist for 15 years, because it will cost you BIG TIME. Kids, the dentist is your friend.
Daaaaang! I was a college student when I had mine done and had a small dental policy through my job and I think I paid about $1000 out of pocket. I only had Novocain and it wasn’t terrible. 2 of mine were growing sideways under my teeth as well though, and being awake while they were prying them out was not my favorite thing.
Does Rob get nauseous from pain killers? I do, though I was unaware at the time, so I spent a great deal of time throwing up the evening of my surgery—not an easy feat when you can hardly open your mouth. Just something to keep in mind for him.
This time last year I had to get emergency wisdom surgery. Ugh that was expensive and painful. I also remember waking up during the surgery and crying. My total bill was $2100 but I had to pay $700 upfront, then there were some smaller bills after that. I’m sorry Swistle. It sucks.
My personal opinion on the general anesthesia is that it is SO INCREDIBLY WORTH IT. I had my wisdom teeth removed with local only (wide awake for the whole thing) and while it doesn’t HURT, it is still incredibly scary and traumatic what with the pressure and the sounds of someone RIPPING YOUR TEETH OUT. I’m no wuss (unmedicated childbirth, etc) and it has really negatively affected my anxiety at the dentist and this is YEARS later. *shudder*
That was not meant to be a horror story, as all turned out fine, just a soothing comment re: spending the money.
Chiming in with total opposite: I had all four of mine out in two separate rounds and the second included horrible wrenching/drilling/breaking of the teeth into pieces to extract (not to mention complications included dry socket later)…but for both rounds, I was awake the whole time with nothing but local novocain, and it was really OK. And I’m not a particularly medically stoic person…more like the passes-out-when-giving-blood type. I don’t mean to discount or downgrade your experience at all!!! But I’m glad I didn’t do general anesthetic or even the light twilight type, because those would (I think) have left me feeling groggier and worse.
Definitely the oral surgeon is the way to go. Years ago my husband’s dentist offered to do it. Little did we know local anesthetic wears off very quickly in him, and the teeth were terribly impacted. Several hours after when he was supposed to be done, I picked him up only having had one out and he had had 3 or 4 or 5 shots of local.
Years later he went to an oral surgeon for the other 3 and was in and out in less than an hour.
I think insurance covered mine–I was about 19–but it was SO not fun. Best wishes to Rob…and healthcare in this country is SUCH a clusterfuck.
I had four wisdom teeth removed when I was 17. I also had several pieces of wire removed at the same time. I was given gas anesthesia and didn’t feel pain, but I could hear a disturbing crunching noise from the teeth being removed. The oral surgeon also had to tell me to close my eyes a few times, I guess I was still nervous even with meds?
I ended up being out of school for the rest of the week after the extractions. I mostly slept a lot, mostly due to painkillers I was on. The day after the extractions, I couldn’t open my mouth enough to insert a spoonful of food, so I ended up on liquids for a day or so and not the mushy foods we had bought!
All four of mine were sideways and I believe after insurance, each $250-$350 to remove. I had a Benny card through work that year though, specifically for this surgery. So jihad it slowly taken out of each paycheck, which was the only way I ever could have done it.
I had anaesthesia as I didn’t know there was another option…but I went to a surgeon after being referred by my dentist so that must be why? I took one vicodin afterward and felt completely drunk so didn’t take anything else. I had no swelling and very minor pain. I hope the same for Rob!
My oldest had his out a few years ago at the oral surgeon. It was supposed to be something like $2000 for the whole thing (all 4, IV sedation, etc) with our insurance telling the billing people ahead of time that it would be covered as a dental expense, so they would pay “80%, but only up to $1500 for the whole year of dental expenses,” so we ended up paying something in the $1200 range. (Our insurance is one plan, one administrator, for both medical and dental. Plan document was vague as to whether this should be considered a medical or dental expense.)
Then the billing person tried filing a medical claim on it anyway “just in case” and they paid. As did the dental. So the oral surgeon sent us most of our money back. Much happy dancing here.
Point being, it may be worth asking the billing people to file with your medical, even if you medical said it wasn’t covered.
My son had his out last summer and I just looked up the EOB and it was $2360 total for all 4. $505 for the two impacted, $420 for the partially impacted and $300 for the one they could just pull I guess. Then $585 for 45 minutes of IV sedation. There was another $45 drug but I couldn’t tell what it was. The online EOB wasn’t complete though and it didn’t list what we had to pay of that and I don’t remember.
I let my son go for the sedation. He’d just recently had two other surgeries so he knew what anesthesia was like and that’s what he chose. When I had mine out, I opted for local and nitrous. The nitrous didn’t work on me so I just ended up with local. It worked out fine though the surgeon tried to scare me (whether that’s what he was trying to do or not) into being knocked out when I got there that morning. “These are pretty tough extractions, I really think you should go for sedation.” I’d do it with just local over again.
We just had Man-Child’s out in December. It’s better to get it done when they are young. My boss had his out the week before Man-Child. Man-Child recovered quickly; but the boss had all kinds of issues. We have dental insurance and still had to cough up $900. I wasn’t pleased about that. Now there is a Care Credit card which can be used for these types of things; if the doctor is a participant. The only problem is, if you don’t pay off the balance within a certain time frame the interest rate is sky high, but that might be helpful.
I don’t know how much mine cost, but it maxed out my dental insurance for the year and then I had to pay for a handful of cavities out of pocket. Not my favorite thing.
But, I got a weird tip from a doctor that made recovery WAY easier: an IV of vitamin C ahead of time. I ended up convalescing while staying with my mother and her friend (they’re a doctor and a nurse), and they said it was the fastest recovery they’d ever seen. Kids’ veg-applesauce packs are the best thing ever. A stack of re-freezable gel packs was my favorite thing ever.
I had mine out years ago – they were impacted and had to be cut out (just on the bottom, the top ones were no issue). I believe the oral surgeon used twilight sedation. I remember having to count backward from ten, and then I woke up after it was over feeling groggy, as if from a really heavy nap. No idea on the cost, though – I was still on the parents’ payroll at that point so they paid it. I didn’t have to have braces or any orthodontia though, so I guess based on this I was cheaper than my sister, who never had wisdom teeth but tons of retainers and expanders and braces and whatnot. You’re welcome, Mom and Dad!
my 22 yo son had his out right before Christmas. He opted to skip the anesthesia because he wanted to be aware of what they were doing (he hopes to go to med school). He followed the instructions religiously and never got dry socket but did get a muscle cramp in his jaw that was excruciating. He used all the vicodin and a refill for that. We finally got the dr to look at it because they refused any more pain meds and he put in a shot of novocain that relieved the cramp.
replying to my own post. Cost w/o anesthesia was $2000; he is on a medical plan through his college but that only covered injury. I just couldn’t hit him with a bat…….
Huh, this is fascinating. I had mine out maybe 2 decades ago by a dentist with novocain and never really contemplated anything different. I will say getting mine out took awhile — he had to break one tooth while it was in its socket and later told me that “I’ve never seen a wisdom tooth in quite that position.” And my dentist (whom I liked lots!) was probably in his 70s (so had seen lots of wisdom teeth). But it was fine (take chapstick!). The one thing I wish we’d done differently is — get the prescriptions for pain killers/anything else (antibiotics? I cannot remember) one or more days before the extractions because really, you don’t want to be done with it and heading home and then have to run to the drugstore to get them (or take Rob home and then leave to go get them). That’s what we ended up having to do and that? Was annoying.
I have zero recollection of what mine cost to have out. And yeah — dental insurance? Not very useful.
The only thing I have to add here is that Rob should 100% take advantage of any kind of “laughing gas” offered to him. I remember being totally zen before I got my wisdom teeth taken out even while watching the nurse spend 15 minutes on failed attempts at finding a vein to hook me up to the IV.
ours pays 100% after so many years of dental records accrue so after I hit 100% I had mine pulled–but we still had to pony up cash to get IV sedation–it was roughly 1800 total for 2–I only ever got two LUCKY! ME! so it sounds like you’re getting a fair deal?
now I need braces at 44 and wow they don’t pay for that AT ALL, of me, all kids under 18 get a certain percentage of it paid for
I would recommend having them out with just local anesthetic. Sure, it’s not fun being awake and hearing the sawing and grinding, feeling a pull. The hygienist there told me to bring headphones and crank my music up whenever I was bothered by the sounds. It helped a little. I’m not traumatized. Recovery was fine, but I hated that they told me I couldn’t spit. Just let blood and saliva dribble out of my open mouth.
But it was between $500 – $900, for all 4 teeth, vs the $2000 – $3000 to be sedated. If a dentist you trust would do Rob’s teeth much cheaper, he might be willing to accept $300 to be awake during the procedure, and you would still save.
The portion of the cost that is for sedation is only $400. Our dentist is the one who referred us to the oral surgeon; he didn’t offer the option of having him do it himself, he just said “He needs to see an oral surgeon.”
My daughter is 20-and for 5 years at every visit to the dentist-they predict absolute disaster that her wisdom teeth haven’t been removed. “They must go now!”, and when I say our insurance doesn’t cover it even half of it, they make me feel like a total jerk for not coming up with the $3000 to do it now. I finally told them, I don’t want to hear about it anymore. We will do it when we have the money, and not before. They don’t bother her at all, they don’t crowd her other teeth. I have my wisdom teeth-they never caused me any problems at all. She is in college so still on our pathetic excuse for dental insurance-but I am so of the opinion “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” this kind of knee jerk-they have to come out, really irritates me.
Our oral surgeon seems really good about that: she says wisdom teeth don’t need to come out unless they’re causing trouble. (Rob’s are about to undo $6000 worth of orthodontics, among other issues.)