<p>We decided to trust the orthodontist - he has always been very conservative in his recommendations and told us that he didn’t just say “take them out” if there is room. He said that D’s mouth was a no brainer - no room. The oral surgeon agreed - not even a “hmmm.”</p>
<p>Waiting,</p>
<p>I’m 19 and just finished my first year of college. My pediadontist started paying attention to my wisdom teeth when I was like, 16 because I’ve had such problems with my teeth (to the tune of braces for 7 years!). He seemed to say the same thing your son’s oral surgeon said…that they could cause problems if they fully erupt, but the odds of that happening are pretty slim. I really haven’t had time to meet with an oral surgeon and schedule a time to get mine out, so I still have them.</p>
<p>Around Christmas my top left one started coming in. It hurt like hell for probably a week or so (man, I don’t miss teething!) but I don’t even notice it anymore. Besides a little bit of that one growing in (and it didn’t even come in fully), none of them have erupted or caused me any problems.</p>
<p>I plan to keep mine unless they start messing up my teeth.</p>
<p>Many of my friends have gotten theirs out. Some of them are fine by the end of the day, some of them take a few days to heal, and some of them have taken a week or more. For the most part, none of my friends were in much pain after 4-5 days post-op, so if you son has to get them out it probably won’t be some hugely debilitating ordeal. Good luck!</p>
<p>I remember the removal of my wisdom teeth at 18 as a painful affair (to me 4-5 days of mouth pain is a lot.) That said, they were painful before the removal, and the orthodontist agreed with the need to remove them. My husband actually has a few of his wisdom teeth, which are fine. One of his came in at a later age, and was removed due to decay some few years later.</p>
<p>On a strictly personal note, after a dentist “redid” my “old” filling last year, and the tooth has been bad since (fine according to him, but it is in my mouth.) I will get quite a few opinions before I have a procedure in the future, especially for something that is not hurting at the time.</p>
<p>S has been visiting a dentist for a few years. This dentist had recommended he get his wisdom teeth out. After procrastinating awhile, I switched his dentist to mine (who’s practice is much older and more established) but not as convenient. </p>
<p>Anyway, after the first visit, when they did the panorex (sp?), I fully expected to be advised once again to get the wisdom teeth out. This dentist in fact said that it wasn’t necessary. So now, I have two opinions and a kid who will no longer have dental insurance after 5/2009.</p>
<p>Now what?</p>
<p>If the teeth have erupted, dental insurance covers. If they are impacted and not erupted, then medical insurance covers. Both claims will have to be made for my D. The coverage gets very confusing.</p>
<p>Our health insurance did not cover non-erupted wisdom removal. It was under our dental insurance, which is lousy, but the oral surgeon waived the 40% of the charges that the dental ins did not pay! I told him I would give him lots of referrals. Everyone’s insurance is different.</p>
<p>My childhood dentist did not think that mine needed to be removed. Fast forward thirty years and it turns out that they needed to come out. With that much time having past the root systems were much more difficult to deal with and they were a bear to remove - natural childbirth was nothing compared to the discomfort after this procedure. I looked like I had been in a prize fight. </p>
<p>Just my humble opinion but if there is any question at all, get those babies removed when a teenager.</p>
<p>I just got a call from the oral surgeon’s office telling me that, after insurance, it will cost about $430 to remove the four.</p>
<p>Question: do you think wisdom teeth are there, evolution wise, to replace broken/lost teeth? Like, a new set available to fill the gap of a lost tooth?</p>
<p>I happened to have enough room for mine and they all four grew in with no problem.</p>
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<p>No one told me that Shark Week on CC was **this **week!</p>
<p>Our insurance doesn’t cover oral surgery. My D is rarely home and not long enough to take care of this. She had a consultation this morning for wisdom teeth extraction in NYC, where she goes to college and also works in summer as she has one week off this summer and scheduled the surgery that week in NYC. My other D had had hers out in our state back in HS prior to college. The prices my D was quoted this morning for her surgery (which was a range per tooth, plus the consultation fee for today and the IV sedation) sounded very high to me compared to what I recall for my other kid about four years ago and also in comparison to fees I am researching online. Anyone care to share what they paid? She paid the consultation fee this morning and has the surgery lined up for next month.</p>
<p>I had three. When I was 20 the dentist told me to have them out and I never went back to him. In my 30s, one came in…plenty of room, but it didn’t come in all the way and was a pain to keep clean so I had it out (at age 48) with sedation. I hurt TERRIBLY for about a week. My oral surgeon’s response: “You aren’t 16; healing takes longer.” So…if you think they need to come out, healing as a young person is typically faster than healing several decades later.</p>
<p>The other two remain. My teeth are a bit cooked anyway, so no big deal if the other move a bit. If I’d spent money and time on braces for a kid, I’d be a bit more concerned about it.</p>
<p>Don’t post much, but had to answer this. I had my bottom 2 wisdom teeth out 2 weeks ago today–one side is still painful, I’m in my 50s. Had tops out in my 20s but dentist said didn’t need the bottoms out, they hadn’t erupted. Fast forward, one bottom one erupts 2 yrs ago and keeps causing pain and is eroding rapidly, dentist said to get it out, and get the other one out too because it has a cyst around it and the procedure will get more painful the older I get. So, my recommendation is get them out while young!!! I too looked like a prizefighter for a week, I was afraid people would think my husband hit me I looked so bad! Missed 2 days of work from pain, still hurts if I talk too much, although it’s getting better daily now. </p>
<p>Both my kids had them all out around age 19-20, but both had impacted ones, and they definitely did not take as long to heal as I am taking!</p>
<p>Everyone,</p>
<p>Thanks for your input. We were told our bill will be about $500 after insurance. We are not worried about the money, since we had already put the money aside in our flexible spending account (we actually put more than that, becase we had estimate). If he doesn’t do it, we will have to find a way to spend that money. You see, since DS had braces not long ago, I thought that he would have to extract the wisdom teeth for sure, so it was a total surprise when the surgeon said that that was not the case. He said that the teeth were done growing and that they were not doing anything do the other teeth. His reason for recommending extracting them was the same that many of you mentioned: easier done now than when DS is 45. But he was not pushy at all, saying that it would be totally okay not do it, as long as we keep an eye on them.</p>
<p>The one thing I didn’t like was that the oral surgeon said that DS would have to get those panoramic xrays every 2 years to make sure everything is okay. That sounds like a lot of xrays to me.</p>
<p>soozie - does the office know she will be a cash-paying customer? A lot of times they will reduce their fee if they don’t have to submit insurance claims, get pre-approvals, etc. </p>
<p>Will look up D2’s bill from last summer, although she only had two taken out then, and get back to you later (the charges can vary between upper and lower, depending on the difficulty of getting them out). BTW - we’re going to see her tomorrow in Kiss Me Kate! Which leads me to the same issue you’re having… if she continues to do summer stock, it will mean a very limited window of opportunity to take care of those other two wisdom teeth, except Christmas break.</p>
<p>Why can’t wisdom teeth be extracted BEFORE the wearing of braces? It seems that dentists want to slap braces on first, then no sooner are the braces removed, you are hit with needing to have the wisdom teeth removed. I have heard that there is some type of non-invasive type of wisdom teeth removal involving a laser? that can essentially zap the tooth before it has a chance to grow but that it has to be done while the wisdom teeth are still forming. This may be some type of hokey story, but I wonder if it is indeed true? And, I still cannot understand why, if othodontic work (braces) are going to be needed, wisdom teeth can be extracted first. Our son went thru the trauma and pain of braces (even tho I never really thought his bite or teeth were that out of alignment). I am not convinced that the dentist did not know that his wisdom teeth needed extraction at the time of braces. Just glad it’s all over and done at this point–but I do wonder??</p>
<p>I’d say that when an oral surgeon thinks you don’t need him to do a lucrative procedure, he’s probably right. As we lawyers would put it, when a person makes an admission against his interests, he’s usually telling the truth.</p>
<p>notre dame AL, I’m not understanding what wearing braces and having the wisdom teeth out have to do with one another.</p>
<p>Teri, thank you. That information would be helpful. My D was only home six days at Christmas and two at Thanksgiving. The only other time she was here was five days in late May and that is it until next Thanksgiving. Thus it is hard to schedule even a consultation here for her, let alone the surgery. Add to that the unpredictability too far in advance of when she can come home. When she was home for five days in May, her wisdom teeth started hurting like she was teething! So, she decided to make an appointment in NYC instead and that was today. She knew she’d have one week off from her job in late July and they were able to schedule the procedure for the Monday of that week. I will be going down to the city to see her in a musical that Sunday night and will be there to take her to the surgery the next morning and then she can recover (though my other D only needed one day of recovery!) on her own in the city. She is 19. </p>
<p>I wish your D “break a leg” wishes in Kiss Me Kate!</p>
<p>soozie - our initial consultation was $75 (we provided the x-rays from the dentist’s office). </p>
<p>This was my itemized bill when we walked out of the office for her two upper wisdom teeth:<br>
Impact, diff. complete bony - $495/each
IV sedation, first 30 minutes - $350
IV - add 30 minutes - $230</p>
<p>So the total for both uppers was $1570.00 that I had to pay them the day of surgery; then they submitted to our insurance. </p>
<p>It was covered under our medical insurance since they had not broken through the gumline. The PPO had a contracted adjustment that paid the oral surgeon $936, and once they were paid, we were reimbursed for everything except $135.</p>