Two of my kids needs wisdom teeth removed and our dentist referred them to an oral surgeon.
We were quoted out of pocket costs (Delta Dental Insurance) of $591.60 for my daughter and $461.20 for my son.
Son has already hit his $50 deductible and only has three to pull. Does this sound reasonable?
My kid had all 4 impacted wisdom teeth removed this summer. We have BC/BS dental insurance, and insurance covered $1900. I still had to pay $1200 out of pocket. I’d say you are quite fortunate! 
BCBS here too. We also paid way more than your out of pocket. Thank goodness for an HSA.
Hard to tell, since there are two variables here:
A. The oral surgeon’s price.
B. How much of that is covered by your dental insurance.
For A, you can get an idea of the range of prices (per tooth, depends on erupted or impacted) in your area at https://www.healthcarebluebook.com .
Man…you guys are fast! It’s an 80/20 split, max $2000 per kid
Five years ago DD#2 had hers out at a fancy oral surgeon and the cost was something like $2200. Daughter almost fainted when she saw the bill and asked ‘how do people PAY that?’ We had fantastic insurance and I paid about $160 of that. DD#1 had hers out last summer in a different state and different insurance. It was about $1500 and our insurance had a $1000/yr max; she’d already had some dental work done so I paid over $500.
Is the cost you’ve been quoted reasonable? You’d have to check with a few dentists in your area but I’d guess it is. Also, your dental insurer will only pay ‘customary and reasonable’ charges or the negotiated rates, so you can probably tell by the bill if those are the rates in your area or if the dentist is on the plan, that those are the negotiated rates.
I did confirm that the oral surgeon is in our PPO plan. I was thinking the price seemed a bit high but maybe not. If my 20% is ~$500 it sure seems like an expensive procedure unless I’m missing something.
It’s a surgical procedure. They’re expensive!
“It’s a surgical procedure. They’re expensive!”**
**In America. The land of law suits and ridiculous malpractice costs
My daughter had complications from the pre-meds so I was happy for the extra levels of care and medical support.
I think the biggest difference in the $2200 daughter and the $1500 daughter was my convenience. The $2200 was close to our house, had a very nice waiting room with magazines and a TV. The $1500 experience was much farther away and things weren’t as luxurious. For me. In the waiting room. In both cases the actual procedure only took 30-40 minutes
We were there for over three hours. Unfortunately I think the routine procedures off set the more difficult ones and the oral surgeons are always preparing and trained for the worst, just in case.
1200 for us as well, with insurance.
If the teeth are impacted then they may be covered by your medical insurance, so I would check on that. Both of my kids’ surgeries were covered by medical instead of dental.
Mine was $1800 for all four teeth, before insurance. Health insurance paid a bit of it, dental a bit of it.
I was happy to find that the oral surgeon was listed as a provider on our health plan, but when I called to check, I discovered that the wisdom tooth extraction wasn’t a covered procedure on our plan! So, had to make do with the dental insurance instead… but they covered more of the cost than I had anticipated.
My daughter had 4 out earlier this year, under anesthesia (being sedated contributes to the cost). It took the doctor all of 20 minutes to do (although they were mostly impacted - some more than others). Medical covered nothing and dental left me with about $1,300 to pay. Like others her dental is limited and she is maxed out for the year now on what they will pay (any other dental costs will be 100% out of pocket.) (this is in a big city)
We have Delta Dental - my son had 4 impacted teeth out last month. Total bill was about $2200, we paid $1000 of that out of pocket. Our Blue Shield health insurance didn’t cover any of it.
I’m wondering, based on @oldfort’s comment, whether I should look at our evidence of coverage for Blue Shield again, although I imagine I should have tried for a preauthorization!
After dental/medical insurance, we paid over $1000, for all 4 teeth. It may have been closer to $2000.
Ours was covered under health insurance since they were bony impacted. Cost me about $5!