<p>Oh, you all have made me feel better! There was much snoring at our house today, and he seems pretty content to lay low, thank goodness. Doesn’t remember much about his walk to Dad’s office, thought I keep picturing Mr. Magoo… :)</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure not erupted would be more expensive because if the teeth have to be dug out of the gum, that is more work ( and more owie)</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, impacted teeth cost a lot more than fully erupted teeth for exactly the reason emeraldkity4 says. Impacted wisdom teeth hurt A LOT, though, so make sure you’re not the one paying the bill when it happens or it might just add to the associated pain. I think mine cost in the neighborhood of $350 per tooth, and I had all 4 impacted teeth removed. No insurance. </p>
<p>I have no funny stories from when I had my teeth removed. I was pretty much out of it for 4 days. I slept a lot on the couch where people could keep an eye on me. After 3 days, I thought I was feeling well enough after a Jell-o to go out to a movie with friends. They decided to get dinner first and I tagged along just to watch. Well, the Imperial Shrimp came out, and there was something about that smell that made the Jell-o revisit us…</p>
<p>Mortifying and probably drug-induced (those are some pretty powerful pain-killers!) but nothing special. ;)</p>
<p>If you don’t have dental insurance and can do so, offer to pay cash on the day of the procedure and ask if you can have a discount. The oral surgeon who did my D, my S and my H–no complications on any of them–gave $500 off (usual fee around $2500 total) for paying cash on the day of procedure. He said he still made more than the dental insurance would have paid and saved the billing time.</p>
<p>No great stories from me…I was just zonked for a few days. My then-boyfriend had recently had his out, too, though, and decided it’d be cool to try as hard as he could to mentally “combat” the anesthesia, so they ended up having to give him an above-average dose. End result? This 6’2" boy had to be physically carried to the car. I’m sure his idea seemed less “cool” after that…</p>
<p>Anywhere from $500 to $600 per tooth is usually the cost. Some oral surgeons will let you spread the payments if you do not have insurance. Is there a dental school at a university or community college in your area? Sometimes lower cost dental procedures are available at those type of facilities.</p>
<p>D just had four teeth out, with sleeping drugs :), and it was $1750 after the 5% cash discount.</p>
<p>Another D had hers out two years ago at University, where the dental insurance covered up to $1000 :wow: and two of hers erupted between the first visit and the actual appointment, the fees went down several hundred dollars, I think I paid $250 :)</p>
<p>
I would be careful with this. Dental surgery is still surgery, and it should be taken seriously. I went to the very best dental surgeon in my area, and I was so thankful for the quality of care I received before, during, and after my procedure. There are risks involved with wisdom tooth extraction. I would be wary compromising too much on skill and experience for cost.</p>
<p>Slightly confused… if erupted teeth are cheaper then why wouldn’t they all just be removed when they were erupted? Sorry, I just want to understand this for when I get my wisdom teeth 
</p>
<p>I’ve been under total anesthesia once and I was just super shivery and cold for a day… my mom had to feed me pieces of fruit in bed, I felt kind of pathetic, but that was all. So I’m surprised that some of you had problems for 4 days and crazy behavior and then bad memory of it… are there magnitudes of total anesthesia?</p>
<p>Keshira, there are many types of anesthesia. You could have had IV sedation, general anesthesia, or been given a different kind of drug–all of these could cause you to go completely asleep. Besides that, people react very differently to anesthesia so have different experiences. Wisdom teeth are often taken out before they erupt into the gums because they can cause so many problems once they’re in your mouth. One of the more modern reasons why young people who haven’t had problems with their wisdom teeth are getting them out before they erupt is because they shift other teeth around, which can ruin all those years and dollars spent on braces. The mouth usually doesn’t have room for wisdom teeth, so they often cause problems when they come in. People get wisdom teeth pulled to prevent any of these problems.</p>
<p>When my younger son was in sixth grade, he had some extra teeth removed from the roof of his mouth and had numerous stitches. I brought him home with strict instructions to rest, not leave him alone, don’t do anything to knock out the stitches, etc., etc. I did leave him home alone for ten minutes to pick up his older brother from school because he seemed just fine to me. When I got home, he was out in the neighbor’s driveway with a bunch of kids playing basketball!! with no clue as to why he shouldn’t be doing that.</p>
<p>My college-bound son is having his wisdom teeth out this summer so he doesn’t have to have it done on an emergency basis at while at school.</p>
<p>Quote:
Is there a dental school at a university or community college in your area? Sometimes lower cost dental procedures are available at those type of facilities. </p>
<p>I would be careful with this. Dental surgery is still surgery, and it should be taken seriously. I went to the very best dental surgeon in my area, and I was so thankful for the quality of care I received before, during, and after my procedure. There are risks involved with wisdom tooth extraction. I would be wary compromising too much on skill and experience for cost.</p>
<p>corranged - in our area the local university has a dental school that does dental work. Much of the work is done by the professors at the school who taught “the very best dental surgeon.” </p>
<p>When one does not have $2,000+ to spend on extracting wisdom teeth it makes sense to investigate other alternatives.</p>
<p>My D had all 4 wisdom teeth removed a couple of months ago. Her insurance only covers removal of wisdom teeth that are “completely bony impacted”, meaning that there is not even the possibility of eruption. The insurance paid for removal of 3 teeth, and she paid for the one that wasn’t completely impacted–it had erupted a little bit, too.</p>
<p>Often wisdom teeth come in crooked, and push against other teeth. Sometimes they are so crooked that they will never erupt, but get caught in the bases and roots of other teeth, causing lots of trouble.</p>
<p>The oral surgeon couldn’t get a vein anywhere in my D, so she had to go the novocaine-laughing gas route. She looked pretty haggard when I took her home. She took very few pain meds and was back to work in 2 days with no complications. She truly hated the enormous swelling and the facial bruises, though.</p>
<p>I still have my wisdom teeth
I had 4 teeth pulled when I was in 4th grade and had braces-
( bicuspids?- it was done at the local university as was my entire course of orthodontia- which I would not recommend as there wasn’t one dentist who over saw all of my treatment and several didn’t seem to really even like kids)
anyway- both the Ds were nursed, so their upper palate is better shaped and not so much problem</p>
<p>EK4: I’ve always been amused by the idea that nursing shapes the palate. My poor daughter, nursed until 8 months, had to have a palate spreader not once but TWICE–as well as braces off and on for six years. Including the dreaded head gear. Two days after she got the braces off she had her wisdom teeth out.</p>
<p>My son, nursed for six months, had no orthodontia at all. His wisdom teeth did need to come out.</p>
<p>IMHO, the luck of genetics matters more than nursing or thumb sucking or whatever.</p>
<p>All I know is, neither I nor my H were nursed.
I had orthodontia treatment including extraction, ligament cutting, two headgear at same time for years as well as braces and retainers for over all 4th through 8th grade.
My H also had braces & headgear but for a shorter period of time.</p>
<p>My older D who was 30 week preemie, had regular braces for a short time and a retainer, no headgear, no extractions.</p>
<p>My younger D who was term, had regular braces for um let me count about 40 minutes! ( she took them off in the car while I was driving her back to school)</p>
<p>Her teeth actually look fine. I guess 40 minutes was enough!</p>
<p>How did she manage to take her braces off?</p>
<p>Oh, LOL EK!!! Just picturing your daughter ripping off her braces!!! I think this is why God gave me three boys, not sure whether I’d laugh or cry in that scenario!!!</p>
<p>My two remaining boys (since I’m the OP whose son had his wisdom teeth out Tues.) are seriously hoping for heredity here: DH has no wisdom teeth at all!!</p>
<p>Just wondering- dentist is scheduled to pull DS’s impacted bottom 2 wisdom
teeth and said it would be good to pull top 2 (non impacted) at same time.
Do you think that’s a good idea? Surgery scheduled for a couple of weeks from now.
Thanks for your opinions.</p>
<p>cornmuffin: I think it is a good idea. If the bottom wisdom teeth are gone, and the unimpacted top ones come down, there will be no teeth for them to come in contact with – not a good idea. Also, the top wisdom teeth may (probably will) come in crooked and affect other teeth.</p>
<p>My son had his bottom two removed before freshman year in HS. We are going for an evaluation of the top two soon before he goes away to college. I am expecting that they will have to come out.</p>