how much do dentists typically charge for wisdom teeth extraction?

[Yogi Bear]

i'm curious what's the average cost for wisdom teeth extraction for 4 teeth. i recently had 4 taken out...top two were out in a few minutes...bottom two required splitting the tooth/cutting into the gums. everything done in 30 minutes and my insurance company gets a $1500 bill! 😱 oral surgeons must be making $300-400k a year easily.

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[Supernumerary]

Yes, easily. 🙂

 

[Supernumerary]

To answer your question, though, I think around here the average is ~$250-300 a pop. Keep in mind though, that there is a lot that can go wrong; the fees reflect the surgeon's ability to deal with this should a situation arise. And if you are worried about being charged so much for so little time, I'm sure the good doctor would be happy to let you sit with the elevator in your mouth just a little longer. It doesn't have to be fast. 😉

 

[Supernumerary]

Also keep in mind that this is different from the typical billing setup for other types of surgery. Normally you would get a bill for use of the facilities from either the hospital or surgical center, a bill from the anesthesiologist, and yet another from the surgeon himself. This bill covers all of those things; OMS normally have a pretty hefty overhead.

 

[MarkFitzsimmons]

I just had all of my third molars extracted. #1 and #16 were both soft tissue extractions @ $190. #17 and #32 were partial bony extractions @ $240. The anesthesia charge was about $350 or so. Total bill was about $1200.

 

[Doggie]

This oral surgeon that I shadowed a year or so ago told me that for each extraction, the overhead in terms of equipments used and the sterilization costs was only about $30.

He didnt factor in the cost of insurance, payroll, rent, etc......and not to mention the porsche either....... 😀

 

[no2thdk999]

Originally posted by Yogi Bear
i'm curious what's the average cost for wisdom teeth extraction for 4 teeth. i recently had 4 taken out...top two were out in a few minutes...bottom two required splitting the tooth/cutting into the gums. everything done in 30 minutes and my insurance company gets a $1500 bill! 😱 oral surgeons must be making $300-400k a year easily.

It would be a nice life wouldn't it!

The cost will depend on the complexity of each extraction. In my office an extraction can cost anywhere from $92 to $542. Average for 4 bony impacted wisdom teeth would be about $1000-$1200. IV sedation would be around $2-400 if we provided it.

Consider though the OMFS probably spends another 15 minutes with most patients at a pre-op visit, so it's more like $300-375k/yr. 😉

Having seen some patients who endured $39 extractions, this is not a place where you want to skimp.


JMHO
Rob

 

[DrJeff]

I charge $102 for each simple extraction in my office, $200 for partial bony impacted surgical extractions, and $275 for full bony extractions. I don't offer sedation in my office, but what a typical oral surgeon gets for a set of wisdom teeth, you can generally add another 50 to 75% on top of that for sedation fees. The sedation itself is the aspect of the procedure that adds the big numbers to the surgeons malpractice fees, and hence the big cost for a "perceived" easy part. Plus, those monitors in the operatory and crash cart aren't exactly cheap either. 😱

Basically, it sounds like you were charged a reasonable fee for your procedure, and shouldn't at all feel like you may have been overcharged.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

i had mine pulled a year ago, and i believe it cost around $1700, including general anesthesia. three were impacted bony extractions or whatever they're called & and one was just a simple extraction.

btw, my oral surgeon sucked, and i'm likely going to need gum surgery because of one of the extractions. i saw him about a month after the procedure because i thought the area felt weird, and he assured me everything was fine. however, when i went in to get my teeth cleaned a few months later, my dentist freaked and referred me to periodontist. oh yeah, i also have an extra tooth after my wisdom teeth that the oral surgeon was supposed to pull but didn't, so i'll have to have that surgically removed probably this year. if anybody's thinking about getting their wisdom teeth pulled in the portland, or area, pm me and i'll tell you who not to go to.

 

[UBTom]

<--- Got his third molars exo'ed for $0.00-- in dental school. 😀

Involved 2 surgical extractions for ankylosed #17, #32, LA only (though the OMS resident had to use 7 carps of lido w/ epi on me because it took 2.5 hours), no post-op complications.

 

[thisisit]

before making any judgments on an oral surgeon, can you tell me what do you think he did that was wrong? What did he do that requires you to have gum surgery now?

On occasion, the space the 3rd molars occupy does not get filled with bone properly. This may cause a local periodontal defect behind the 2 molar. Is this what happened? If yes, I highly doubt that it was his fault...

BTW, I charge 105 for an extraction (simple) no surgical or impactions. used to but now I refer to OS. drjeff, I tell my staff that I specialize in extractions but only if they have 3+ mobility 😉

 

[DrJeff]

BTW, I charge 105 for an extraction (simple) no surgical or impactions. used to but now I refer to OS. drjeff, I tell my staff that I specialize in extractions but only if they have 3+ mobility 😉 [/B]

I know that our job is to save teeth, but I still think that one of my favorite things in dentistry is when you have the forceps on a tooth(especially cowhorns) and you feel/hear the PDL snapping/popping😀 😍

That made having to go into the office this afternoon for an emergency patient so much more enjoyable for me😀

The problem I have with the 3+ mobility teeth for extraction, is that when I'm working with 1 particular assistant that we have, she has a way for doing the extraction for me by her "aggressive and repeated" placement of the surgical suction tip on that tooth😉 😱 , or even better for her, if we're doing a pick up impression to add to a partial prior to extraction, she'll get the stiffest impression material she can find and do the simultaneous extraction/impression and take all my fun away😡 😀

 

[Doctor Bagel]

thisisit, that is pretty much what happened. why i fault him is because he assured me everything was fine when i saw him about it a month after the procedure. shouldn't he have noticed at that point that something was maybe possibly going to be wrong and ask me to come back later to follow up about it? also, the whole failing to pull the extra tooth was pretty bad, even though pulling it was specifically discussed in the ten second pre-op consultation.

the whole facility was very much set up to cut you up and send you out in the shortest amount of time possible, so i'm not surprised that they didn't pay attention to details like the fact that they were supposed to pull an extra tooth. my other big complaint is that i got a dry socket infection after the procedure and was in excruciating pain and they took almost a whole day to call me back about it. if someone's in agony, they should be more responsive. in whole, i just wasn't very impressed with their patient services. my regular dentist is totally different, so i know it's possible to provide much better dental care.

 

[DrJeff]

Originally posted by exlawgrrl
thisisit, that is pretty much what happened. why i fault him is because he assured me everything was fine when i saw him about it a month after the procedure. shouldn't he have noticed at that point that something was maybe possibly going to be wrong and ask me to come back later to follow up about it? also, the whole failing to pull the extra tooth was pretty bad.

the whole facility was very much set up to cut you up and send you out in the shortest amount of time possible, so i'm not surprised that they didn't pay attention to details like the fact that they were supposed to pull an extra tooth. my other big complaint is that i got a dry socket infection after the procedure and was in excruciating pain and they took almost a whole day to call me back about it. if someone's in agony, they should be more responsive. in whole, i just wasn't very impressed with their patient services. my regular dentist is totally different, so i know it's possible to provide much better dental care.

One of the reason that he may not have been too concerned about the gum condition soon afterwards is that it ytpically take 6-12 months for complete bone fill in an extraction site, and for many, many extraction sites a month or two afterwards, they look like 1 giant periodontal defect 😱 until bone fill has occurred. That missed extra tooth can be kind of distressing though. Occasionally though some surgeons will deem that its safer to leave a "supranumerary"(our dental term for extra) tooth, than extract it if it is very close to some important anatomy (i.e. sinuses, nerves, etc) and if the long term risks of the extraction and possible complications outweigh the risks of leaving it as is.

As for the dry socket, they should have gotten back to you a little quicker, however dry sockets do happen(depending on whose data you want to read, the incidence can be as high as 55% depending on location and extracurricular habits), and when they do, the best way I've heard it described is that a woman in my residency had a dry socket at the sight of one of her lower wisdom tooth extraction sites, and she said "this G*D D#$M hole in my mouth hurts 1000 times worse than the natural child birth of my son, and he weighed 10lbs 2oz!!"😱 😱

I can tell you though that if I was your general dentist and you came back to me after the oral surgeon did that and treated you that way, the surgeon would be getting a call from me, and if there wsn't a good explanation for why you were ignored on the phone for that long, he'd be seeing alot less referrals from my office.

Note to future specialists here, when you go out to lunch/talk to your referring GP's on the phone not only thank them for the referrals, but ask if the patient's you've treated have had any feedback about how you treated them, and don't be offended if it's negative feedback. If we GP's start hearing some consistant negative feedback from our patients, and your not working to change these perceived problems, we'll be sending a few less folks your way😱

 

[Doctor Bagel]

yeah, the dry socket was horrid, but i don't blame the surgeon for that. i know they just happen sometimes. i've never been in that much pain before--i literally wanted to cry in sheer frustration at how bad it hurt. for stuff like that, the office should get back with you asap.

it is true that my extractions probably were pretty difficult because i put off getting them pulled for so long. i should have had them pulled when i was in high school.

 

[thisisit]

exlawgrrl, (what does your name mean, you were a law student? It seems like I'm obsessed with names today, eh)

I'm not going to repeat what drjeff says, but that is exactly my response, word by word. Sorry you had a bad experience but his fault may have been less than perfect communication skills. His clinical skills I can not judge from the info you have given me.

I get asked to go out to lunch with many specialists. I turn them down as much as I can. First of all we are all a boring bunch and I much rather have lunch with my staff. Second, I do not want to feel obligated to refer to them. Just because they paid for my $6 salad (I'm on Atkins), I have to send them patients? No thanks. My motto is that you don't have to take me out to lunch, give me gifts, or send me cookies for patients. Just take a good care of my patients, get them in when they need to be in, and I will send you all my patients.

 

[DrJeff]

Originally posted by thisisit
Just because they paid for my $6 salad (I'm on Atkins),

Thisisit, what you need to do to get you to want to go out to lunch more often is find as a patient the owner of a local restaurant, and then talk him/her into getting a low carb portion of the menu Both my partner and I have been Atkins followers for almost a year now(90 lbs lost between the 2 of us 😀 )and we've gotten the owner of the restaurant that we goto all the time to seriously expand his low carb selection. We've now got him to stock low carb bread (turkey/bacon club sandwiches, mmmmmm), low carb wraps, and even low carb ice cream and pudding😍

Where as this time last year it was either the chicken caesar salad or the chefs salad, now we've got most of the menu to choose from.😀

BTW, if you've got an SUBWAY's near you and they haven't introduced them yet, they've got low carb wraps on the way to you real soon, and I highly recomend the chicken/bacon/ranch wrap, and it will only count 7 net carbs (We sometimes here in CT get SUBWAY product introductions a little sooner than the rest of the country since SUBWAY's world headquarters are right here in Wallingford, CT)

Ironically enough as I'm typing this, I have my bag of Atkins crunchers infront of me😀 Just think, if we could get all the rampant decay folks on an Atkins diet, we'd probably decrease the decay rate quite alot!

 

[ItsGavinC]

SIDENOTE: props to you guys that are on Atkins.

I'm currently on the South Beach Diet, and have lost 9 pounds in the last week.

I'm stoked about those Subway wraps (they have them here in Arizona).

 

[DrJeff]

Plus, I figure that I'm doing my part these days to keep the US Beef industry solvent😀

Todays menu: bacon + eggs + 2 slices low carb toast after I run 7 miles

Mid-Morning Snack: Low carb chocolate chocolate chip muffins

Lunch: Likely a low carb Subway wrap

Chew on some beef jerky while watching NFL playoff games this afternoon

Dinner: Beef tenderloin roast, salad, Atkins pasta side dish

Desert: Breyers low carb ice cream

All that and the scale will still be a lighter tommorrow AM

😍 😀

 

[thisisit]

This has nothing to do with the original topic but what the heck.

I have been on an Atkins like diet since I was 14. I didn't even know what Atkins was when my sister and I (both overweight) decided not to eat any rice (common in my cultural background), bread, sweets. It worked. We both lost a lot of weight. Unfortunately, since getting married and not being on the market anymore , and stop smoking since the second year of dental school, I have put on a good 50 extra pounds. My wife thinks 25lbs is enough to lose but I'd like to go back to my weight at 18. It's a shame but what can say. IMHO, when a guy gets married, there are only two things left for his enjoyment (no dentistry is not one of them): Cars and Guns. My wife hates them both

Any ways, I am strong believer in low carb diets, be it Atkins or a rip off version of it (South Beach, Zone, the diet from that three's company ch...oops I mean woman, etc). Whatever works for you. For me personally, however, any hint of extra carbs in my diet ad I won't lose the weight. I have to lose the 50 first and then I can try those minimal carb diets and the low carb bread and ice cream. If I try them out now, I will be stuck at this level. I already have lost 20 lbs of it in 2003. My problem is that, at times, I cheat Strict Atkins is my best friend now. I also have to start exercising.

 

[DrJeff]

Originally posted by thisisit
This has nothing to do with the original topic but what the heck.

I have been on an Atkins like diet since I was 14. I didn't even know what Atkins was when my sister and I (both overweight) decided not to eat any rice (common in my cultural background), bread, sweets. It worked. We both lost a lot of weight. Unfortunately, since getting married and not being on the market anymore , and stop smoking since the second year of dental school, I have put on a good 50 extra pounds. My wife thinks 25lbs is enough to lose but I'd like to go back to my weight at 18. It's a shame but what can say. IMHO, when a guy gets married, there are only two things left for his enjoyment (no dentistry is not one of them): Cars and Guns. My wife hates them both

Any ways, I am strong believer in low carb diets, be it Atkins or a rip off version of it (South Beach, Zone, the diet from that three's company ch...oops I mean woman, etc). Whatever works for you. For me personally, however, any hint of extra carbs in my diet ad I won't lose the weight. I have to lose the 50 first and then I can try those minimal carb diets and the low carb bread and ice cream. If I try them out now, I will be stuck at this level. I already have lost 20 lbs of it in 2003. My problem is that, at times, I cheat Strict Atkins is my best friend now. I also have to start exercising.

I just saw one of the funniest low carb diet marketing attempts that I've ever seen while on the treadmill at the gym. Mr. Ron Popiel(?sp) the woderfull inventor galore of such great inventions as I remember of the flowbee, and Ronco Rotisserie grill is now marketing his new and improved even bigger rotisserie grille as the solution to dieters everywhere! "Use the 'solutions' rotisserie and you too can loose X # of lbs in 30 days!! Granted I'll give you the salmon fillets, burgers, and whole turkeys will help, but when he started showing the honey glazed hams and bbq sauce soaked ribs, he lost what little once of credibility.

Lesson to be learned though, he adapted his existing product that has a proven and financially successfull record to current trends. Not all unlike what we do in dentistry from time to time. (I.E. we've always know that perio disease is a bad thing, but now that we have strong correlations between it an heart disease its a new and potent way to market it (the treatment of) to our patients. 😀

 

[boyan]

Back to the original topic: The dentist that I shadow charges $40 for extraction regardless what kind it is.

 

[Supernumerary]

Originally posted by boyan
Back to the original topic: The dentist that I shadow charges $40 for extraction regardless what kind it is.

He must refer everything that doesn't exhibit class III mobility.

 

[DrJeff]

Originally posted by boyan
Back to the original topic: The dentist that I shadow charges $40 for extraction regardless what kind it is.

Does he do any surgical extractions at that fee, because if he does, he'd have a line a mile long at that rate😉

One of the oral surgeons in my area will get $40 just for the peri-apical film But with the chairside manner he displays, I've NEVER heard a complaint from the patients I send to him, and he gets about 2/3rds of by oral surgery referrals.

 

[thisisit]

Originally posted by boyan
Back to the original topic: The dentist that I shadow charges $40 for extraction regardless what kind it is.

Is this in Chicago? He is either not very smart, doing something wrong, or is doing charity. To charge $40 for any extraction, brings down the whole usual and customary fee set by Insurance companies for his area. Oh, boy I hope he does not practice in my area. If he thinks he is going to get volume by under charging, he is also reducing the value he is putting on his own services. There is a price for dental services. To meet your overhead, you have to set that price at a level that makes sense. $40 for an extraction was the price in the 70's. Does he own a sterilizer? Does he have a staff? How is able to meet overhead? Please tell me More about this DDS. Was he a dentist in a different country and is now practicing here? I find those dentists ( I'm friends with a few) usually undersell most of their services.

 

[boyan]

He graduated from UIC about 20 years ago. He is single (and always being this way) and he has 1 assistant. He practices in the polish community around Belmont. He has a sterilizer but he has not changed his equipment (chairs, x-ray?. including TV) in the past 20 years. True there are no other dentists around him ? NONE! There used to be a few some years ago but they moved out.
Extraction - $40
Complete denture 300 (but he does them himself)
Root Canal (with the crown and everything): 695
Filling: 45
Cleaning with x-ray and everything: 40
Crown: I think it was 195 but I?m not sure

 

[DrJeff]

Originally posted by boyan
He graduated from UIC about 20 years ago. He is single (and always being this way) and he has 1 assistant. He practices in the polish community around Belmont. He has a sterilizer but he has not changed his equipment (chairs, x-ray?. including TV) in the past 20 years. True there are no other dentists around him ? NONE! There used to be a few some years ago but they moved out.
Extraction - $40
Complete denture 300 (but he does them himself)
Root Canal (with the crown and everything): 695
Filling: 45
Cleaning with x-ray and everything: 40
Crown: I think it was 195 but I?m not sure

Try charging those fees and paying off your student loans 😀

My lab fees alone for a set of dentures are more than this guy charges😕

 

[thisisit]

Originally posted by boyan
He graduated from UIC about 20 years ago. He is single (and always being this way) and he has 1 assistant. He practices in the polish community around Belmont. He has a sterilizer but he has not changed his equipment (chairs, x-ray?. including TV) in the past 20 years. True there are no other dentists around him ? NONE! There used to be a few some years ago but they moved out.
Extraction - $40
Complete denture 300 (but he does them himself)
Root Canal (with the crown and everything): 695
Filling: 45
Cleaning with x-ray and everything: 40
Crown: I think it was 195 but I?m not sure

Is he doing it as charity or is this his business? Why are you shadowing someone who basically has no sense of reality, market demand, business expense, modern dentistry, and is still living in the 70s? The purpose of shadowing a dentist is to show you the real world of dentistry. here is a prediction, he will never retire, he can't. This guy is not even close. I have to question your judgment if you stick around for a lot longer....This is scary.

I have seen some dentists practice in immigrant neighborhoods and use the same fee schedule imported from the old country.

 

[boyan]

It is his business and he is a good dentist. The problem is that he is not doing it for the money. He doesn?t have a family nor many friends so his practice is everything he has. He makes enough to have a good flow of money in his bank account especially since he spends all his time at the office (Mon - Sat from 8:00am - 7:00pm) I shadow him because I want to see dentistry not the business aspect of it. I?ll learn the business when the time comes not now. His office is CROWDED since there are no other dentists around him (not a surprise) and he is maybe the cheapest one in the Chicago aria. Also he has not updated him prices in for the past 10 years. I keep telling him that his fees are ridicules but he goes - I don?t care I make enough right? Also he is very cheap ? sorry ?. I like him thought, he is a good person and definitely a good dentist just very very cheap ?.

By the way thisisit I saw in one of you earlier posts that you know a Bulgarian dentist. I am a Bulgarian too going to SUNY at Buffalo next year. Say hello to that friend of yours from me ? a future colleague.

 

[no2thdk999]

Here is the mantra most dentists use regarding fees:

Anyone charging more than me is ripping patients off.

Anyone charging less than me is doing shoddy work.


There is a one day denture place here that charges $39/extraction and $200-475/arch for a RPD or denture. I sure wouldn't go there but they do provide a service at a price that makes it available for some segments of society, and their waiting room is always packed. Their lab is in house, they have 2 satellite offices with 3 dentists each. The owner's retirement account is just fine.


JMHO
Rob