Wisdom Teeth question

[nightfighter]

Daughter needs to have wisdom teeth taken out... Which coverage does that fall under? Dental plan? Or Health plan?

[PRBuzz]

Originally Posted by nightfighter

Daughter needs to have wisdom teeth taken out... Which coverage does that fall under? Dental plan? Or Health plan?

Depends on how they are removed? Simple extraction in dentist office, likely dental. If impacted might be medical, dental, or both.

[Raider Ronnie]

47 years old, still have all my wisdom teeth, is that normal ?

[striperman36]

Dental plan regardless, orthodontic work.

[nightfighter]

She already has had the braces, as did her twin brother.... Dental covered a portion of that. Majority was out of (my) pocket. I'm thinking if they are impacted, as mine were, it is a medical coverage as it is/was performed by dental surgeon in a hospital vs a dental office......

Ronnie, if they don't get impacted, come in straight, and you have room in your mouth, there is no reason to do anything....

[Saltheart]

From what I have heard, you want to find the coverage that costs your bottom line the least then find a dentist or oral surgeon who will give that diagnosis and do the treatment. Supposedly its a lot of subjective judgement and the dr has lot of leeway in the diagnosis so.....you know

[spence]

Originally Posted by PRBuzz

Depends on how they are removed? Simple extraction in dentist office, likely dental. If impacted might be medical, dental, or both.

Yes, be very careful here. Sometimes oral surgery is covered in part by both. For instance, if there's an extraction that requires sedation the dental won't cover but the medical insurance usually will, assuming there's a valid medical condition. Of course, they won't give a clear ruling in advance and the details are in the fine print while all you usually have is a plan summary.

Another scenario, your kid needs sedation which is only covered by medical yet your health insurance doesn't cover it when administered by an oral surgeon.

I got screwed this way.

Ask a lot of questions and document everything going in.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[EricW]

It all depends on what your insurance covers.
I had two out last year. One surgically and one in the dental office.
My health insurance didn't cover any of them, and I have a really good hmo plan from my wife's work. I got the picture that many are dropping dental surgery even if impacted like mine was.
Luckily dental insurance covered a portion of each.

One piece of advice I would give to anyone is if you find you need wisdom teeth out do it while you are as young as possible. I was 41 and it is harder to get an impacted one out as you get older. I made it through ok, but they said my recovery would be somewhat longer. It really wasn't fun.

I also experienced some nerve issues after. I still have off and on numbness in my left jaw.

[JohnnyD]

I'm going through this right now. At every cleaning the dentist gives me crap because all 4 of my wisdom teeth are extremely impacted. Now they are putting pressure on the teeth next to them and I have to get them out.

To answer your question... It all depends on your medical coverage. My medical plan (Tufts) does not cover anything, even though I'll probably have to be put under anesthesia. Now, if I had an abscess and need emergency surgery, my HMO would only cover the cost for what was emergent. On the other hand, a friend who has Blue Cross had his almost completely covered. Cost him about $400 for all 4 teeth in one visit.

My dental covers on an 80/20 split but only up to $1500/year for all work. The wisdom teeth are going to cost around $800 each X4, so over $3000. I can't really afford to drop $1500 on a semi-elective surgery so it looks like I'm going to have to go through two separate surgeries... and two separate recoveries.

Make sure to get on the phone with your HMO a couple of different times. My oral surgeon told me one thing, one rep at Tufts told me something and a second rep at Tufts told me something completely different. After digging into my plan, I found out that I could have been screwed for the entire cost if I'd listened to the oral surgeon.

[UserRemoved]

It don't make you any smahtah Ronny

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

47 years old, still have all my wisdom teeth, is that normal ?

Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[PRBuzz]

Originally Posted by nightfighter

Ronnie, if they don't get impacted, come in straight, and you have room in your mouth, there is no reason to do anything....

That's the polite way of saying you have a bigger than average mouth!