How to get your wisdom teeth removed in the United States？
Over the past years, I could always hear complaints among international students in the US that the cost of medical treatment here, especially dental treatment, is sky-high. Therefore, everyone chooses to wait till they return to their home country during the holidays, and some even fly for more than 10 hours back just to get a wisdom tooth extracted.
But in fact, dental care in the United States is far less expensive than everyone imagines, so today I want to share with you the most detailed wisdom teeth removal procedures in this article below based on my own medical experience.
1. Common Dental Issues
1. Common Dental Issues
First of all, wisdom teeth, for any individual, are basic dental diseases, and the vast majority of people, including myself, will need to extract wisdom teeth in their youth in order to prevent other concurrent problems. I just went to a dental clinic 3 months ago and had two teeth extracted at the same time. Now, let me share with you how the whole procedure worked and what suggestions I could give you!
2. Choose the Right Dental Clinic
2. Choose the Right Dental Clinic
Before visiting a doctor, I first logged into my dental insurance account and clicked on “Find a dentist”. I base is in the Bay Area, so after I enter my zip code, I can search for all In-Network clinics around the Bay Area.
Note: Be sure to confirm if it is an In-Network clinic otherwise the insurance will not be able to claim your case.
Then, I chose a general dentist for X-ray examination first and confirmed that with his permission and referral, I made another appointment with an oral surgeon for surgery.
3. Wisdom Teeth Removal Treatment
3. Wisdom Teeth Removal Treatment
After my initial appointment, the staff asked me to fill in a form regarding my previous dental problems and insurance information. After a few days, they sent me a rough quotation based on my personal situation and the claim ratio of the insurance. After reaching an agreement with the price, it is the time for me to wait for my surgery day.
On that day, the first step before my operation is to confirm whether I want to get general anesthesia or local anesthesia, which depends on my pain tolerance and awareness of the risks. When a patient needs to extract multiple wisdom teeth at a time, doctors usually force you to take general anesthesia. Of course, many people will also worry about the potential danger of general anesthesia. At the same time, general anesthesia also requires patients to stay away from water for eight hours before the operation. Therefore, many people like me may not want to take general anesthesia due to lots of inconvenience. In this way, you could make an appointment in advance with an experienced doctor who has been practitioners for a long time, so that you could have a chance to choose local anesthesia.
Then, after taking the anesthesia, the effect turned out quickly, and I didn’t have much sensation in my mouth for the whole hour of surgery, but I still felt some discomfort during the extraction process. When finishing the operation, my doctor put a piece of hemostatic cloth in my mouth and kept changing it until the bleeding was completely stopped. At the same time, he also prescribed enough painkillers (Tylenol or ibuprofen, etc.) for me, but the advice given by each doctor is different. It is recommended to follow the corresponding doctor’s prescriptions, and you may take painkillers for about a week usually.
Note: Some doctors may embed the stitches, so you need to go to the clinic to remove the stitches later.
4. Post-operative Recovery
4. Post-operative Recovery
After the surgery, I took the doctor’s prescription to CVS for antibiotics and painkillers. I was dizzy for the first two days.
In terms of diet, doctor suggests that I must ensure not to take painkillers on an empty stomach. Also, it is recommended to eat some liquid food, such as porridge, custard, mashed potatoes, stewed soup, milk, etc. Supplementary nutrition is also helpful for faster recovery. At the same time, the rest at night should also be guaranteed, otherwise poor rest will lead to aggravated pain.
5. Payment and Precautions
5. Payment and Precautions
A couple of weeks after my surgery, I got bills from the hospital. Sicne I chose an In-Network clinic, my bill was first sent to the insurance company for processing, and about 2 weeks later, the insurance company processed my claim and generated an EOB in my account.
I chose the Renaissance dental insurance plan provided by Student Medicover. According to my personal experience, the cost of extracting two wisdom teeth was less than $400 after all discounts and insurance claims (the original price was more than $800). The reason why I can get such a high coverage is because I have purchased dental insurance with a waiting period. Compared with those dental insurances without waiting period that you only buy when you need to see a doctor, the coverage with waiting period is much higher!
In addition to Renaissance I used, Student Medicover also provides products from three other highly-rated dental insurance companies: Delta, Nationwide and BrightSmile, and all of the four companies use PPO Network of United Healthcare. Also, there is another company named Careington that provides a dental discount plan.
The specific benefits for each plan are as follows:
If you want to know more about more dental plans or have questions about the waiting period for dental insurance, you can click on the link below for dental insurance:
https://smcovered.com/dentalvision/#1594879186485-9fbf629b-7046
Also, you could click the link to contact us at any time!
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