Thursday, December 07, 2006

The Joy of Wisdom Teeth II

My recovery is going pretty well. I've been quite drowsy the past couple of days but the pain less. I'm off the Vicodin and just on Tylenol. I think my face looks normal but if I feel my jaw, there is a noticeable bulge on one side. Most of the pain seems to be in the molar 2 in front of the extracted tooth. I assume it's just where in the nerve the swelling is affecting me.

I'm not quite sure how they managed this, but the bill was delivered in the next day's mail. I don't have dental insurance and when I asked they said an extraction was $300-500 depending on the difficultly and sometimes medical insurance covered it. That seemed pretty reasonable. The bill was for $750 and the medical insurance portion was $0. It turns out it was an easy extraction, only $325 and medical insurance doesn't cover it because the tooth wasn't completely under the gum line. The procedure is the same, but these are their rules. The additional $425 was the anesthesia (including an additional unit for $125). When they ask if you want anesthesia and say it's entirely up to you, they don't tell you it will double the bill.

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