What can change your wisdom teeth removal cost?
Although wisdom teeth removal is a common procedure, the costs for removal in Australia can be confusing.
There are certain factors which can influence the costs of removal:
1. Difficulty
This depends if the wisdom teeth are erupted (fully out of the gums), impacted (below the gums and against other teeth) or partially erupted.
The angle of wisdom tooth eruption and distance from surrounding important jaw structures such as nerves and other teeth also play a role.
For more difficult cases, this means that cutting into the gum tissues is required, in addition to drilling the bone around the tooth in order to expose the impacted wisdom tooth. If there is not enough room for the wisdom tooth to come out, it may need to be cut into pieces to allow it to be removed safely.
Following this, you will require stitches to place back the gum tissue and allow proper healing to take place. This whole process is known as a surgical extraction and involves much more than a simple extraction where the tooth is usually grabbed with dental forceps and loosened until it is removed.
2. Local or general anaesthetic
If the procedure is straightforward, you may choose to have your wisdom teeth removed under local anaesthetic in the dental chair.
If your wisdom teeth are removed in a hospital facility under general anaesthetic, the costs will be higher due to additional hospital fees and anaesthetist (airway doctor) fees.
3. Associated complications
In a small number of cases, impacted wisdom teeth may be associated with problems such as cysts or small growths (tumours). This can make removal more complex and may incur additional costs for treating the cyst/tumour.
4. Number of teeth removed
Some people may decide to have all four wisdom teeth removed, especially if they decide to have general anaesthesia, or wish to avoid a second procedure. However not all people have all 4 wisdom teeth, or may want to only have certain teeth removed instead.