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Medical Forum / General / Dentistry / December 2007Anesthesia is optional, right?
My daughter had dental work years back. Now part of it is left and it's bothering her. They say they need to remove two mollars (?) in order to take the old dentistry out or something will happen like the teeth leaning in on each other or some such thing. They say because they have to cut into the gum it's dental surgery. Because of that, they say they have to use anesthesia. Supposedly the anesthesia is the reason it's going to cost into the thousands, which is absolutely an insane amount of money for removing two teeth. I had a tooth removed once where they called it dental surgery and I didn't use anesthesia. I refused it. Still the bill was an insane $500! Is there some law that says they have to use anesthesia? I think they have just pulled the wool over my daughter and her mother's eyes when some kind of local anesthetic will be fine. Polite thoughts welcome. I want my daughter to have the care she needs without my wallet getting raked over the coals. D. In article <85f2ba62-1f10-4188-aeb1- f8bd63a5e1ae@b40g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, geermeister@gmail.com says... > My daughter had dental work years back. Now part of it is left and > it's bothering her. They say they need to remove two mollars (?) in [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > have just pulled the wool over my daughter and her mother's eyes when > some kind of local anesthetic will be fine. The oral surgeon downtown, here, just gives you a local anesthetic and IV sedation when he has to dig a wisdom tooth out. He calls it "going to sleep" but it doesn't really put you all the way out, it just makes you verrrrrrrry calm and relaxed and when you come out of it you can't quite recall everything that happened. Somebody has to drive you home afterward because you act kinda drunk for a few hours after you "wake up". I forget what he charges, but I think it's around $100 for the local and another $300 for the IV. ...That's for the entire visit, not per tooth. (And I think he charges roughly $300-800 per tooth for the actual extraction, depending on how hard it is to dig out of your head. So, 'round here, two surgical extractions with local anesthetic and IV sedation would probably be a total of about $1400 plus/minus $400.) General anesthesia is not a requirement most of the time. THAT having been said, some patients will not tolerate procedures so as a matter of comfort they are "put to sleep". Unfortunately, that extra cost is not in order to make a profit for the doctor, but to cover the malpractice insurance. In the NYC area, I [who do not do general anesthesia] pay about 5K year for malpractice insurance. If I was to do general in my office, that number goes up to 32K/year. Guess who pays the difference?? Single-drug IV sedation is very safe. I've heard that malpractice insurance is pretty costly in the US though. It would be good if the rates of malpractice insurance for straightforward single-drug (midazolam) conscious IV sedation were a lot lower than for potentially more dangerous "mixers", to reflect the actual risk involved. That might make IV sedation more easily available, more attractive to dentists, and maybe cut down on the use of GA. > General anesthesia is not a requirement most of the time. THAT having been > said, some patients will not tolerate procedures so as a matter of comfort [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > malpractice insurance. If I was to do general in my office, that number goes > up to 32K/year. Guess who pays the difference?? I will admit to now knowing much IV sedation: that been said, it does not matter in the US whether you use a single drug or a cocktail, your malpractice zooms > Single-drug IV sedation is very safe. I've heard that malpractice > insurance is pretty costly in the US though. It would be good if the [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >> goes >> up to 32K/year. Guess who pays the difference??
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