so.....dental surgery $$ ?

[ohgirlohboyohno]

I have seen several posts about little kids having lots of dental work done...DD (4) needs to have some stuff done but I have gotten so many different opinions and prices and everything my head is spinning...


SOOOO.....
What is everyone paying for dental work on their little kids?? I see $2500 (estimate from our pediatric dentist for the surgery) and it just floors me...it cost me less to actually give birth to them....all of them combined (we have 4).

I haven't decided if I want to do the leg work to try to find a dentist at a larger town (2hrs away) ...I just don't know..

[ktmelody]

My DD just had dental surgery. It was with general anesthesia at the surgery center. It was $2600. Our insurance covered the cost.

She has 1 extraction, 2 pulpotomies, 2 restorations and 10 cavities filled.

My other daughter has had the same surgery (from years of cyclic vomiting) and it was $3000. She had more work done because the vomiting ruined all her molars. they all needed crowns.

I think the average is $2-3000. We had several opinions as well and they all said the same thing.

The one thing I will say is do not consent to general anesthesia in a dental office. Make sure it is done at a surgery center or hospital with a pediatric anesthesiologist.

[ohgirlohboyohno]

oh yeah - the surgery is at a childrens hospital....so your oop was $2600? for everything, dental stuff and hospital stuff?

[ktmelody]

Originally Posted by ohgirlohboyohno oh yeah - the surgery is at a childrens hospital....so your oop was $2600? for everything, dental stuff and hospital stuff?

It wasnt oop because our insurance covered all of it but that was the amount billed.

[MamaCarina]

My DD had it done a few months ago. Our health insurance covered the hospital, and we had to pay 200 to the dentist. They called it a shut down fee. We only paid $200 out of pocket.

[CaliRoll]

DS1 had several crowns and some fillings. Our health insurance covered the surgery center and 80% of the anesthesia. Our dental insurance paid 70% of the dental work. I want to say it was $125ish for anesthesia and $400ish for the dentist, OOP.

[SewGreenBaby]

We paid $1450 up front fee to the surgery center and $300 to the dentist. My health insurance said it would be covered at 80% and I'm still fighting them to get it 4 months later.

[ohgirlohboyohno]

see...the hospital is saying it will cost $7500 and our OOP for them is $2000 (with insurance)...or...they will let us pay "cash" for $1800.....but then we don't have any of that going toward our deductable.

I just feel like we are getting hosed around here ....

[luvsviola]

Originally Posted by ktmelody The one thing I will say is do not consent to general anesthesia in a dental office. Make sure it is done at a surgery center or hospital with a pediatric anesthesiologist.

I SECOND THIS.

My son had an extreme reaction to the anesthesia when he had his tonsils out and ended up in the hospital for a week. He could not keep his oxygen levels up, and he crashed twice within 6 hours of the surgery. After going through that with him, there is no way I would do childhood surgery not at a hospital, and since we have 2 in town, I would fight for it to be at a children's hospital. It was really scary, and at one point, I thought we might lose him. They had to resuscitate him twice. We always joke about the masks on the walls in hospital rooms. We don't joke anymore. He was on oxygen while sleeping for 2 months after that.

Definitely don't consent for anesthesia in a dentist's office.

[jackyl08]

DD had a bunch of work done in October. She had 6 crowns, 3 pulpotomies, 8 fillings and her two top front teeth extracted. We did IV sedation at the dentists office, but it was WITH A PEDIATRIC ANESTHESIOLOGIST. He comes to the office once per month and brings all his equipment. We paid $600 upfront for the first hour and then $100 for each 15 minutes thereafter. DD was under for 3h10m. Our medical insurance paid 80% of the fee, so we paid $434 out of pocket for that part. Then the dental work was approximately $4000, of which insurance paid $1500(our yearly max per kid). So we paid about $2500 out of pocket for her work. I would definitely look around. This dentist was the second we tried. We tried her because the first didn't offer nitrous, which is what we originally wanted to do, but DD fought it so bad they couldn't do anything.