How Much Does Wisdom Teeth Removal Cost?

As with most dental procedures, your out-of-pocket cost for having your wisdom teeth removed will depend on the extent of your extraction surgery. Having your wisdom teeth removed it’s very common and usually necessary for a high number of patients.

Typically, wisdom teeth are removed once they have fully developed between the ages of 17 and 25. Sometimes patients can get away without having their wisdom teeth removed until they’re much older. Here we will review some of the possible cost which hopefully will lessen your pre-surgery stress!

Why is it necessary to have wisdom teeth removed?

It all boils down to real estate! Usually, there is simply not enough room in the mouth to accommodate for four extra teeth. If wisdom teeth are left in, they can cause crowding, damage or decay two neighboring teeth, misalignment and malocclusion, gum inflammation and even sinus issues.

While not all patients need their wisdom teeth removed, the ones that do need to follow through with treatment as no dental issue will resolve itself but only get worse over time. To determine if you need your wisdom teeth removed, your dentist will need to have a complete set of x-rays of all of your teeth.

What costs are associated with having your wisdom teeth removed?

There are a few things to consider when preparing for wisdom teeth extractions. Your first visit with the oral surgeon could run as much as $200. This is just a baseline to go off of as any x-rays that are required can add up to an additional $300.

Once it has been established that you do need to have your wisdom teeth removed, your oral surgeon will discuss anesthesia with you. If you are able to have your surgery with nitrous oxide, that will coat between $50-$100. Local anesthesia may cost around $300 and general anesthesia will run up to $500 per hour.

How much does is cost to have your wisdom teeth removed?

There are three levels of extraction. A simple extraction is when your wisdom tooth has fully erupted through the gum it has normal positioning with simple roots. The simple extraction of one tooth can cost as little as $75.

Surgical extraction with soft tissue impaction involves removing some soft tissue (your gum tissue) before removing the wisdom tooth. Once the tooth has been extracted, your oral surgeon will suture the extraction site back together. The fee for this extraction can range from $225-$600. If you extract all four teeth at once and they are all soft tissue impacted, this can cost about $1500 total.

Lastly we have surgical extraction with bony impaction! In this case, the wisdom tooth has not even had enough room to push through the jaw bone, thus requiring the surgeon to remove some of the bone in order to access and extract the tooth.  This procedure can run between $275 and $900, all four teeth bringing a total of $3000.

The easier the tooth is to access, the less expensive it will be to remove. Also consider any time off of work that you may need to take in the cost of any prescription medications. You will be given an antibiotic and possibly a pain medication.

If you have dental insurance, it is very likely that some of your expenses will be covered. If this is a concern for you, look for an in network provider. If you do not have dental insurance but the cost is still a factor, speak with your oral surgeon to determine if they offer in-house financing or perhaps work with a third-party financing company.

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