Disclaimer: I am not looking for medical advice, I am looking for advice on how to find proper dental advice. If this isn’t kosher, mods, I’m sure you’ll do your thing.
So… I have four wisdom teeth which I’m pretty sure need to be removed. I’m currently covered by my parent’s insurance, but there were issues recently regarding whether or not I qualified so I went for a few years without proper coverage, but only needing to pay for ordinary dental checkups. Now I’m insured, and money is tight, and this really needs to be taken care of soon. Thing is, the dentist our family had been going to is out-of-network, and previously they were just cheerfully paying the extra cost. Additionally, they referred me to an endodontist for removal of said wisdom teeth this summer, but the endodontist is also out-of-network, and paying anything more than necessary for expensive procedures really can’t be done right now.
So, I need to choose an in-network endodontist (or whoever else does wisdom teeth removal). I’ve found the list for my insurance provider, how do I choose who to go to?
Oh, additional possibly relevant complications: I’m going to college away from home, and I figure the best time to schedule getting teeth pulled will be over some break where I can go home and be able to lay on a couch for a few days in a drugged-up haze. Can’t really do that when there’s homework to be done and nobody with a car around here to drive me. After that, however, I’ll probably be finding my own dentist locally, so I don’t have to worry about scheduling future checkups.
I would suggest that you ask your insurance for a referral since that seems to be your greatest limiting factor.
Well, the insurance company website has a list of literally several dozen in-network endodontists in the area. How do I narrow that down? Are you recommending that I call and see if they have a specific recommendation among those?
This kind of question comes up on the livejournal community for my area. If you can find some local newgroups or community email lists like that for your parents’ area, you may be able to ask if anyone has seen any of these providers.
What you want is an oral surgeon, not an endodontist. Endodontists mainly do root canals. Your dentist can recommend one. When dealing with out-of-plan people, I’ve just printed out a list of those covered by my plan, and asked my provider who they thought was good. There’s no guarantee they’ll be right, but fortunately, wisdom tooth extraction is not something that requires a lot of screening.
Right, thanks for the correction. I think my confusion comes from the fact that the place I was referred to is called “[town name] Endodontics, oral, and maxillofacial surgery”.
I guess I’ll call my dentist and insurance provider for in-network oral surgeons, and if they don’t have any input, pick based on who can schedule everything when I’m home.
I suggest one with small feet so they don’t leave big impressions on your forhead if they need traction getting the teeth out.
Seriously - yes, insurance was the deciding factor for me.
I find I generally get better service from medical providers in good neighborhoods, especially those just building a new practice. My guess is you’ll be pretty limited by network and schedule, but that’s one other factor if you need to break a tie.