General questions - wisdom teeth

barett

Hey guys

I'm new here, actually I just registered to find some answers and I now I end up opening my own topic.

As I was 14 or 15 or something like that, my dentist told me that my wisdom teeth all needed to be removed. I didn't really trust her, my parents and about everybody else told me that dentists are saying that to basically everybody. I didn't had any problems with them anyway and most important: I was scared.

So, now I'm 24 and I've got some problems with those darn things now. The right side just hurts where they come out (even though they are already out quite a few millimeters). It not really pleasant to open my mouth very far and eating anything in a non-fluid state is well... still possible, but not the wisest choice.

The thing is, I'm not familiar with the irish dentists. I've never been to one here (i'm not irish). I've got health insurance (vivas health) but I don't know yet how much or if they cover the whole thing at all.

And of course, I'm still scared.

Can every dentist remove the tooth?
How much may it cost, assuming the insurance doesn't pay anything?
In your experience, how much in percent did the insurance pay? (I know I have to talk to the guys from that company, but if somebody knows a figure, it would help me)
Does anybody here know a friendly and understanding dentist in Dublin (North or City Centre, or at least reachable by dart?)

Thank you all very much for reading (and hopefully answerring)!

Katharina



PS
Please excuse my spelling and grammar, english is not my native language

Incubu

Hi Katharina,

I'm a dentist myself and I'm sorry that you're having problems with your wisdom teeth. Unfortunately it's a very common problem.

Obviously it's difficult to say exactly what's going on without seeing you in person but usually, symptoms as severe as yours are caused by the wisdom teeth becoming impacted. This means that the tooth erupts at such an angle that it can never fully emerge through the gum. This in turn creates an area around the tooth which can be very prone to infection. If such an infection occurs more than once then it would be wise to consider heving the tooth extracted.

You mention that the teeth have only erupted by a few millimetres. If they did require extraction it's more than likely that you would need to be referred to a specialist oral surgeon. Depending on the level of cover, your medical insurance would pay for this treatment. Patients who have insurance tell me that they had to pay about 100 euro. Without the insurance they would have had to pay over 1000 euro.In the worst case scenario you may need to pay a couple of hundred euro for the visit to a general dentist and then pay over 1000 to an oral surgeon. (This is assuming you aren't covered under the DFSA Dental Benefit scheme and attend an expensive practice.) It is possible to have the procedure done through the public health service but the waiting lists are very long.

Basically you need to make an appointment with a dentist without undue delay. In your situation the chances are that the dentist will only seek to relieve the pain and any infection that may be present so you needn't fear having to undergo any prolonged treatment.

I'll PM you the contact details of a dentist I know personally who'll be very understanding of your anxiety. Make sure you let your dentist know that you're nervous. Every second patient I see is absolutely petrified and if I know this in advance I can spend a bit more time trying to put them at their ease.

Reading back over your post I'm a little concerned about your difficulty opening your mouth. If you feel this is getting worse you should seek emergency treatment either from a doctor or through the Dublin Dental Hospital's after hours service.

I hope I've been of some help to you. I'll keep an eye on the thread to see how you get on.

barett

Hi Incubu,
thank you very much for your reply and the PM!
I will contact her as soon as I talked to vivas health.
If I would end up paying 100 Euro I would be very happy indeed, so I want to figure out how much they really cover.

Luckily, I feel a better today, fingers crossed that this doesn't change too soon!

Again, thank you for your explanations, that's very helpful!

Katharina