Our Questions & Answers forum page provide you with the answers to the most commonly asked questions we hear from patients. Click on the questions below to read the answer.
An out-of-hours GP can provide a prescription for antibiotics. You can also sms the surgeon, and he may be able to give some reassurance to an early assessment on Monday morning. Regular panadol is the key to pain control, but read the directions carefully. Soak your wisdom teeth using coffee HOT (but not scalding) water, which is heavily mixed with plain salt and bicarbonate. That often helps, and is very soothing. If panadol is not enough, you can take additional Nurofen, or aspirin, but be careful to read directions, and ask advice from your pharmacist.
Everyone needs an OPG. This is bulk-billed through Medicare, when it is offered by a dentist or doctor. Our specialists will do them for free on-site through Medicare bulk-billing. If you need more than an OPG, then doctors and specialist can also order CT scans, which are also bulk-billed for you..
There are two ways you can go to sleep to have your wisdom teeth removed.
The first way is with general anesthesia, and this is done in a private hospital, and the anaesthetic is performed by an anaesthetist. Your FULL medical insurance will pay for the hospital costs, but you will be out-of-pocket about $250 for the anaesthetist. Without full hospital insurance, the combined cost of anaesthesia and hospital stay can approach $2,200 (in addition to the costs of having your wisdom teeth removed). In these circumstances you can be treated under IV sedation in our specialist surgical suite (Newcastle only) for an additional cost of $850 (suite + IV sedation costs).
There are two ways you can go to sleep to have your wisdom teeth removed.
The first way is with general anesthesia, and this is done in a private hospital, and the anaesthetic is performed by an anaesthetist. Your FULL medical insurance will pay for the hospital costs, but you will be out-of-pocket about $250 for the anaesthetist. Without full hospital insurance, the combined cost of anaesthesia and hospital stay can approach $2,200 (in addition to the costs of having your wisdom teeth removed). In these circumstances you can be treated under IV sedation in our specialist surgical suite (Newcastle only) for an additional cost of $850 (suite + IV sedation costs).
We always give a general 7 days sick certificate. Some people need only a few days, and other need more. We leave that up to you to decide. Remember that you are recovering from the effects of both a general anaesthetic as well as a surgical operation, so we give you as much time as you need, within reason.
Our private surgical facility is located at 19 Honeysuckle Drive, Newcastle for local anaesthesia and IV sedation procedures (surcharges apply). We have two private hospitals where we operate. In Sydney we are located at the Medica Centre in Hurstville, and in Newcastle we operate through Warners Bay Private Hospital.
Ice packs help. Gentle & efficient surgery helps more. Post-operative medications help much further. As specialists, we aim to reduce all side effects of surgery, including pain and swelling, and we believe we are very successful at it.
The general rule is, you can eat anything, as long as it comes out of a blender. We really just want soft, nutritious, and vitamin rich foods, and which are free of milk products. Milk sticks very well to the mouth, and even better to wounds... and can lead to wound infection. Avoiding milk products, not chewing on wounds, and keeping up meticulous oral hygiene, is all part of the after-care.
Wisdom teeth is not just pulling a tooth. Bone takes several months to completely heal, but generally stitches are removed 10 days after surgery, and about 2 weeks after that, you are about 90% healed.
The surgeon will always review you about 10 days after surgery, or can delegate this task to your referring dentist or doctor. At Wisdom Teeth Australia, we have an open door policy for after-care. If you have a problem, we will do our best to see you as soon as possible, and to not directly charge you either.
You will feel numb, and huge, but in a mirror you will look no different. If you get swelling, it starts to develop at day 2-3, and subsides about 1 week after surgery. You may get bruising under your jaw, which will have almost completely faded by day 10. Remember we are trying to be as gentle with you as possible. If you do bruise, the biggest reason will be becuase you have a peculiar tendency to bruise. The swelling itself should not be painful, just uncomfortable.
That is the biggest question of all. We aim not to charge you for consultations or x-rays or reviews. If you have medical insurance we will not charge you for infection treatment, jaw cysts or bone grafts (but we will charge your insurer once we have their approval). If you have 4 wisdom teeth to be removed, you will pay $1395 (simple, uncomplicated wisdom teeth surgery performed by a specialist supported practice registrar in 2012)... If you have full medical insurance and want an anesthetist, the total extra cost will be ~$250 (out-of-pocket). If you are uninsured and cannot afford a private hospital (which will cost an extra ~$2,200 including anesthetist), then you can have LA in our specialist surgical suite for $250, with an additional charge of $600 for IV sedation (Newcastle only).
When you make a booking for a consultation, we will ask for $71.40 to confirm your appointment, which you can entirely claim back from Medicare when we see you and you get a receipt. If you cancel at any time, you forfeit this entire amount. When you book in for surgery, you will pay a non-refundable 20% of-the-final-fee we confirm at your consultation. The rest is payed for on the day before surgery. Remember you may have further charges dependent upon your unique insurance and diagnostic circumstances. Credit card charges also apply.
When you come to see us, we will provide a full itemised break down of your costs, in a process called "informed financial consent". Remember there are two types of funds. Medical (consultation, x-rays, additional surgery, anesthetist) and Dental (wisdom teeth removal). Dental funds may refund a portion of your wisdom teeth surgery, and Medicare/medical insurance can rebate you on a lot more things. Medicare is only available for treatment and consultations by medical specialists.
Medical insurance works with Medicare, and helps covers for medical tretaments provided in a private hospital. If you have FULL medical insurance, additional procedures such as bone grafts, jaw cyst removal and infection treatment will be NO-GAPPED... meaning you will not pay extra fees. Medical insurance does not cover for the costs of dental treatments such as wisdom teeth removal. Dental insurance can give partial refunds for "major dental" which includes wisdom teeth removal by specialists.
We always provide local anesthesia, to completely numb the areas where we do surgery to remove your wisdom teeth. We also provide a long acting anesthetic so the areas remain numb and pain free for many hours after surgery. We also have special medications that we give to provide a pain free and comfortable surgical experience for you... But everyone is different. Some people react to minor injury as if it was the most painful thing in the world, whilst others can have a leg amputated without anesthetic. Our aim is to make surgery as painless and as comfortable for you as possible, and to give you the opportunity to heal as maximally as possible. We are here to help.
We always provide local anesthesia, to completely numb the areas where we do surgery to remove your wisdom teeth. We also provide a long acting anesthetic so the areas remain numb and pain free for many hours after surgery. We also have special medications that we give to provide a pain free and comfortable surgical experience for you... But everyone is different. Some people react to minor injury as if it was the most painful thing in the world, whilst others can have a leg amputated without anesthetic. Our aim is to make surgery as painless and as comfortable for you as possible, and to give you the opportunity to heal as maximally as possible. We are here to help.
From you perspective, the moment we tell you you are about to fall asleep, is the moment that you are waking up in another room, long after your operation was completed. From our perspective, the time you are wheeled into theatre to the time you have been handed over to recovery staff, takes an average of 36 minutes. In that time you have been carefully handled like cotton wool, treated with respect and without haste, and by specialists in both anesthesia and surgery, during which time you would have been put completely to sleep, have been given needles for local anesthesia, have had your wisdom teeth removed, been sewn back together, and safely returned to consciousness.
From the moment you walk into hospital to when you walk out is an average of four hours. Your loved ones should be prepared to go have a coffee, carry a mobile phone, and expect to have a phone call from the nursing staff as to when to come back and collect you to take home.
You will have sutures placed in all areas where you have surgery. Generally there are 1-3 placed in each area. Depending upon the extent of surgery we use either disolving or non disolving sutures (which we remove).
It is hard enough to predict tomorrow’s weather, let alone next year’s weather.
But we can make general assumptions. Likely in winter it will be cold. Next summer will have several days of rain.
Wisdom teeth also have general predictions, but we cannot say when, or how severely, or in what precise form these predictions will occur.
Leaving your wisdom teeth to fully develop, when clearly they are already impacted... will likely worsen the degree of wisdom tooth impaction, and make later surgery to remove them... harder... And your risk of prolonged or more difficult surgery or surgical risk exposure... much higher.
Whilst this is not true for all patients in all situations, it is hard not to see the obvious general logic here.
Treating your impacted wisdom tooth which is partially erupted, and with local pericoronitis will likely clear your infection and take away your current pain. But antibiotics do not stop your tooth being impacted, nor the likelihood that your next episode of pericoronitis will not develop into full facial swelling, and a hospital admission.
Wisdom teeth often are difficult to clean, and easily get gum disease or caries. The presence of dental disease in your wisdom tooth is also likely to cause, or aggravate or predispose adjacent molar teeth to the same condition of periodontitis or tooth decay. Eventually you won’t be needing just your wisdom teeth out but adjacent teeth as well.
Remember, prevention is so much better than cure...
If you have a problem with wisdom teeth, ask your dentist first. If it is a simply matter of a quick local anesthetic, and an easy extraction, then that’s what your dental surgeon is there for.
But if you have an impacted wisdom tooth, that’s lying deeply, maybe even without symptoms… get an opinion from an expert who is specialized in wisdom teeth removal, and ask whether he (or she) thinks it needs removal...
If you have impacted wisdom teeth, get a referral to your wisdom tooth specialist... if only for an opinion.
The answer to this is simple.
If your wisdom teeth are impacted, and never likely to erupt or be healthy, then seek a specialist opinion to assess whether to have your wisdom teeth removed before you have any problems.
Remember that everyone is different, and that your body and any problems you may have with it, are unique to you.
Don’t ask your next door neighbor for their opinion over the fence. They are at one end of a spectrum of expertise.
The highest level of advice comes from an experienced, registered and trained specialist in wisdom teeth surgery. Wisdom tooth specialists lie at the other end of the spectrum of useful advice.
Everyone else... your teachers, your neighbors, even your dentist, lie somewhere else along the rest of that spectral line.
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgical specialists in Australia can be found in all major cities. The major referral centers are located in Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Hobart.
Always ask for an oral & maxillofacial surgeon if you want a surgical specialist to advise upon or directly treat your wisdom teeth. Most major country centers also have visiting wisdom teeth specialists. But check the credentials and registrations of your treating specialist before you accept your referral to visit them.
All referrals in Australia carry a Medicare benefit rebate when visiting your oral & maxillofacial surgeon with a referral.
Wisdom teeth come at the age of wisdom... which makes sense.
If you're asking us for a specialist opinion, just email us your x-ray.
if you want a second opinion by another specialist practitioner, we will always provide your x-ray to you with a smile.
We always recommend that everyone gets a second opinion by a qualified mouth and jaw specialist.
Wisdom teeth are the third molars that grow into your mouth in the age group of 16-25. Wisdom teeth are almost redundant amongst almost all the various human races. Wisdom teeth can grow in weird ways or shapes, or when wisdom teeth erupt, they are impacted, or maybe they just don’t develop at all. They are called wisdom teeth, because they come at the age of wisdom. Usually, when you have just left home. And usually, when you can least afford to have them treated.
When humans first began to walk the planet, our immediate ancestors likely also didn’t need them. But 120,000 years ago, we didn’t live in houses, read books, eat bread, or have modern medicine. Our life spans were quite short, so by the time we were old enough to have a wisdom tooth problem at 25, we probably already had grandchildren, and living our twilight years in cave-style retirement.
So with the rise of civilization, the advent of modern medicine, and the rise and rise of our life spans... Along with all our other body parts, we have come to expect all our teeth to last forever too.
And all of this means, that wisdom teeth need to be addressed in all of us, as part of our lifetime score card on good dental health.
Your general dentist (also called a dental surgeon in some countries), is someone who looks in your mouth, checks for dental decay, cleans your teeth, extracts badly decayed teeth, performs root canal treatment, offers teeth whitening, makes crowns, and gives dentures.
Part of their job is to also take dental x-rays, like bitewings or OPGs (orthopantomogram), and look for evidence of dental disease which may be hidden from a simple visual view. It’s often then, that when you have your first OPG, those wisdom teeth (and also other problems) may become apparent to you for the first time.
Being told about a problem you didn’t know was there, can come as a deep surprise.
If your dentist sees that you have wisdom teeth, he (or she) is going to start asking some questions. First off, they are going to ask “is this a problem now” and secondly “will these wisdom teeth be a problem later on.”
Of course, your dentist is there to look after you. That is what you are paying them to do. If they feel that they are better off removed, then that is usually going to be good advice. Your next step is to ask “who is going to remove my wisdom teeth?”
You may be asking why can’t my normal dentist remove my wisdom tooth? Why do I need to be referred to have my wisdom tooth extracted?
Your general dentist is trained in basic removal of wisdom teeth using minor oral surgery or extraction techniques they learnt during their basic dental degree training. These extraction techniques may have also been refined during their practice years.
Oral and Maxillofacial surgeons are specialist dentists. The foundation of their specialist training is in wisdom teeth surgery and wisdom teeth removal. Your dentist will refer you to a specialist oral and maxillofacial surgeon if they see your wisdom tooth is not just a simple extraction or falls under the term of “minor oral surgery”. At Wisdom Teeth Australia we emply both surgical specialists, and practice registrars (who are trained in wisdom teeth surgery, and operate under in-house specialist support).
Some wisdom teeth can be a simple tooth extraction performed by a dental surgeon (general dentist). But the majority of impacted wisdom teeth are going to need a formal operation, and these may be more appropriately performed by a specialist surgeon (oral & maxillofacial surgeon), or specialist supported practice registrar.
Wisdom teeth can be removed either in the dental clinic, under local anaesthetic or LA, or with intravenous or IV sedation. Some wisdom teeth will need a general anesthetic or GA, and this is performed in a private hospital. You wouldn’t expect your medical GP to take out your tonsils, and neither is it fair to your general dentist to expect them to remove your complex wisdom teeth in a private hospital setting.
Often impacted wisdom teeth are completely buried, or they are partially erupted. This means that gum has to be lifted away from the wisdom tooth, before the wisdom tooth can be removed in a piece by piece fashion from your jaw. Whilst this may sound painful, if it is done carefully, and with minimal handling or trauma to your normal surrounding gum and nerve tissues, swelling and pain can be greatly minimized or even possibly avoided.
Of course like all things in dentistry, removing wisdom teeth is both an art and a science. Going to specialist oral surgery school imparts the science. But practice and experience provides the art and the finesse. Be confident in asking the qualifications of your wisdom tooth specialist. Check their formal registration status. Are they a registered dental specialist (oral & maxillofacial surgeon), or are they a general dental practitioner (dental surgeon)?
Whether you are having a brain operation, an operation on your leg, or an operation in your mouth... Ask yourself whether your practitioner is both trained and reliable to perform your procedure. What happens if things go wrong? Will your practitioner fix the problem, or will they simply send you to the person who should have performed your operation in the first place?
At the time of your consultation, you should be allowed to ask all of these questions. But the most important explanation is of the procedure itself. Everyone is different, and you should carefully question how the operation that you need is titrated and customized to your individual condition and treatment needs. Most of all, ask what the potential complications are, how complications are avoided or planned for, and how they would be handled if a complication were to arise.
Remember, complications from wisdom teeth do occur. Some are rare, and some are common. Some are more common in people’s hands than is normal. Unless it has been predicted for, you should not expect to have lip numbness or tongue numbness. Even adverse swelling or post-operative pain or infection from having wisdom teeth removal can be avoidable or the risk greatly minimised. Even if it is unexpectedly severe, then your specialist should be able to actively treat and monitor it, so that it diminishes, or does not worsen, or at least is actively planned or managed for.
So you have a toothache. It’s Sunday morning, after a sleepless night, during school holidays, and you have run desperately through a phone book list of emergency dentists. Maybe you have even used Google to help you. But you have known for a long time that you needed to have a wisdom tooth pulled. You have been putting it off for a long time, because you assumed it was expensive, or because it wasn’t painful then, or you thought you could put it off a while longer.
But now, time has caught up with you. You have been in worsening pain for three nights. You’ve run out of Tylenol already. Maybe your face is swollen, and there’s a bad taste in your mouth.
And you’re still asking how much wisdom teeth cost.
Clearly treatment by a general dentist or dental surgeon is likely to be cheaper than a specialist. There are good reasons for this. They didn’t have to go to school for as long. They pay less for indemnity insurance. They have higher practice costs maybe. But is the cost very different? The answer is likely yes, but not by much.
A broad range, for a set of 4 wisdom teeth removal by a specialist, costs between $US/ AUD2,000-$4,000. Countries like the USA, Australia, Singapore and Canada are going to all roughly be the same. But there can be add on costs, like x-ray, pharmacy, time away from work, hospital fees, or anaesthetic fees.
Costs are also different according to technical difficulty, or because of the presence of higher risk... So if your oral and maxillofacial surgeon has examined you, and given you a quote for $2,000, and you ring around, and find a dental surgeon who (over the phone) is saying he’ll charge you $1,500... well you are comparing apples to oranges... and doctor shopping based on cost alone, is dangerous.
If you are flying to London from Sydney, and you want to fly Qantas, you can’t expect your Captain to be just anyone with a basic pilot’s license. Qantas also has a different reputation to Aeroflot, and even different aircraft.
So when you are asking for costs of your wisdom teeth surgery, and comparing quotes between dental specialists or general dentists, ask the obvious questions.
Remember, some general dentists (or dental surgeons) can extract wisdom teeth... but unless they are specifically trained and specialized in wisdom teeth surgery, it’s hard to follow that they are the same as one that is trained and specialized in wisdom teeth surgery.
Wisdom teeth surgery not pain free or painless, of free of swelling. You should never expect that.
But you should also not expect to have excessive swelling, or excessive discomfort, or even prolonged numbness following your wisdom tooth surgery.
The following are good rules of thumb when considering for the effects of wisdom teeth surgery...
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Wisdom teeth are your third molars. They erupt when you reach "the age of wisdom". Read more...
