Hi Karen
There is a wide range of fees for wisdom tooth removal. Here in Singapore the costs can range anywhere from $150 - $2000 from a simple wisdom tooth extraction to a complicated wisdom tooth surgical removal.
You may be able to use Medisave towards a partial claim if the removal requires surgery ie: drilling of bone to remove the tooth or broken decayed wisdom teeth.
Some of my patients also wish to have removal of wisdom teeth under intravenous (IV) sedation or general anaesthesia (GA). This is of course dependent on how nervous one is. However there are certain complicated cases where I would recommend IV sedation or GA. Naturally I would need to assess you in my clinic and do an xray to confirm if your wisdom tooth indeed needs removal and if it has affected the 2nd molar in front of it.
For complex wisdom teeth sometimes I might do a CT scan as part of the diagnostic workup, This is especially crucial if your wisdom tooth is very close to the nerve that supplies sensation to your lip.
This allows me to plan how I best can remove the wisdom tooth with the least risk possible The CT scan is akin to a map - so that I can study your wisdom tooth in 3 dimensions and remove it without any form of nerve damage.
A wisdom tooth can be removed as quickly as 3 to 7 minutes and as long as 2 hours (from what I hear). The quicker the surgery is completed - typically the recovery rate is much quicker and with less swelling and mostly less pain.
Hence you will find that the experience and speed of the surgeon might affect the costs of the extraction or surgical removal of your wisdom teeth.
As a last note, remember postoperative management of pain is also part of the wisdom tooth removal journey and I have my own "recipe" of medication and postoperative instructions which will help make the journey as painless as possible.
Hope that helps,
Dr Samintharaj Kumar
