Wisdom teeth become curse to patients

Nellore: Wisdom teeth, also called the third molars, are giving huge bucks to the dentists and oral surgeons as majority people prefer to extract them. On an average, city population is spending around Rs 1 crore per annum for removing these teeth as soon as they get pain or slight infection.

Wisdom teeth are four teeth, one in each corner of the mouth between the age of 17 and 25 years. Many dentists and oral surgeons think it is better to remove them as a preventive measure and the extraction cases are growing extremely.

Americans also spend an estimated $3 billion a year for removing 10 million wisdom teeth, according to the American Public Health Association. A simple surgical extraction for a wisdom tooth that is showing through the gums should cost 230 US dollars and if it is impacted the cost jumps to 400 US dollars per tooth there.

In Nellore too, the similar situation prevailed as the local doctors were charging Rs 300-500 for simple extraction and it would be Rs 2,500-3,000 for each tooth in case of surgical intervention. Some corporate hospitals are charging around Rs 5,000 to 6,000 and it is unlimited in case of an insured patient.

Experts in the field say that many people don’t have enough space in their jaw for the teeth to come to into full position. But, a dentist or an oral surgeon cannot remove them just for maladjustment in the mouth. They have to follow watch and wait policy since they find clear symptoms of infection or pain.

There are around 30 hospitals in the city and every day 1-2 extractions in each hospital is very common. It comes to around Rs 10 lakh per month on an average which is recording around Rs 1 crore per annum and people wonder if they know about how much they are spending one these useless teeth.

This is excluding cost of medicines and other incidental expenditure. This cost assumptions are only for one tooth and it would be more in case more teeth are involved. Earlier, doctors were charging nominal fee for these extractions and other treatment and now every hospital is ‘super specialty or advanced hospital’ for collecting huge amounts from the patients. As soon as the dentist finds the problem with the wisdom teeth they immediately suggest for extraction which is a permanent solution.

In fact, there is no need for removal of such teeth and it necessitates only when it gets infected due to congestion in the mouth or with some other problem. Sometimes they adjust automatically without any difficulty even though they generate some pain.

“Mushrooming dental hospitals in the city are creating confusion among the patients with different advertisements and publicity on their specialties. Some were publishing in-house magazines for educating the people and this has been leading to huge charges from the patients. Due to lack of medical knowledge people are remaining as victims,” said a reputed physician in the city.