Feature
Six Questions Worth Asking Before You Agree to Dental Surgery
Maren Osei · · 2 min
Most people agree to dental surgery in the chair, minutes after hearing about it for the first time, while slightly anxious and unable to speak clearly. That is a bad moment to evaluate anything.
None of the questions below are confrontational, and none of them require dental knowledge. They exist to move the conversation from what is being proposed to why, and to surface the parts of a plan that quotes usually leave out.
What are the alternatives, including doing nothing?
Almost every procedure has at least one alternative, and one of them is always waiting. A missing molar can be replaced with an implant, a bridge, a partial denture, or left alone. Each has different consequences for the teeth either side of the gap.
Asking this does not commit you to the cheapest option. It tells you whether the plan you were offered is the only reasonable one or simply the first one mentioned.
What happens if I wait six months?
The answer separates urgent problems from ones that merely will become urgent. An infection is not a wait-and-see situation. A worn filling often is.
If the answer is “it will get more expensive,” ask roughly how much and how quickly.
Is this quote for the whole thing?
Surgical procedures are frequently quoted in pieces. An implant is a post, an abutment and a crown, sometimes with an extraction and a bone graft before any of it. A quote for one part is not a quote for the treatment.
Ask what the total looks like if everything goes normally, and what the common complications add.
Who is actually doing the procedure?
General dentists perform a great deal of surgery competently. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons complete a hospital-based residency of four years or more on top of dental school. Neither answer is a red flag — but you are entitled to know which one you are getting, and how often they do this specific procedure.
What does recovery actually stop me doing?
Not “you’ll be fine in a few days,” but specifics: how many days off work, when you can eat normally, when you can exercise, and whether you need someone to drive you home.
Sedation choice changes all of these, which is why it is worth settling before the day rather than on it.
What would make you change this plan?
The most useful question on the list. It asks the clinician to name the conditions under which they would do something different — and a plan with no such conditions is worth a second opinion.
Jaw Guide publishes general information about dental procedures. It is not a dental practice and does not diagnose or treat. Discuss your own care with a qualified dentist or oral surgeon.