Metal Mouth Message Board

On April 5, 2016, I posted the cost break-down for my surgery in December 2015 with Dr. Gunson as of the time of writing. I was still fighting my insurance company regarding the fees. It took nearly a full year to resolve the fight, but it did indeed end last year. And, I got them to pay virtually e...

Summary: -Take detailed notes, record times, names, call reference numbers of all conversations with your insurance company. -Get network adequacy and pre-authorization for the surgery for both Dr. Gunson and the Assistant surgeon well ahead of time. Make sure the network adequacy/GAP coverage inclu...

PART 3, CONTINUING THE PREVIOUS POST: About 4-6 weeks before my surgery, it dawned on me: Dr. Gunson's fees are gigantic because they are all-inclusive, but Cigna only pays for fees as they are performed, and there must be a specific line-item cost associated with each fee. I called Cigna and explai...

Hi Bride2Be, A note up front: I recommend printing this out, highlighting the action items I recommend, and then making a list and going through them systematically. Also note that the last part is split onto the next post. There's a lot of info here.... If you still want to discuss, I think we can ...

P.S. To be frank, the service by the staff at UCLA wasn't great (too many patients, not enough staff), but they never once said they weren't willing to file the appeal; it just took them a long time to do so. It's obviously your call if you want to continue working with the office you've been workin...

The funny thing is, the surgeon I'm seeing is literally the best in my part of the country. People drive hours and come in from out of state to see him. His administrative staff (a lot of whom are new due to turnover) are pretty awful. Specifically just her. I think I need to work with someone else...

P.S. It is now well-known that the approach my dentist used as a child to treat me (eventually pulling teeth to make room) is the exact wrong approach to use and causes the entire jaw/teeth to fall inward, substantially worsening any sleep apnea problems that someone might be prone to have due to an...

[quote="BrooklynsOwn"]SantaBarbarian your teeth still hurt 22 weeks after surgery??? Isn't that a long time? Will the pain ever go away?[/quote] Hi BrooklynsOwn, Let me clarify. My teeth don't hurt just sitting here; it's when I put pressure on certain teeth that I feel some soreness, and ...

[quote="tinymandibleAZ"]For those of you you had more than one consultation (i.e., more than one surgeon), how much more expensive were Arnett and Gunson than those other guys?[/quote] Hi TinyMandibleAZ, I had consultations with Dr. Gunson described in my April 5th post above as well as se...

Hi Snapdresser, Yes, I have no regrets and would do it all over again. Of course, I'd prefer that the nerve not be severed... but it was a freak accident. Did you get that detail from my blog post? I don't think I mentioned it in this thread. For everyone's understanding: During the surgery, Dr. Gun...

Hello Mrkdilkington! Sorry, I didn't see your Q until just now. I think I may have posted some recovery info on another thread. This is getting a little off-topic on this thread and I'm not familiar with all forum rules, etc., but in the effort to be helpful, I can say hands-down that this surgery i...

An update, since most of this thread is now outdated: I had my surgery with Dr. Gunson on December 2, 2015. I initially thought Dr. Arnett would be the best, since he has more experience. That was all I knew about the two of them and I thought that that was all I needed to know. My orthodontist, Dr....

I have a PPO with Cigna provided by my employer. I've been given just about every reason under the sun for denying my surgery, but I ultimately got it approved. I'm still fighting on the back end of things. Cigna requires that I meet two criteria: skeletal deformity and a functional impairment. They...

[quote="maxhammer"]Does anyone know if Dr. Eric Wallace in Santa Barbara is good?[/quote] This is almost certainly way too late to help the questioner, but I met with Dr. Wallace once. He was recommended by Barbara Greene, a myofunctional therapist in Santa Barbara, who thought I might hav...

Hello, This is the first item that pops up when you search for "arnett gunson cost." I see all the information on here, while good, is fairly old and deserves an update. I had surgery with Dr. Gunson on December 2, 2015 - 18 weeks ago tomorrow. I'm still fighting with my insurance and will...