Ball rolling towards surgery... finally!

[sirwired]

I've had repeated gum grafts (I'm up to four now) due to malocclusion caused by a severe crossbite, narrow upper jaw, and crooked lower jaw. (As in, my on my panorex the lower jaw is so crooked an untrained person can spot it without prompting.) My ortho stated that while he could possibly cobble something together with one or two extractions, and some kind of spring setup, he really thought I needed double-jaw surgery.

Well, my insurance at the time, Cigna, denied me a couple of years ago for medical necessity reasons. (Their criteria states you need TMJ/malnutrition/bad apnea, or cutting your cheeks all to heck to get approved.) Due to the cost, I pretty much had to resign myself to a lifetime of gum grafts...

Well, I'm moving to a new insurance plan next year (Anthem) and their criteria (this is all available online) state that while they'll pretty much automatically approve for those horrible conditions, they'll approve for malocclusion also if you document the heck out of it.

I just saw the surgeon again yesterday (he's a professor at UNC; around here, almost all the surgeons that do orthognathic are either professors or instructors at the dental school) and he thinks he'll be able to get it approved with the new criteria. Unfortunately, there is still some massive cost risk for me as there is always the chance the criteria will change by the time we're ready to file for pre-approval. (I can sort-of swing the surgery out of pocket (with massive cringing and pulling from savings)... but ouch; that's as much as a cheap car!)

So, I see my ortho again on Monday, where I'll probably get some new casts, followed soon after by brackets. In the meantime, I'm scheduled for a multi-hour imaging study in late February to start getting the documentation together for the surgery.

I'm kind of excited to finally get the ball rolling and stop the endless cycle of gum grafts (at a grand out-of-pocket each, it's kind of painful.) It'll be nice to have perfectly straight teeth too. (I had earlier braces when I was a kid that did a lot of work, but couldn't finish the job.)

[secondtimemetalmouth]

Hope it all works well for you! My case is not nearly that severe, but it has been almost 15 years since my first set of braces (four years got me kind of straight, but left an open bite and a bit of recessed appearance to my incisors), and now I too have finally gotten an insurance company that is willing to pay the otho and oral surgery pieces for me! I got separators put in today and get my braces on Monday.

[Chailatte]

May I ask what the bill is for the double jaw surgery with Dr.Turvey? Thank you!

[sirwired]

I'm actually not getting it done w/ Dr. Turvey; I'm getting it done by Dr. Blakey. Dr. Blakey is pretty much the "other" orthognathic guy at UNC.

In any case, I was told the rough total (including hospital charges) would be about 15k.