Having Surgery done at a Medical School?

[maxhammer]

Has anyone had experience with this? I understand it is a cheaper option since they use it as an opportunity to teach students. Does that detract from the outcome? UCLA told me they have one of their top surgeons watching over every procedure. I'm set to consult with them in January. Just wondering if anyone has gone this route and how it turned out.

[Rodney008]

I looked into it with Baylor School of Dentistry in Dallas. Just in case my insurance was not going to cover it I wanted a backup plan. My insurance ended up covering it though so I went with my surgeon. From what I've heard though it is a good deal. I was told that the experienced surgeons would perform the operation while being observed by the students. The only downfall I've heard is that it is a long process. What I mean is that they drag out your timeline to get the surgery so that it will correspond to what they are teaching in class. I've also been told that the operation will take longer because they are teaching while operating...so you're going to be under longer. I think another person on this forum had this. I think his user name was Beowulf. Do a search on that name and his info that he posted should come up. I'm sure you could also email him.

[frankiecgsw]

i did mine at chinatown for 80 a tooth(had 4 removed) its a lot cheaper than freakin $200-$400 a pop with oral surgeons. im still alive so no problem. i say go for the school route to save some dough, plus its UCLA, not university of tijauana or something cutty

[maxhammer]

I looked into it with Baylor School of Dentistry in Dallas. Just in case my insurance was not going to cover it I wanted a backup plan. My insurance ended up covering it though so I went with my surgeon. From what I've heard though it is a good deal. I was told that the experienced surgeons would perform the operation while being observed by the students. The only downfall I've heard is that it is a long process. What I mean is that they drag out your timeline to get the surgery so that it will correspond to what they are teaching in class. I've also been told that the operation will take longer because they are teaching while operating...so you're going to be under longer. I think another person on this forum had this. I think his user name was Beowulf. Do a search on that name and his info that he posted should come up. I'm sure you could also email him.

Thanks, man.

I searched Beowulf and found this post (pretty scary). Looks like he needs a second jaw surgery. Yikes.

Their Residents are for the most part pretty good. Dr. Lu was the Resident that Assisted Dr. Helman during my first surgery. He's a pretty good guy. He stayed over night in the intensive care unit with me after my surgery was done because Dr. Helman and him were so worried about my airway due to all the swelling I had post-op. Dr. Lu told me he actually did half of the surgery and Helman did the other half. I was kind of surprised to hear that they allow the Residents to do so much of the procedure. But I guess they have to learn some how. Too bad it had to be on me!! I really hope that isn't the reason why I have the Disc Displacement issues now??

[sirwired]

Merely getting it done AT the medical (or dental) school won't save any dough. To save the money you actually have to let one of the residents do the work. If the professor does the work, you pay him just like you'd pay any other doctor; they don't give you any discount just because he lectures to a bunch of students while they look at the TV screen.

And even then, the lion's share of the bill for orthognathic surgery is the hospital bill; the bill for the surgeon's time is only about 1/3rd of it, if that.

[Rodney008]

That was not the case with Baylor. They wanted me to go through them and it was going to be completely FREE, with the professors performing the surgery. For some reason they thought I'd be a great "case study". My surgery was a Lefort 1, BSSO and Genio.

Also keep in mind that Beowulf had a different type of surgery. I remember him being wired shut for a long time.

[sirwired]

Wow. I guess I'm not sufficiently interesting for UNC to comp me. However, the UNC OMFS department specializes in orthognathic surgery (as opposed to the other OMFS subspecialties) so they do a lot of them... about 300 a year. I guess they have enough go through that they don't actively recruit patients...

[secondtimemetalmouth]

I'm getting my surgery done through a teaching hospital and even though my case is not super severe (5mm open bite) they are paying the civilian ortho cost and doing the surgery because they justified it as a valid teaching experience with a senior oral surgeon doing the surgery and two resident observing. I couldn't afford it if I had to go out of pocket.