Going Dental: Wisdom Tooth Extractions

I have long believed that February is the longest month of the year, dragging out for eons of nostril-freezing weariness. Of course, before moving to Korea I'd only lived in the mid-west (Michigan, Chicago, Iowa), which stubbornly resides in an ice age for half the year. Now, however, I live in a land where winter is just a season - not a malicious force that warrants hand-wringing headlines.

February flew by this year though, because (a) we got no snow this month; (b) Sam (now aged 19) and Nick's parents (now aged "senior discount") came to visit us; and (c) I started teaching at Handong on March 2 and have needed to nap away the panic attacks prep for my two classes.

We had lots of little adventures this month, including an overnight trip to Busan (I'm no longer an airbnb.com virgin!), visiting Bird Park in Gyeongjju (we were covered in pretty birds! which covertly ate our jackets' zipper teeth!), and tried out lots of restaurants (Vietnamese! Japanese! Korean! Indian!).  Sam also got 3 of his wisdom teeth removed, and it is that adventure on which we'll focus here.

Today's question for you, dear reader: Is it cheaper to get one's wisdom teeth taken out in Korea (including the round-trip plane ticket) or in the US?

Sam at the MIR Dental Clinic with pictures of the two award-winning oral surgeons
(they invented a screw-like device to replace missing teeth)

Sign outside Shinsegae Dental Clinic (near Yeongildae Beach):
one nurse and one dentist spoke perfect American English.
Heaven!!!

Maybe we cheated a little by going to two dentists: MIR Dental insisted on a one-week interval after pulling 2 of Sam's teeth on his right side, and that conflicted with his flight back home. So, we went to another dentist with different orthodontial ethics to pull just one tooth on the left side (his 4th wisdom tooth didn't need pulling after all).  I shall not bore you with long descriptions of every visit (many Korean doctors do love follow-up appointments), but here is the price breakdown in US dollars (google was very helpful in researching costs).

Day	Location	Tasks
Tuesday	MIR	2 panoramic x-rays	$30
Monday	MIR	3 shots, 2 teeth extracted, stitches Drugs ($7 antibiotics, painkiller, anti-nausea) Student translator ($20)	$58
Tuesday	MIR	check sockets	$7
Thursday	Shinsaege Dental Clinic	1 panoramic xray, 1pain-free shot, 1 extraction, drugs (antibiotics, painkiller, anti-nausea)	$13
Saturday	MIR	remove stitches	$4
		Subtotal for 3 Korean extractions:	$112
		Round-trip flight from US to Korea	$1200
		KOREAN TOTAL (with flight)	$1312
US costs:		$200-400 per tooth PLUS sedation ($50-400) PLUS xrays ($60-150 each) PLUS drugs ($35 for generic, 1 week)	$750-1785

$112 in Korea vs. about $1200.  Um, yeah, there's an obvious savings there.

But, ok, aren't there risks?  Well, yeah, but that's what I like to call "adventure." You won't get any informed consent or liability forms or insurance forms or much of any information at all about what's going on (maybe Korean-speaking patients get all this, but we did not).  You're not guaranteed that the good doctor has washed his hands or will wear gloves during surgery.  And Korean dentists don't do the whole "laughing gas" sedation route - a shot is enough.  So, depending on your health hysteria level, you might prefer your local American dentist so matter what the expense.

In the end, the financial savings were significant and we don't get into germ frenzies, so Sam went ahead with great success.  The very best part, of course, was the communication barrier.  A Korean nurse, trying hard to use her limited English, told Sam just before the surgery to "close your face."   He decided to close his eyes but keep his mouth open, and that was apparently the point.  You just can't buy cross-cultural humor. :)