The Dental Surgery Center of DC provides treatments similar to a hospital for a better price, with personalized care, and without the month-long wait times.
Less expensive:
An outpatient surgery center is generally much less expensive than being treated at a hospital! In fact, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that people pay $363 to $1,000 less per treatment when they have their surgery done at a surgery center.
The best part of this price difference is that you get the same or even better care at an outpatient facility that you would receive in a hospital.
Better care:
Hospitals have many patients and are often understaffed. Nurses, doctors, and anesthesiologists may simply not have enough time to spend time walking you through your procedure. Many anesthesiologists even have to travel from surgery to surgery helping multiple patients stay sedated.
At a surgery center doctors have the same credentials as those working in hospitals and staff usually have only one or two patients to tend to at a time. Staff at surgery centers put a larger emphasis on patient comfort and care.
Less time:
The CDC estimates that patients at a surgery center will spend approximately 25% less time undergoing outpatient surgery than in a hospital. Hospitals often wait longer to release patients, incurring higher costs and wasting time.
Most surgery centers can schedule your surgery within weeks whereas hospitals usually have waiting lists that can stretch for months. You will be able to schedule and receive your needed surgery much faster than at a hospital.
Why would I need to go to a hospital or surgery center for dental needs?
Going to the hospital for dental work may seem extreme for oral health needs, but sometimes general anesthesia is required for a dental procedure. Dental patients who have extreme dental needs, special needs, or extreme anxiety may especially benefit from getting their dental treatment completed under general anesthesia.
General anesthesia requires an anesthesiologist to be present at the surgery and support staff to monitor the patient when they wake up.
Most general or pediatric dentists do not have an anesthesiologist or PACU nurses on staff. This means you must go to the hospital for your surgery, incurring high fees, and often having to wait 6-12 months for surgery.
Sometimes a 2-year-old child may have cavities on 10-15 teeth and cannot sit still long enough for their home dentist to give them the required local anesthesia shots and to drill on their teeth.
Historically, these patients have either been treated across 6-8 visits, with the dentist doing some treatment on each visit, or the patient has been strapped to a papoose board as the dentist completes a treatment on a struggling child.
Unsurprisingly, these treatments are not very effective and can leave a young patient with even greater anxiety than before. A patient who is scared of the dentist might avoid further treatments in the future and risk causing permanent damage to their mouths.
What we do:
Our Surgery Center was created to help you get the treatment you or your child needs, in a timely manner, at an affordable price. We also want you to have the best experience possible with minimal stress. Our anesthesia providers carefully monitor each patient’s entire surgery carefully regulating your anesthesia levels to make sure they are safe while the dentist does their work.
The dentist can complete all of the work in a single visit, and the patient won’t even remember it! It’s a great solution to avoid both the risk of infection from untreated cavities and the fear or anxiety that children may face when visiting the dentist.
If you or someone you love needs general anesthesia for dental surgery in Virginia, Washington DC, or Maryland, please call us at (240) 691-4844.
