Oral & Facial Surgeons of Illinois, Dental Implants & Wisdom Teeth

Wisdom teeth are usually taken out in the late teens or early twenties for a reason that has nothing to do with pain. At that age the roots are still forming and have not yet wrapped themselves around the nerve canal running through the lower jaw, the surrounding bone is more elastic, and healing is faster than it will ever be again. Wait until forty and the same tooth is a harder extraction with a slower recovery. Weighing that timing against the risk of leaving a tooth alone is much of what an oral surgeon does when a general dentist sends a panoramic film across, and it is a large share of the work at Oral & Facial Surgeons of Illinois, which has covered the surgical side of dentistry in central Illinois since 1988.

Four board-certified oral surgeons — Dr. David Fischer, Dr. Jordan Williams, Dr. Mark Stephens and Dr. Joseph Long — cover the full specialty: single and multiple dental implants, wisdom teeth removal, bone grafting, full-arch restoration and corrective jaw surgery. A first visit is a consultation, not treatment. You are examined and imaged, and you leave with a written surgical plan. Where grafting is part of it, that plan should say plainly whether you are waiting three months or nine before a final tooth can be fitted, because grafted bone matures on its own schedule and no amount of scheduling pressure shortens it.

One thing to settle early: an implant started at a surgical practice usually arrives as two bills rather than one. The surgeon charges for the surgical phase — the extraction if a tooth is still present, any grafting, and the titanium fixture itself — while your own dentist charges separately for the abutment and crown fitted months later. If you were referred here, the two offices agree who does what and in what order; ask for that sequence in writing at the consultation.

The office is at 3007 Spring Mill Drive on Springfield's west side, in the pocket of medical and professional buildings off Route 4 near Greenbriar Drive. That is a short trip from Chatham, the western subdivisions and anywhere along Chatham Road, and a longer one from the east and north ends of town. Doors open at 7:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, which suits people who would rather have surgery early and keep the rest of the day for recovery; Friday finishes at 3:30 p.m.

On coverage, the practice participates with Delta Dental policies and files claims to other carriers as a courtesy, which is not the same thing as being contracted with them. Reimbursement for surgical extractions and grafting varies widely between plans, and jaw surgery is sometimes processed under medical rather than dental benefits. Bring existing imaging if another dentist has already taken a panoramic film — it can spare you a duplicate scan.