I recently had all four of my wisdom teeth removed. It was a necessary operation - I've been having troubles with my teeth for a while. Overcrowded they have become difficult to keep clean and a few weeks ago I had an untimely, painful infection in one of the wisdom teeth. I had hoped to have the operation done earlier this summer but, because my chosen dentist had a low Taxpunktwert, I didn't have that much flexibility. So instead of taking advantage of my summer vacation to have the procedure I had to cancel my classes this week, have the procedure done on Monday night, and have spent an entire week recovering.
But let's talk a bit about that Taxpunktwert...
Discovering the Taxpunktwert system in Switzerland was an eye-opening experience. About 18 months ago I had the inconvenient experience of an emergency root canal. I was new to Switzerland, didn't have much confidence in my German skills, and, of course, I was in pain. A lot of it. So there I was, googling the English-speaking dentists that were close to the Hauptbahnhof. I methodically contacted each one until I found one that would see me the next day. The painful experience required multiple visits and multiple sets of fancy x-rays with fancy equipment. Clean, easy, perfectly located, efficient. Dentistry at its finest.
Also, it was expensive as fuck. I assumed that was par for the course. Compared to the work I had done in South Korea a few years ago it seemed natural that this Swiss efficiency would be more expensive.
But this time around, for my wisdom teeth, I didn't want to have to commute to the Hauptbahnhof. The idea of spending 15 minutes on the train with a bruised, swollen face trying not to cry, with ice packs on each of my cheeks didn't appeal to me. So I began looking for dentists near my flat. I found one, set up an appointment, and began discussing specifics. They would need x-rays, and fortunately I had an unnecessarily full set of them done for my tooth at the previous dentist. I would save money if I could get a copy of the old ones.So there I was, rifling through my paperwork, trying to understand why the previous dentist didn't have my name in their system when I saw this mysterious number, this Taxpunkt, at the bottom of the Rechnung. Everything had been multiplied by 3.50. Each individual Rechnung was the same, an itemized list of the procedures followed by this mysterious 3.50 number and a much larger total listed at the bottom. What was that all about?
A few hours, and one or two visits to the Leo Deutsch-English website, later I had discovered the Taxpunktwert system. Let me explain. In Switzerland dental operations and procedures are standardized and assigned Tariff points. Regardless of who the dentist is, the Tariff point is the same for a tooth removal, a root canal, or any other procedure (they also have Tariff points for dental hygiene procedures). At some point in the past a council of dentists (probably led by the magical Swiss Tooth Fairy) went through each procedure, labelled it, and assigned Tariff points.
But wait. If I'm a dentist in the middle of Zürich with a large, spacious office with all the modern amenities and a large multi-lingual staff, paying exorbitant Zürich-level rent, why should I pay the same as the small, family-run practice in L'Isle working out a large, renovated family-style home with only two staff members? Or even worse, what if my dental practice staffs multiple specialists in every field of dentistry that are available every day of the week and his practice only has one surgeon who comes in once a month? Why do we get the same money from our patients?
Thus, the Taxpunktwert system was born.
The Taxpunktwert is a number that a dental practice can assign to itself in order to offset the costs of running the business. The practice asks itself, what am I worth, and then sets that worth in the form of a Taxpunkt. If the dentist is a member of the Swiss dental association then he/she must stay under 5.80. A dental X-ray can cost CHF 15.40 (TPW 2.8) with one dentist, when another dentist charges CHF 27.20 (TPW 4.95) for the same.
As you can see, the Taxpunktwert for your dentist can have a profound impact on the costs of your procedure.
So here I was, sitting on the floor of my apartment surrounded by paperwork, shaking my head in annoyance. How had I not bothered to check that before? I frantically opened a new tab and checked the dentist I had agreed to meet for my wisdom tooth removal. I scrolled and scanned, getting more and more nervous, only to discover, to my shock, a Taxpunktwert of... 1.05.
1.05 compared to the 3.50 of my previous dentist. 1.05 compared to the maximum of 5.80.
I heaved a huge sigh of relief. The reason I was going through this paperwork, to understand why the first dentist couldn't find my previous x-rays, ended up being useless - I figured out that they had my maiden name on record, instead of my new name, but the copy of the x-rays they eventually gave me was a shitty quality JPEG uploaded to a CD and was useless for my new dentist. But ultimately I was content. I had a better understanding of the dental system in my new home. As someone who considers herself more of an immigrant than an expat (meaning I don't plan to go back to the states in a few years, like a typical Expat) this information is essential.
1.05 meant that if my Tariff point was 1,000 I would pay CHF 1,050 instead of the CHF 3,500 at my previous dentist (and the hypothetical CHF 5,800 at the most expensive dental practice in Switzerland). It turns out that the estimated Tariff points for my procedure is 1,858.83. Multiplied by a Taxpunktwert of 1.05, and with a few additional expenses for take-home medicine, I will have to pay a little less than CHF 2,000 to have all four of my wisdom teeth removed.
Feeling happy about my new dental practice, at some point I optimistically began looking through my Health Insurance information and discovered that the supplemental plan I had opted for included a benefit for wisdom teeth: the insurance will pay 50% of the cost of Wisdom tooth removal, with a limit of CHF 2,000. Everything worked out perfectly and, at the end of it all, I will be paying around CHF 1,000. To remove all four of my wisdom teeth.
Here I am today, recovering from the procedure. Everything went well, it took less than an hour to remove all four teeth - they, quite literally, just popped out. My pain has been manageable, the bruising has been minimal, and I haven't needed to constantly drug myself to get through the recovery (so far). Of course, when I grow confident to leave my flat - navigating the 5 flights of stairs in and out - to run errands, or confident enough to organize and clean, or crazy enough to even think about running or doing yoga or playing my flute, I end up with throbbing pain and have to relax with some ice packs on my face. But today is only day 4. I have the weekend to recover before I'm back to work on Monday morning.
All in all it has been a good experience so far. The Swiss bureaucracy is a little bit less confusing. My troublesome teeth are gone. And hopefully things will continue to heal without complications. Knock on wood. Ich drücke die Daumen.
