I will start by saying that the staff were excellent, and Dr. Vigna was polite and professional to a degree. He took a moment to ask about my history and work, and also to explain what an impacted wisdom tooth is. All reasonably normal, and this being the last of all my wisdom teeth to need extraction, I am familiar with the procedure from the perspective of an informed patient.I am not a dental surgeon, to be clear.
After a short discussion of what the procedure involved, he informed me that I would have an IV general anesthesia, and require all the pre and post care related to that. (Driven by someone else, short fasting period pre-surgery, 3 days of bed rest following.) I asked if there were any outstanding complicating factors about the extraction, and told me 'no', it would likely be about 10 minutes to complete barring anything unexpected.. I then asked to have the extraction done under a local anesthetic, explaining I had neither the time nor money for that kind of thing, nor could I afford the time off work if the case wasn't complicated. Dr. Vigna refused, saying that the procedure was too uncomfortable for the patient (!), and it must be done under general. Also, that they only do wisdom tooth extractions on Wednesdays. Total cost: $163.00 consultation fee, proposed cost for surgery (including anesthetic ~$1500) + 3 days lost wages.
So, I went to another dental surgeon for a second opinion, thinking there must be a better option. As I had expected, the next doctor I saw also said the extraction was uncomplicated and did not require any radical methods. However, he offered me the options of a local anesthetic only, local anesthetic + pill for sedation and also general anesthetic. The choice, he said, was mine, based on my level of comfort and ability to tolerate the short period of discomfort while conscious. Total cost: $64.00 consultation fee, $478 for extraction itself. They were able to book me on a Thursday or Friday afternoon as well, so +/- 1 days lost wages. No regrets there; the extraction was quick, relatively comfortable, and while I did need to work from home for a day, I was able to to that and not miss a days wages.
I imagine the surgical services at this office are a high caliber, but if you prefer to have minor procedures done with local rather than general anesthetic, consider your options, and beware the very high consultation fee to find out.