D7944 — Osteotomy — segmented or subapical
D7944 cuts out and repositions a block of jaw carrying a few teeth, rather than moving a whole jaw.
One of ten orthognathic surgery codes. If you are trying to understand the treatment, start with the orthognathic surgery guide; if you are trying to understand this line on your estimate, you are in the right place.
Everything on this page is about the code itself — its conditions, its fee, its benefit handling, and the precise point at which it stops applying and a neighbouring code starts.
The nearby codes and how they differ
D7943 — Osteotomy — mandibular rami with bone graft: It is that same ramus osteotomy with a bone graft added to bridge the gap the movement creates.
D7945 — Osteotomy — body of mandible: It cuts through the body of the lower jaw, forward of the ramus, in order to reposition it.
D7946 — LeFort I (maxilla — total): It is the LeFort I osteotomy, which frees the whole upper jaw in one piece and repositions it.
D7941 — Osteotomy — mandibular rami: It cuts through the vertical part of the lower jaw behind the teeth so that the whole jaw can be moved.
D7944 sits in a group of ten codes in total; the remainder are linked at the foot of this page. The practical point: confirm which of these is going on the claim before treatment, not after. Corrections after submission mean a resubmission, a delay, and occasionally a fee you did not expect.
Every code in this group
These codes describe the same broad procedure and differ in one respect each. Each has its own page with its own fee range and coverage notes.
Questions about D7944
What procedure is D7944?
Read literally, D7944 means osteotomy, segmented or subapical — and payers do read it literally.
Is D7944 expensive?
The usual range is $2,500–$8,000. Anything well outside it is worth a question rather than an assumption.
Is D7944 a covered benefit?
Most plans include it under medical benefits, variable. A pre-treatment estimate is the only way to know your own number in advance.
What is the difference between D7944 and D7943?
D7943 is osteotomy, mandibular rami with bone graft: it is that same ramus osteotomy with a bone graft added to bridge the gap the movement creates. They are different operations that happen to sit next to each other in the code set, so one is not an alternative way of billing the other.
Also known as: jaw surgery, orthognathic surgery, LeFort osteotomy, underbite surgery, bite correction surgery.