FMLA - dental procedures
rosfin
15 Posts
I have been reading what ever I could find relating to FMLA and dental procedures and still have questions. In a situation where some one initially goes in for tooth pain and has a wisdom tooth removed, I would not typically find that to be FMLA qualifying - missed 1/12 work days plus weekend. The person then also missed Monday to have an additional root canal and returned to work Tuesday but left 1 hour early due to pain. They then ended up missing all day Wed due to developing dry socket from wisdom tooth removal the previous week. Since what was initally a wisdom tooth removal then also required a root canal and then developed into dry socket ... I am thinking this has become FMLA qualifying but wondering how any of you would handle this?
Comments
I just had my first experience with FMLA for dental issues, although it was much worse than a dry socket. One of our employees had her wisdom teeth pulled and developed a life-threatening infection that spread up into her jaw. She wound up hospitalized and had to have surgery to help clear out the infection. I didn't know about it until after she got back after missing almost a month of work. She still has bruises on her face from the surgery, but as I understand it she's just lucky to be alive at this point. Pretty scary.
I think the serious health condition test is pretty easy - this incident involves an inpairment that requires continuing treatment by a health care provider for a condition that prevents the employee from performing the functions of his/her job.
Continuing treatment is a little harder - the regs state that in general, continuing treatment means a period of incapacity of more than 3 consecutive calendar days [B]combined with [/B]:
(a) at least 2 visits to a health care provider or
(b) one visit and a regimen of continuing treatment or
(c) incapacity due to a chronic condition.
So in your situation, they may have met the 3 consecutive calendar day requirement if they were incapacitated over the weekend, but have they also had a, b, or c? Hope that helps. FMLA is NEVER fun!