How Much Does a Crown Cost?

Why is there such a range in fees for dental crowns?

There is a wide range in the fees for dental crowns. The cheapest crown is $700 and the most expensive is $1,700. That seems to be an extreme variation. It only appears to be so on the surface.

Market Demands

A dental office which serves a patient population with a wide range of likes and dislikes will have to offer various levels of service. Offering only one level of service would leave out all other patient groups. As such, our office is accessible to patients on a limited budget, with or without credit, have or used to have dental insurance coverage, desire the highest possible level of esthetics (what we would call a Hollywood smile) or simply a good tooth restoration that will last a long time.

Cost of Fabrication

Dental Crowns fabrication costs range from $100 to $600 depending on the level of detail and craftmanship that goes into its fabrication. In-Office Made Crowns will typically cost less than a crown made by a third party such as a dental laboratory. Moreover, crowns made to be as esthetic as possible will require additional layers or porcelain, staining, glazing and additional skill, time and attention to detail. All of these translate into dollars raising the fabrication costs of a dental crown.

Back tooth Crowns require less esthetics and more strength and typically require less time and effort. They are listed in the first table. Front Tooth Crowns are made to a much higher level of esthetics. They can be strong, but they must be beautiful. That requires more skill, time, effort, materials. They are in the second table. To be clear, a back tooth is any tooth behind the canine (eye tooth), and are called premolars and molars. Canines and front teeth would be considered in the highly esthetic zone and the fees are presented in the second table.

Insurance Billing Overhead

A dental office overhead is reflected in the price of a crown. Therefore, a dental office where insurance billing takes place will have additional employees and processes to run the insurance billing operations. Believe it or not, processing dental insurance is a considerable burden on the overhead expenses of a dental office. As such, our office offers a fee reduction to patients who do not require dental insurance billing and processing.

Potential additional costs to watch out for when pricing a crown

Anyone searching the internet for information on how much a crown costs should be aware of any other potential costs associated with the dental procedures frequently associated with getting teeth repaired. Some of these possible additional procedures are:

• various tooth nerve treatments (root canal, pulp capping, etc)
• gum tissue trimming called “Gingivectomy”
• bone tissue trimming called “Crown Lengthening”
• post and core fabrication
• tooth reconstruction prior to crown fabrication
• dark teeth needing to be masked prior to crown fabrication

Breaking down the cost of a dental crown

To find out how much any type of dental crown costs, check it the various dental crown fees listed in the table below. I recommend you start with the following questions:

1. Do you have dental insurance coverage?
2. Do you need a crown on a back or front tooth?
3. Which type of crown do you want? Fabricated and Delivered the same day, next day, or 3 weeks later?