Dental Crown Cost: what a crown costs here

What moves the price within that range

Every crown here falls inside the same $800 to $1,500 range. Where yours lands depends mostly on two things: the material it is made from, and the tooth it is going on. A front tooth that shows when you smile and a back molar that does the heavy chewing ask different things of a crown, so they are often made from different materials.

The table is the general picture, not a menu. Dr. Bhoompalli recommends a material for the specific tooth, its position in your bite and your budget, and the dental crowns page explains the materials and the two-visit process in full. Your exact fee is then set at the consultation, before any work begins, so you are never asked to agree to a number you have not seen.

What else can be added to a crown visit

The crown range covers the crown. Two other treatments sometimes come with it, and each is quoted separately because each solves a different problem:

• A core build-up. When decay or a crack has taken away a large part of the tooth, missing structure is rebuilt underneath first, so the crown has something solid to sit on.
• Root canal treatment. Only when the nerve inside the tooth is inflamed or infected. It is not an automatic part of every crown, and most crowns do not need one.

If you are holding two quotes from different offices and trying to work out why they differ, what changes the cost of a dental crown walks through the items a crown estimate should list line by line. If you already know the tooth needs a root canal as well, root canal cost and a crown covers how to get both in one written quote.

Insurance, CareCredit and the membership plan

Most dental plans cover part of a crown that restores a damaged tooth: one that is cracked, broken, worn down, or finished after a root canal. A crown placed for purely cosmetic reasons usually is not covered. How much your plan pays depends on the plan, so rather than guess, we accept most insurance and verify your benefits before treatment, and tell you the part you would pay before the work is booked.

For the balance, or if you have no insurance, there are three ways to pay:

• Cash, credit or debit, at the visit.
• CareCredit, a health and wellness credit card that splits the cost into monthly payments, subject to credit approval. You can apply before your visit.
• Our in-house membership plan, for patients without insurance. Ask the front desk how it works.

The financing page has the CareCredit application and the payment details in one place.

How long a crown lasts for the money

A crown typically lasts 5 to 15 years with good care. That is a wide spread, and most of it comes down to habits: brushing and flossing at the gum line where the crown meets the tooth, keeping regular cleanings, and not using the crown on ice, hard candy or bottle caps. The crown itself cannot decay, but the tooth under its edge can.

Grinding is the habit that shortens a crown's life the most, because it puts far more force on the tooth than chewing does. If you wake with a sore jaw or have been told you grind, a custom night guard protects the crown and the teeth around it while you sleep. For people who grind, metal on the back teeth is often the better choice too.

Crown or filling: when the cheaper option is enough

Not every damaged tooth needs a crown. A filling patches a tooth; a crown holds it together. When a cavity or an old filling still leaves enough sound tooth around it, a filling is the smaller and less expensive repair, and Dr. Madhavi Bhoompalli takes a conservative approach: if a filling or a smaller repair will keep the tooth sound, that is what she recommends.

The call is made at the exam, with an x-ray, because how much healthy tooth is left matters more than how the tooth looks from outside. Crown or filling explains where the line usually falls. If the tooth is a front tooth and the question is really about how it looks, veneers vs crowns compares those two.