Cost of Dental Crowns

The cost of a dental crown or cap varies greatly from dental office to dental office. As a general rule, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. While you should be highly skeptical about offices that advertise crowns for 500 dollars or less, you should be equally cautious about offices who charge 1,000 dollars or more for a crown. Since most dentists will charge similarly for their time, discounting the procedure will mean using a less expensive or a “cheaper lab”.

There are a wide variety of labs with different lab fees. Because of the current economic climate, some labs even outsource their crowns to China in order to reduce costs. Although the quality of the crown made in China may be comparable to the one made in the U.S., the labs are not regulated to the same criterion as required by the labs in the United States. That would mean the materials used and the infection control procedures are not held to the same standard.

As a consumer, you want to get the best value for your money. What that means is that you want to get the best fitting, longest lasting and most natural looking crown for a fair fee. You can have the crown made by the fanciest, most expensive laboratory, but if the impression is inadequate, substandard or if the tooth is prepared poorly by the dentist, the end result is disappointing. Therefore, it starts and stops with your dentist.

What is a fair fee then? Since there are wide variety of crowns, an acceptable fee range is anywhere from $650 to $950 for LA and Orange County area. Anything far below the low end should be suspected and anything far beyond this amount should be questioned as well. You do not want to be paying extra for someone’s excessive overhead or compromise your health for a cheap crown.

At the office of Aria Irvani DDS, Orange County dentist, you can always call us to come in for a complimentary consultation.