Dental Laboratory, AZ

How much does a crown or bridge cost?

You probably want to read a simple answer like "$310". But it's just not that simple! Asking how much a crown or bridge costs is very much like asking how much does a new set of dishes cost or how much does a new car or a new wrist watch cost?

You need to be cautioned right from the beginning that selecting a crown (or a dentist) based solely on price is foolish. Yes, it's smart to watch how you spend your money, but making choices about your health with the intent to save money may, over time, cost you more than it saves. Do you tell a mechanic, "I want the cheapest brakes you can put on my car"? Or, do you tell him, "Put the cheapest oil you can find in my engine"? Even if you do that, you shoud not use that same thinking when it comes to your dental health. You can trade your car for a new one once you realize the mistake, but you can't go to a dealership to buy new teeth.

Now. . . The cost of dental restorations depends on many things, but the 4 primary factors are (in no particular order):

Who makes it.

The type of material it's made with.

Geographical location of the dentist / patient and the laboratory.

What the dentist charges for his portion of the work.

Below is a little more of an explanation about each of these factors.

1. Who makes the dental restorations:
	There are now foreign labs (referred to in the dental industry as “off-shore” labs), that supply dentists in the U.S. with all types of dental restorations. These foreign labs generally will make restorations for half or less of what a lab in the U.S. charges. What's the “down-side” of foreign labs? That page will be posted in the near future.


	Within the United States, there are many labs that charge a full range of prices for a crown or bridge. Generally, prices from U.S. labs start at or above the prices from the foreign labs and go up from there. In other words; the least expensive U.S. labs' prices will start around the point where the most expensive foreign labs' prices end.
	Almost without exception, prices from labs within the United State vary more than the prices from off-shore labs.

	In the U.S., prices range for very low to very very expensive. Setting aside the different materials labs use; prices from U.S. labs still vary significantly – depending largely on the quality of the work and what the laboratory owners believe their crowns and bridges are worth.

2. The type of material a dental restoration is made with:
	There are two basic groups of materials that the core of the crowns (and bridges) are made from. The two material groups are: "metal" (very specific mixes of precious and non-precious metals called "dental alloys") OR all-ceramic materials (metal-free).

	The core material will affect the price of a restoration. When comparing the costs for these materials to each other, it would be fair to say that the costs vary considerably. But generally they don't vary to the point that a crown made from the most expensive core material will be twice or triple the cost of the least expensive material.

	Metal cores are cast from dental alloys. Dental alloys are precise mixtures of precious and semi-precious metals. Some alloys are also made from semi-precious and non-precious metals.

	A crown or bridge with a metal core is most often referred to as a PFM or PFG - that's where it can get a little complicated. See Footnote #1 below for more information.

	The choices of alloys that the dentist selects from include high gold content alloys and alloys with lower gold content that will cause the price of the bridge to vary.

	The portion of the alloy that isn't gold may be palladium or platinum and since the prices for platinum and palladium can sometimes be higher than gold, it can't automatically be assumed that an alloy with 66% gold content is less expensive then an alloy with 77% gold content.

	Dental alloys are almost never pure gold because 24k gold is too soft. Pure gold isn't strong enough to make a dental bridge – it would bend and cause the porcelain to pop off. Even if the restoration is a “full-cast gold” crown (a gold tooth), pure gold will slowly mash and deform under pressure from the opposing teeth and hard foods.

	It's important to know that your dentist doesn't select an alloy based on how much money he can make. Cost is sometimes a factor, but the dentist will specify a particular alloy based on a number of different considerations.

	All-ceramic (Metal-free) restorations are made with cores that are milled or pressed from various types of ceramic and contain no dental alloys. There is a wide selection of all ceramic materials and your dentist will select the appropriate one for your mouth based on appearance and color (ability to match your other teeth), strength, etc.

3. Location of the dentist may affect prices.
	Geographical location may also affect prices just as it affects the costs of all products and services. Even if a dentist orders a crown from another location that has a lower cost-of-living, the shipping costs are higher when any product is sent to isolated locations such as parts of Alaska, Hawaii, or even rural areas in the contiguous United States. While this higher shipping cost will not add a lot to the cost of the dental restoration, it can add to it.

4. What the dentist charges for his work.
	Go to "Why does a dentist charge so much" page.


Footnote #1
PFM stands for Porcelain Fused to Metal and PFG stands for Porcelain Fused to Gold. The terms “PFM” and “PFG” are frequently used interchangeably. However, if the restoration was made with a non-precious metal core, then it would be incorrect to refer to the restoration as a “PFG”.
Also, when using the acronym “PFG”, since the “G” stands for “gold” it's somewhat misleading because it's referring to alloys that contain a specific amount of gold PLUS other metals - not pure gold.

Back to Home Page