Why do crowns for teeth cost so much?

Question

They are just little pieces of porcelin.

Answer 1

I am glad to answer that for you. They are not just little pieces of porcelain first off. And no they have not proven the metal crowns to be unsafe like the first person said. Depending on the lab that the dentist uses is what the cost of the crown will be. Also what type of material he has the lab use. Non-precious metal crowns are known not to last near as long as high nobel metal (a gold mixture). So many dentists are choosing that type, simply because their name is going on that work and they don't want their name on something that is going to fail in about 7 years. Making a crown start to finish is not cheap.

When you pay for a crown you are paying for every singe item they use on you. Guaze, cotton rolls, anesthetic, needle, sterilization of the insturments, barriers for the room, water, electricity, the burs that are used to prepare the tooth, impression material, impression tray, hemostatic solution and cord, temporary crown material, cement, lab fees, assistant salary (I make $15.00 and hour, some assistants make as much as $22.00 and hour) the paper your insurance claim or bill was printed on, the front desks salary, blah blah blah. Need I go on, cause trust me there is a lot more on the list.

I say a lab bill the other day on a crown. We asked for a high nobel crown with a porcelain outer cover. With the cost of the weight of the gold, the porcelain, shipping, tax, etc., the bill for that one crown was $318.00. We charged the patient $825.00 for that. So take the lab fee out of that and you have $507.00 left over, which will have all the above things listed deducted before the dentist pockets a dime.

So now do you see why those "Little pieces of porcelain" cost so much.

Trust me, I know how expensive dental materials. I buy them everyday. They are outragous. Not like going to WalMart.

Answer 2

The dental assistant at the the top of this answer list is probably the wife or related to the dentist. My dentist just sent me and estimate for 3 crowns over $6,000. I happen to know when an assistant or aide refers a person to get a crown they pay them $15. Wow.... pay close attention to the list on that answer. gauze-50cents electricity-5cents and all the other materials besides the crown cost a dentist less than $10. The labor of the assistant is the most. Porcelain is not expensive. and although the machinery is expensive and over priced it is depreciated and used as a tax ride off. after a year or two in practice 100% is profit. and many dentist have machines that make them right on the spot. I just bought a fairly high end pc for less than the price of one crown. Even after paying rent and employees etc if a dentist does even there crowns in a day plus all the other dental stuff thats a take home profit from 3-6k a day depending on dentist. Are they really worth $400-$600/hr??? No...the problem is you have to have a license to do in a dentist or doctors office what you can lean in minutes. I made $5/hr doing physical therapy on patients back in the lat 80s and i had no license but did it under a doctors care. 30-50 patients a day at an average of $45- $150 a patient. i made a fortune for the doctor.....Our system doesn't allow the free market to work. they've cut out competition.

If you look at lassie etc the prices come down every year, you get treatment within 1o minutes and the equipment gets better every year. you can actually email your doctor and get an answer.

But what can you do? I will likely have to get 3 crowns and my half after insurance will still be over $2100 for something the dentist will do in a couple of hours. its just not right

Answer 3

Because dentist can charge what they want and they do. It costs a local lab $110 to make a crown, thats what they charge the dentist and he turns around and charges $900. At most I would say the dentist spends one and a half hours with the patient, thats doing the crown prep and then cementing the permanant crown weeks later. The dental assistant does most of the work and makes anywhere from $10-16 an hour.
Now, you would think that they would want to encourage people to visit the dentist, but anyway, its a dog eat dog world.
My advice to you and your husband is if you get check ups and cleanings regularly (every 6 months) you can avoid having painful and or very expensive work done because you will 99% of the time catch these problems when they are small.
Thats the truth and thats my advice to you.

Answer 4

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if the crown in provided on the nhs the current cost is £194 for one crown or ten. However not many dental practices are taking on patients on the nhs. Also if your are taken on as a nhs patient but the crown is for appearance purposes, they will charge you privately as the nhs wont fund this. The cost of a private crown can vary from £200 each upto roughly £800 dependant on what quality crown is used,content of the crown makeup, lab fees and the practice you attend. As for how long the crown will last each one is individual, depends on why the crown is there and the strenght of the tooth substance underneath.They tell you to expect about 7yrs.They say if you get ten years+ then its definately done its job. Ive known some crowns last 1 yr and some last more then 35!

Answer 5

every area will charge you differently....they cost so much because of 1 the type you buy and or where you go. Full porcelain meaning no metal will cost more..and buy the way...yes the INS should help you with 50% of a crown the has metal. And metal is safe. A composite resin is a white filling not a crown...

Answer 6

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RE:
Why do crowns for teeth cost so much?
They are just little pieces of porcelin.

Answer 7

What do you do for a living?

I had a service call to "clean my pipes" when our sewer line was sluggish. The gentleman was here for FIFTEEN MINUTES. I mean, from the time he rang the doorbell until the time he slammed his van door on his way out of the drive was FIFTEEN MINUTES. He took one cap off a pipe and did the plumber's equivalent of opening up a tooth for root canal with a 3 foot snake. That was all it took. He charged $169.00 for this, which was his minimum charge for a service call. Let's say that was all he could make in an hour, because he has to drive from one location to the next. This money is HIS money, as he answers his own phone and handles all of his own business. He has no salaries to pay. As far as I can see it, he had to pay for gas to get to my house and that was his only variable expense involved in the call. His fixed expenses are for his equipment. In my case, he used a snake that is exactly like one I saw at Home Depot for thirty bucks. Depreciate that over a 7 year period....... Nevermind. You understand what I'm saying.

Personally, after 8 years of higher education, I'd like to have a net income close to what the man who opened up my sewer pipe makes per hour.

Answer 8

Not only are you paying for the crown itself, but also for the dental assistant's time working on you, the dentist themselves time, all the materials they use in getting the crown ready and many, many other things.

Answer 9

it takes a long time to become a dentist. they charge alot because they can. if a mechanic had to go to 8 years of school, a tune up would probably cost a couple grand...

Answer 10

The composite resin crowns are not covered by dental insurance, which is quite unfair, and very costly. However, the metal ones have been proven to be unsafe.