Dental insurance or no? Cost of a crown?

Question

I had a horrible experience at my last dentist visit because they seemed to delibrately find things wrong with my teeth like the "free brake inspection" ploy. They found reasons for me to have further dental work done from a filling to a crown. Well, after a year of thinking I'm somewhat worried about my front tooth because there is a hairline crack running through it but when x-rayed, it did not show. I have no pain or sensitivity in that tooth. I no longer have dental insurance and all the plans I've looked at require a waiting period of about 12 months until I am partially covered for a crown. I don't want to wait that long because I'm afraid this crack can spread to my root at anytime. I don't know what to do? Are there any alternative dental plans where there are no waiting periods? Or should I just pay out of pocket money? Also, does anyone happen to know the average cost for a top quality crown? This is my front tooth we're talking about here and I want the very best.

Answer 1

Do you have a dental school in the area? Since it is your front tooth, they may have a teacher do the work. My brother did this when he was young and unemployed. At least they would consult with you and give you some qualified answers.

Answer 2

For a good all porc. crown you can expect to pay anywhere from nine hundred to twelve hundred dollars. You can get a porc. fused to metal crown which are slightly less expensive, but sometimes they can show a small amount of metal around the gumline. Not all of them are like this though I have seen some really good PFM crowns (porc. fused to metal) on the anterior teeth. I would not wait. I would find a dentist that uses intra oral camera technology. You can't always see a crack on the x-ray, but many times with a good intra oral camera it will show up. Because the camera was made to take pictures inside of the mouth it can show a multitude of things that we can't even see with the naked eye due to the very strong light that the intra oral camera requires to take a picture. If you can see the crack yourself then you should get something done about it soon. You could be eating something hard and hit the tooth just the right way and boom, you now have a fractured tooth that also needs a root canal plus a crown. You used the free brake inspection analogy. So let me use a car analogy as well. You know that your car needs to have that oil leak fixed,but you don't have the money to do it. You keep using your car thinking well it is running okay, why get the oil leak fixed. Then one day your engine seizes up because the oil leak got worse and you had no oil in it to keep everything lubricated. The engine got too hot and boom, now you have to pay thousands of dollars to get your engine repaired or replaced when you could have spent much less in the beginning to have the oil leak fixed. See where I am going with this. It is much less expensive in the long run to fix something, then to play the wait and see game. And in your case with it being a front tooth if anything happens everyone will be able to see it. I think you already know what to do, but you are just looking for someone to say yes go ahead and do it now. Well go ahead and get it taken care of before you encounter a potential embarrassing situation.

Answer 3

I agree, do not wait. A crack can become a break very easily. You don't know how many patients come in and tell me that they broke their tooth eating a piece of bread, or chewing on gum. If that happens you may need a post, core & crown (which increases the cost). Or worse, you may not be able to restore the tooth at all. A good quality crown will run $1000 - $1200, but is well worth it. If you break the tooth and it is not restorable, an implant will run you around $4000. Make sure you find a reputable dentist to do your crown that will take the time to match the color to the rest of your teeth. It usually is broken up into two visits, so you can break the cost up as well. Good luck!

Answer 4

I think the price of crowns is like anything else. It depends on where you live. I live in Southern Indiana and I am looking at 750 for a crown. My dental insurance will pay half. Your tooth may have a crack in the enamel. Perhaps you should consider a veneer or onlay in that case. I don't know if there is that much difference in the price. I do know that while dental insurance will pick up a percentage of a crown, I have never heard of them covering laminates or veneers. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Well I think that the suggestion of going to a dental scool was a good idea. Although, I'm sure that costs may have to be paid up front, which is what I think you are trying to avoid because dental work can be costly. Usually crwons stats of at about $700 I do know that Sears Dental lets you use a Sears credit card for services (which has 0% financing for 1yr.) and they also have third party financers available (this is not credit card). I hope my answer was helpful !

Answer 6

TRY TO FIND A WESTERN DENTAL SOME WHERE IN YOUR AREA AND SEE WHAT THEY SAY