I am supposed to get a gold crown placed on my back molar this Friday and I am having second thoughts about having gold in my mouth. I prefer porcelain. The lab already made my custom made gold crown. The dentist secretary told me that once the lab makes the gold crown I have to pay for it ($1000) even if I don't want it anymore. I don't understand why they can't do an exchange for a porcelain crown? Can someone explain this to me? They said if I want a porcelain crown I will have to pay an additional $1000 for changing my mind. I didn't realize you can't do exchanges if you change your mind. Is there any way out of this situation? Am I going to have to pay for a gold crown that I don't want anymore?
2007-02-24 14:54:23 · 6 answers · asked by Citygirl 2 in Health ➔ Dental
You are not returning a jacket to a store where they can turn around and sell it to some other customer. Your crown was custom made in every sense of the word, from start to finish. It would never in a million years be useful to anyone but you.
You MIGHT be able to strike a deal with the dentist, but most of his cost in creating the crown has already been incurred. You had an hour in the chair to have the tooth prepared (enamel layer removed) and an impression and temporary crown made. The lab bill has already been incurred. The only remaining expense is the half hour in the chair required to cement the crown into place. In other words - and this is just my best guesstimate - you have already "cost" the dentist all but the final $250 of what goes into the crown fee.
Okay, back the the strike a deal idea...
In order to get a different crown, you would have to go back to the impression-making step. This would be a repeat of about a half hour visit, so that wipes out the balance of your $1,000 charge. Then again, the shape we must make on a tooth for a gold crown is different than the shape we must make for a porcelain crown, so there might be some additional drilling required. That would take some time and you might need some corrections made to your temporary or you might even need a new temporary crown.
You would then have to cover the new lab bill and another $250 for that last half hour, maybe more if you need to get numb and have additional drilling. The lab charge on a porcelain crown would be in the $200 ballpark. This means it will actually cost your dentist an additional $500 (ballpark) for you to change your mind. He MIGHT be able to return the gold crown to the lab for a partial refund of the gold charge, since they know exactly what it is, but his gold charges are always made before the crown is polished, so he could only hope to recover about 80% of the raw gold charge.
If I was the dentist... I would at least _consider_ the idea of doing a new crown for about half the fee, if the final crown had not been cemented.
If it was possible.
Now... Why was gold suggested in the first place? To use porcelain (either over gold or all porcelain) you need at least 1.5 mm clearance between the crowned tooth and the opposing tooth to make room for the material. Gold only requires about a millimeter and you can sometimes get by with less than that. Maybe your tooth is so short already that grinding it down far enough to make room for porcelain would leave a tooth too short to hold a crown.
2007-02-24 16:09:06 · answer #1 · answered by Picture Taker 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They custom made that crown for you. It isn't going to fit anyone else, as it was made from the mold of your teeth. The dentist will have to pay the lab for their work, then what does he do with that crown if you don't want it? He can't absorb the cost himself. Then if you want them to make another crown, who is going to pay them for their work? They won't do it for free. They should have told you when you ordered the crown that once it's made you will have to pay for it.
2007-02-24 23:07:21 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
You are stuck paying for it. Someone custom made it for you...harder than you think, so you need to pay for it...you requested it after all. Have some scruples & live with your decision like a big kid of 7 or 8. The porcelain one is even harder to make & costs just as much. Besides, it is not in the very front of your mouth, so nobody will notice it, anyway.
2007-02-24 23:06:04 · answer #3 · answered by CIC 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes you would have to pay as crowns are custom made. Being at the back of your mouth it won't be to visable.Gold is funky and makes you look rich, I believe, anyway.....
2007-02-24 23:14:31 · answer #4 · answered by victali 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I wonder the answer to this too. I have a gold crown, and I hate it. It doesn't even fit right, and caused a cavity beside it. Grrr.
2007-02-24 22:59:01 · answer #5 · answered by Heather 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
WE CIRCLE THE AIRPORT ON THIS TOOTH ONCE AGAIN....
DR.SAM GIVES SOME GOOD POINTS.
2007-02-25 00:25:19 · answer #6 · answered by Dr. Albert, DDS, (USA) 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋