Cost Comparison of Different Types of Dental Crowns

Dental crowns are caps that fit over a tooth for several reasons - strength, aesthetics, or to restore a broken tooth. They are put on the outside of your tooth to prevent any further decay or cavities. Crowns are commonly done in situations where a decayed tooth needs to be protected, or to cover a tooth with a large filling. Crowns can be extremely expensive, with prices depending on city, dentist, and insurance. Below we've compiled the costs of different types of crowns for many different types of materials like gold crowns, All-Porcelain, and Porcelain fused to metal (PFM).

Type of Crown Cost With Insurance Cost Without Insurance
Gold Crown $900 $1,000+
Metal Crown $520-$1,140 $830-$2,465
Porcelain-fused-to-metal Crown $280-$1,000 $875-$1,400
All-Porcelain Crown $530-$1,875 $860-$3,000

Why the huge differences in average prices?

An obvious question after looking at the chart above is why there is such a huge fluctuation in pricing. One of the largest factors is location, location, location. A dentist in Beverly Hills costs far more than a dentist in Anchorage Alaska. What is even more puzzling is the well known case where two Beverly Hills dentists located in the same office building had huge differences in their pricing: the first charged $1,250 for an All-Porcelain crown, and the second charged $2,900! This difference in crown prices could very well be artificial, but most likely it is due to the difference in skill, experience, and even the lab where the seemingly same crown in made.

Pros and Cons of Gold Crowns, Metal Crowns, PFM Crowns, and All-Porcelain Crowns

What's interesting to note is that Gold and all Porcelain are the most expensive crowns. All-Porcelain crowns are the most commonly done crowns. If you are getting a crown in the back of your mouth (molars/posterior), we recommend a gold crown, and if you are getting a crown in the front of your mouth (visible area), we recommend an all-porcelain one.