I had a root canal last week, and I’m scheduled for a crown later this month. I was talking to my sister, and the subject went to costs. I paid $780 for the root canal, $200 for the build up (needed for the crown) and the crown itself is about $1000. My sister looked at me with her jaw hanging open, and asked why the heck it was so much. I told her my dentist’s name and she told me he’s the most expensive dentist around. My last root canal/crown, which also had a post (this one doesn’t need a post) was $1200 all told, about five years ago at the same office. My sis says $2000 is way to much for a root canal/crown and I should go elsewhere. This dentist is not an endodontist, just a regular dentist. I am in no way loyal to this dentist, I used to see the main dentist but I was switched to a newer associate for this round of torture.
The root canal is done, but if I can get the crown done for less, I’m all for it. If you’ve had a root canal/crown recently, what did it cost?
What does your dental insurance company have to say on the matter? For starters, they probably require a second opinion or at least “pre-authorization” for something so expensive.
The last time I had a crown (and just a crown, no root canal) my co-pay was $800. (Large molar, solid gold, which was cheaper than a porcelain veneer) This was four years ago, in San Francisco.
Wow, its like this thread was made for me. I am undergoing two root canals and getting a crown, gum scaling is also included. I just had the first root canal finished today and am going back for the second next week. I know the total amount charged, though about 60% is covered by insurance. It comes to about $2200. I didn’t think it was cheap, but it wasn’t far out of the ballpark of my expectations either. They have done a lot of work and DC has a shortage of dentists so the price may be higher than elsewhere.
Either myself and my insurance is getting scammed, or yours is much cheaper than mine.
I don’t have dental insurance. fruitbat , when you say two root canals, do you mean two roots in the same tooth, or two separate teeth need root canal treatment? Mine was a three root canal, all on one tooth. I don’t understand how prices can rise so fast, compared to my more costly (b/c of the post) treatment 5 years ago. My sister says the root canal/crown should be around $800 for the whole thing, but I think she is going on past data, probably a few years old.
Dental office employee here, north side of Chicago.
Fees in my office are: molar root canal $700, buildup $200, crown $750-850. A post runs $200 or $250, depending on if it’s preformed or custom cast. We do the casting in-house instead of farming it out to a lab. In general, our fees are considered average, possibly low for the crowns. (Not according to the patients, though.) Five years ago we would have charged $1150 for what now costs $1650.
Having the RCT done at the endo office runs about $1000. I’ve seen treatment plans from other offices with $1500 endo and $2000 crowns. Fees can be based on anything from a simple cost/labor formula to which marketing newsletter was read this week.
Your costs seem right on the money average in the Puget Sound area. I tend to get one root canal and a crown per year these days and that is what I have been charged by a general dentist. My wife and sister received crowns last year as well and their costs were about the same.
http://www.bracesinfo.com/dentalcosts/
Your profile says wisconsin. I dont know which city but most average $620 for a crown and $650 for a root canal according to that site.
Thanks for that site, Wesley Clark , I’ve bookmarked it. I live in a small town, it never shows up on those maps. I live on the border, and my dentist is in MN (Twin Cities Metro area), so my costs seem to be on the average/high side. It looks like that info is two years old, so my costs probably are average. Yikes.
I was going to start a similar thread because I have a LOT of extensive (expensive) dental work that needs to be done.
Is dentistry cheaper in some parts of the country than others? Is it worth it to travel a long way to get work done if you need a lot of it? A dentist in the Bay Area examined me and told me I need about $9000 worth of work. I have no insurance. The Bay Area is a pretty expensive place to live so I thought, “Hmmmmmmm… might this not be a lot cheaper in say, Iowa or Montana?”
I asked this of a friend recently and he said to go to Mexico. I am sure there are some fine dentists in Mexico, but I don’t know what licensing and standards they have so I would feel (rightly or wrongly) more comfortable in the USA.
Is there an online source for average dental rates by geographical area? I have looked and came up with nada.
Would 1-800-DENTIST recommend a dentist to me by price? At what point does cheaper dentistry become worse dentistry? Should I go to a dental school? (that scares the hell out of me.)
Oh darn. Didn’t read some of the posts. It seems Wesley Clark has offered a site that may be able to help me some. I will check it out. Still, any additional help would be appreciated.
I just had a root canal done by an endodontist who isn’t on any insurance plans (but you can submit your own claims) back in November and she charged $1100. The crowns are being covered by insurance because my regular dentist is doing them. But the root canal I had done 2-3 years ago (and never had the tooth crowned) now needs to be re-done before my dentist will crown it, so back to the endo I went today. It’ll be $1250 for re-treating the tooth. Hopefully I can wait until June when I can get on my husband’s insurance (his picks up some out-of-network costs). Ugh. Maybe I can set up a payment plan. All this is just north of NYC, BTW.
You can try a dental discount plan if you want to save some costs. A dental discount plan is basically a plan where if you see a provider listed in the organization they will do work for a 25-60% discount. I got a root canal & crown that would’ve cost $1500 done for $800 that way. Im on careington. They cover pre-existing conditions and cost about $6-10 a month.
However i dont think the deals in Wisconsin are that good. Like on plan 501 of careington (they give plans based on geographical area. Plan 501 is indiana, ohio, that area) a crown fused to base metal is $371.00 and a molar root canal is $351.00, however in Winconsin, which uses plan 505, a crown fused to base metal is $496.00 and a molar root canal is $491.00.
OOh. I just looked it up. If you can somehow get a careington plan from Illinois you can get plan 501, which charges $100 less for a root canal & $100 less for a crown than the plan in Wisconsin. Of course you’ll have to drive to Illinois to get any work done.