How much does it cost a dentist...

[billjustbill]

I'd like to know how much it costs a dentist for the "average molar crown" made from gold compared to the "Ceramic Crown" guaranteed against breakage for 7 years.

Most all those Ask a Dentist sites want money to answer questions, so I'm asking here. A dentist may have changed from a porcelain coated gold crown to the ceramic by "misunderstanding what the rear crown was agreed to be made from.... I'm trying to understand their cost to see if the "misunderstanding" was motivated by dollars rather than professional ethics...


If any of you have a friend or relative that is a dentist, I'd appreciate knowing what "baked dirt" vs gold cost them.

Thanks,

 

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[billjustbill]

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[jim4silver]

I'd like to know how much it costs a dentist for the "average molar crown" made from gold compared to the "Ceramic Crown" guaranteed against breakage for 7 years.

Most all those Ask a Dentist sites want money to answer questions, so I'm asking here. A dentist may have changed from a porcelain coated gold crown to the ceramic by "misunderstanding what the rear crown was agreed to be made from.... I'm trying to understand their cost to see if the "misunderstanding" was motivated by dollars rather than professional ethics...


If any of you have a friend or relative that is a dentist, I'd appreciate knowing what "baked dirt" vs gold cost them.

Thanks,

Bill,

Probably nobody here knows the answer to your question unless they are a dentist themselves. But in a general sense, the person to ask would be the lab that fabricates the crown for the dentist. In my experience, dentists normally have the crowns made by an outside service for them.

Thus, the lab buys the raw material and forms the crown to sell to the dentist, who then marks up the product plus adds his/her "time and labor" fee to the "product". I doubt the price of raw gold matters much in how much the dentist charges you for the crown itself unless your tooth is super duper gigantic. If I remember correctly, most dental gold is 16K.

For what it is worth, if the crown is going on a tooth that is visible (like a front tooth, etc) you are better with an all porcelain crown for color, etc. If for a molar or tooth involved in heavy duty chewing, it will be stronger if a metal base with porcelain cover. But if yours is guaranteed for 7 years the porcelain may be just as strong?

If I remember correctly, the fancy all porcelain crowns cost as much or more than the old time porcelain over metal ones at my dentist.

Just my (non dentist) opinion.

Jim

 

[billjustbill]

Thanks for the insight, Jim.

In that dentist office, all-gold, porcelain over gold, or ceramic all cost the patient the same: $998 plus $240 if the tooth "has to be prepared"...... One did, this one didn't need the "preparation".....

I've had my conference with the dentist and we left the ceramic crown on the lower rear tooth. I did ask what will happen to the tooth directly above it as it has a gold crown. The dentist said, "I won't be a problem."

Somehow, I still have that feeling on the back of my neck that the profit margin of a gold crown is much smaller, or there's some type of "Kick back" for using that company's ceramic product....

 

[digordie]

Bill, I am a dental lab tech. I charge the dentist so much for labor on a tooth then add the gold cost to my labor for the total price. Full gold teeth actually require less labor than that of a porcelain crown so I charge less for labor but the cost of gold is much higher so until recently with the hike in gold value it equaled out. Now days gold crowns cost the dentist a bit more than porcelain teeth, so to compensate some dentists will prefer a lower gold content alloy. Gold has always been preferred because it wares away at the same rate as natural teeth where as porcelian does not ware away at all, it will ware away the opposing teeth because it is harder, but people like the aesthetics of porcelain more so it can be a catch 22. Hope this helps.

 

[cazisme]

Relatives a dentist and he has a cnc machine in office that cuts teeth crowns out of porcelan/ceramic cubes I think it is faster they dont need to wait for the lab to make them. I had one of mine redone becouse it was a temporary filling he put in just after getting out of dental school well it lasted about 30 years. I hope the new ceramic/porcelan tooth/cap last that long .

 

[Dave Rishar]

My dentist charges the same for gold and porcelain - about $1200, just like your dentist does.

I was in there last week to get a molar prepped for a crown, as my old USGI dental work is in the process of self-destructing. I'd actually read this thread and asked him about it, but I'd forgotten to post here until now. His preference was gold for a variety of reasons. According to him, the lab that he used did an excellent job with gold; he didn't say that they did a bad job with porcelain, but he was glad that I'd chosen gold. He also explained that if cosmetics aren't an issue, gold is mechanically better in all respects. It expands and contracts at the same rate as enamel (which in turn reduces leakage and loosening), and is just about identical in terms of strength and wear as the real deal. He went on to say that gold will typically outlast porcelain by years (if not decades), and that he highly recommends it for molars. He echoed the same concerns already expressed in this thread about porcelain causing accelerated wear on opposing teeth, and he felt that porcelain was susceptible to cracking, while gold was basically immune to this.

The material was my choice and of course I picked gold, and both he and the technicians seemed pleased by that. I would not expect such a positive reaction from them if I were hurting their bottom line. I didn't ask specifically about the cost differences between the two materials on his end, but I got the impression that while the raw material cost for gold is higher than porcelain, the porcelain is harder to work with and the combined costs of labor and materials are basically a wash.

We didn't discuss porcelain-coated gold. I can bring this up with him the next time that I'm in there if you'd like. It will probably be another week or two before my crown shows up from the lab, but I can ask then.

It may simply be a misunderstanding like he said.

 

[Dave Rishar]

To follow up on this, I got my crown today. I've never had a gold tooth before. This is admittedly pretty cool.

According to the staff, porcelain and gold cost the same under my plan, but not under all plans and not for people who are uninsured. If you don't have a plan (or have the wrong plan), porcelain costs more here. I was told that the reason for this is that the porcelain involves much more labor, and costs almost the same in terms of materials. My dentist does not like working with it and suggests gold. The impression that I got is that if it were up to him, every crown would be gold, period. After he'd installed mine, he gave me a thumbs-up and told me that I had joined the club, then pointed out his own gold crown. He reiterated what he'd said earlier (and what I'd read in other places) that as long as asthetics aren't a factor, gold is superior to porcelain in every single category, even in terms of the final cost when labor is factored in.

Let's back up about two weeks and talk about my friend Ron. Ron went in to have some work done (different dentist, different clinic) and was told at the desk that he needed three crowns and it would cost him about $4,000. Ron explained that the dental tech had told him that he only needed a root canal on one tooth. Some paperwork was shuffled around and it turned out that, yes, Ron was correct and he'd only needed a root canal, but due to a mix-up he'd had three teeth prepped for crowns instead, and as you know, once a tooth is prepped for a crown it has to get a crown. After a bit of back-and-forth the error was uncovered and Ron will be receiving his three crowns, but at the cost of a single root canal because that's all that had been required in the first place, as noted by the dentist. Stuff happens.

They make mistakes. Fortunately this one was to Ron's advantage and wouldn't have hurt him, but the whole medical records industry has some shaping up to do. I could tell stories about this. Consider yourself lucky that this is not something that could have killed you. If it's an issue, I'd bring it up to the dentist and insist upon reviewing the records. I think that it may have been an honest mistake though.

 

[billjustbill]

Thanks to all you fellows for sharing your insights and experiences. It's something that can happen, but when you get that "feeling on the back of your neck" that something's not being handled right it is hard to let go.... All your comments have helped me with that, but it will make me even more alert when I go back in or choose to find another more creditable dentist. When I specifically watched the dentist write down and say, "I'm going to have them put a porcelain layer on this." and I specifically respond with a very appreciative, "Thank you for doing that." response, I know something was altered in my dental file.

I came back to my topic, tonight to find responses and very informative and welcomed ones at that. But I didn't know you fellows had posted any after my last response.... I have noticed that when I have a topic in any of Treasure Net's Forums, and I have adjusted the window about getting Instant Email ALERTS when a member posts to them, that I will get only a few email reminders. But, after a post or two, I do not receive any other Treasure.net alerts. I'm always emptying my email's Spam file manually, so I'd know if one came in there. Do any of you have that happening?

Thanks again for your help and for sharing,
Bill