How much does a dental crown cost?
A single ceramic or zirconia crown is $2,000. That is the fee for the crown itself. Treatment a tooth sometimes needs before it can be crowned, such as a core buildup, root canal treatment or gum surgery to expose enough tooth, is a separate procedure with its own fee.
What the fee covers
The $2,000 fee covers preparing the tooth, recording it, designing the crown, making it and fitting it, along with the adjustments needed to get the bite right. Where the case allows, the crown is designed and milled in the office during the visit, which removes the temporary crown and the second appointment. Some cases are still better made in a laboratory, particularly front teeth where layered ceramic gives a better result.
What a tooth sometimes needs first
A crown needs something solid to sit on. Where a large old filling or decay has been removed there may not be enough tooth left, and a core buildup rebuilds the foundation first. Where decay reaches below the gum, the margin has to be made accessible, which means crown lengthening surgery or orthodontic extrusion of the root. Where the nerve is involved, root canal treatment comes first. Each of these is its own procedure with its own fee, and which apply is decided at the examination.
Why crowns are quoted at very different prices
Material accounts for part of it. Full contour zirconia, layered ceramic, lithium disilicate and metal ceramic behave differently under load and look different at the front of the mouth, and they cost different amounts to make. The rest is time: how carefully the preparation is shaped, how the margin is recorded, and how much adjustment is done to make the crown meet the opposing teeth correctly.
That last part is invisible on a treatment plan and is what usually decides whether a crown lasts. A crown that fits poorly at the margin collects plaque and decays underneath, and a crown that meets the bite badly fractures or loosens. Neither shows up in the price comparison.
Crown, onlay or veneer
Not every damaged tooth needs a full crown. A partial coverage restoration such as an onlay covers the biting surface and the weakened walls while leaving the rest of the tooth intact, and it is worth asking about when a crown feels like more than the tooth needs. A veneer is a different treatment for a different problem, used mainly for appearance on teeth that are structurally sound.
How long a crown lasts
No restoration is permanent. Reported service lives vary widely between studies and between patients, and the honest answer is that a crown lasts as long as the tooth and the bite around it allow. Margin hygiene, treating grinding with a night guard, and dealing with active gum disease do more for that number than the choice of ceramic.
These are the figures treatment usually falls between, published so that a range is available before an appointment rather than after one. They are not a quote. What a specific case costs is set by what the examination and imaging find, and by the plan that follows from it. Fees reviewed August 2026.