Costed from three published schedules · read 24 September 2026
Types of dental crown, and what each one costs
Five kinds of crown, three published payer schedules, and one uncomfortable finding: the same crown code is allowed $500.00 in one state programme and $1,028.00 in another. Here is every figure, where it was read, and what the fee does not cover.
Section list
A crown is a cover that is cemented over a tooth after the tooth has been cut down to take it. The kinds differ in what they are made of — all-ceramic, porcelain bonded onto a metal core, solid cast metal, lab-made composite, or a ready-made shell — and the material is what moves the price. What nobody publishes for free is the retail figure: no primary, public document states what a private practice in the United States charges for a crown, and this site does not print an invented one in its place.
What is published is what payers allow. Three public schedules are read in full on this page, each named, dated, and linked, and every figure below comes from one of them. Read them as the floor of the market rather than as a quote. They are what a programme pays a dentist for a defined procedure; a private practice sets its own fee and is usually above them.
What you are buying when you buy a crown
You are buying a custom-made cover and the work of fitting it. The American Dental Association's consumer page puts the purpose in one line — a crown "can make your tooth stronger and improve its appearance" — and lists the situations where one is used: a filling so large that too little tooth is left to hold it, a tooth that has broken, a weak tooth that needs protecting, a discoloured or misshapen tooth, a dental implant that needs a top, and the anchoring of a bridge.
That last one matters for the price of everything else on this site. When a crown is fitted as the end of a bridge it is billed under a different set of lines from a crown standing on its own, at different money — which is why what a dental bridge costs is a separate page and not a footnote here.
The five crown lines a payer will actually price
Dental marketing names a great many crown types. Fee schedules recognise far fewer, and they group them by material and by how the crown is made rather than by brand. Across the three schedules read here, these are the families that carry their own line:
- All-ceramic or porcelain, with no metal underneath (code D2740). The tooth-coloured option, and the most expensive line on two of the three schedules.
- Porcelain fused to metal (D2751 for a base-metal core). Porcelain on the outside, metal underneath for strength. Schedules split this by what the metal is — base, noble or high noble — and the fee follows the metal.
- Full cast metal (D2791 for base metal). No porcelain at all. The NHS names this one out loud, and so should a quote: "You may be offered a metal-coloured crown on a back tooth."
- Lab-made composite, sometimes called an indirect resin crown (D2710). Cheaper on all three schedules, and the only adult crown line Pennsylvania prices in three figures below $200.00.
- Ready-made shells, made in advance rather than to measure (D2931 for a stainless-steel one on an adult tooth). Mostly used for children, and priced accordingly.
One family does not appear at all. None of the three schedules has a line that names zirconia, although zirconia crowns are sold and searched for constantly. That does not mean a payer refuses them; it means the crown is billed under a broader ceramic line, and it is a reasonable thing to ask a practice to spell out in writing before the tooth is prepared.
One crown code, three published numbers
This is the table the rest of the site rests on. Each column is one published document; each row is one procedure line, identified by the code printed on the schedule itself. "No line" means what it says — the schedule has no entry for that procedure, which is a fact about that programme and not a gap in our reading.
| Crown line | Pennsylvania | Montana | Washington |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-ceramic crown (D2740) | $500.00 | $790.40 | $1,028.00 |
| Porcelain fused to base metal (D2751) | $500.00 | $632.32 | $1,028.00 |
| Full cast base-metal crown (D2791) | $475.00 | $553.28 | no line |
| Lab-made composite crown (D2710) | $150.00 | $395.20 | $329.00 |
| Ready-made steel crown, adult tooth (D2931) | $110.00 | $237.12 | $143.00 |
The same procedure code on three published schedules. Each bar is a pier; the rust cap is the crown on top of it.
Pennsylvania Medical Assistance Program Dental Fee Schedule, effective 1 August 2026 · Montana Healthcare Programs Fee Schedule, Dental Services, dated 1 January 2026 · Washington State Department of Health HIV Early Intervention Program allowances for 2026–27. All read 24 September 2026.
The top line moves from $500.00 to $1,028.00 — just over two times — for a procedure described by the same four characters. Nothing about the tooth changed between those two documents. What changed is which programme is paying.
The second thing the table shows is that two of the three payers barely price materials at all. Pennsylvania allows $500.00 for an all-ceramic crown and $500.00 for a porcelain-fused-to-metal one — the same money for two different constructions. Washington goes further and allows $1,028.00 for every lab-made porcelain or cast-metal crown on its schedule, whatever it is made of. Only Montana grades them: $790.40 for all-ceramic against $632.32 for porcelain fused to base metal, a difference of $158.08. If somebody tells you a material choice is worth hundreds, that is a claim about a private fee list, not a general truth.
What the crown fee leaves out
A crown fee pays for the crown. It does not pay for rebuilding the tooth that has to hold it, and on a tooth broken enough to need a crown there is often rebuilding to do. All three schedules carry that work as separate lines, which is exactly how it will appear on a treatment plan.
- Building the tooth back up before the crown (D2950): Montana allows $158.08 and Washington $200.00. Pennsylvania's schedule has no such line at all.
- A ready-made post and core, used where the tooth needs anchoring from inside (D2954): $80.00 in Pennsylvania, $197.60 in Montana, $259.00 in Washington.
- A cast post and core, made to measure instead (D2952): $80.00 in Pennsylvania and $316.16 in Montana. Washington's schedule prices the ready-made version and not this one.
A separate line on two of the three schedules, and absent from the third. It is not included in the crown fee anywhere.
Read from the same three documents on 24 September 2026. Pennsylvania's schedule carries no entry for this procedure.
So a quote of "one crown" can arrive as three lines, and the difference is not padding — it is work the schedules themselves treat as separate. The useful question at the desk is not "how much is a crown" but "which lines are on my plan", which is the subject of the codes on your dental bill.
Children's crowns are a different category
Crowns for children are mostly ready-made shells rather than lab-made covers, and every one of the three schedules prices them far below an adult crown. Pennsylvania allows $99.00 for a stainless-steel crown on a baby tooth and $145.00 for one with a tooth-coloured window; Montana allows $158.08 and $177.84 for the same two ideas, and $237.12 for a ready-made porcelain shell on a baby tooth. Pennsylvania restricts all of these to patients under 21. The detail, including what none of the schedules will say about white crowns, is on dental crowns for kids.
What a crown costs on the NHS in England
England publishes one number, and it is not per crown. NHS dental treatment is charged in three bands, and a crown sits in Band 3 at £332.10 — the same charge that covers dentures, bridges and orthodontic treatment. Band 2, at £76.60, is where fillings and root canal treatment sit; Band 1 is £27.90. Because the band is charged once per course of treatment, two crowns in the same course cost the same £332.10 as one, and a filling done alongside them adds nothing. The page was last reviewed on 13 March 2025.
Two sentences on that same NHS page are worth carrying to an appointment. "You may be offered a metal-coloured crown on a back tooth", with private alternatives to discuss; and, plainly, "Crowns may need to be replaced in the future." The page describes England only and says nothing about what is charged elsewhere in the UK, so neither do we.
The part of this that earns us nothing
How to get a number for your own tooth
There is no form on this site and no quote engine behind it, because neither would know anything about your tooth. What produces a real number is a written treatment plan from a practice that has examined you. Four things make one useful:
- Ask for it itemised, with the procedure code and the fee on every line, not a single total.
- Ask which crown material the fee assumes, and what the fee becomes if the material changes.
- Ask whether a build-up or a post is expected, and whether it is already on the plan or would be added later.
- If you have coverage, ask the practice to send the plan for a pre-treatment estimate before anything is cut. That estimate, not a website, is your number.
If you are paying cash in the United States, a dental discount plan is worth understanding before you agree to a crown. It is a yearly membership that buys a reduced fee at a dentist who has signed up to that plan's fee list — and it is not insurance: nobody underwrites it, no claim is filed, there is no annual maximum and nothing is reimbursed to you. You pay the lower fee yourself at the desk. Memberships are sold through marketplaces such as DentalPlans.com and networks such as Careington. Before buying one, check that a dentist you would actually travel to accepts it and ask that practice what its plan fee for a crown is — the saving is only as real as the fee list behind it.