Root Canal Cost

You have been eating chocolates and sweets all these years and suddenly you have an excruciating pain in your tooth. You immediately need to go to the dentist and get your dental health checked. May be it is the root canal that you need to get treated on.

Root Canal Treatment

A root canal is probably the best treatment that can be used for treating and curing dental problems. It is a procedure that involves the removal of the infected pulp present in the root canal and then sealing the tooth. It is not a procedure that can be done in a single day. The procedure requires many visits to the dentist and may take a month or even more. Along with the worry of the pain involved in the procedure, patients are also concerned about the costs.

Determinants of the Root Canal Cost

Tooth to Be Treated
The primary factor is the location of the tooth and the number of canals it has. If the front tooth is to be treated, which only has a single root canal, the cost may range from around $500 to $800. If the tooth infected is a premolar one, the cost would generally vary from approximately $700 to $1,000. If the back teeth, also known as molars, are to be worked on; the costs would range from $800 to $1,300. The cost for the molar teeth is more because they have three or more root canals which are more complicated to be worked upon. The cost also counts on how complex the procedure turns out to be.

Location of the Treatment
One more important determinant is the location where the treatment is to be carried out. If you choose to do a procedure in an urban area, the dental treatment cost would be more as compared to the cost of the treatment in any rural area. There are many people who, to save on costs, travel places to undergo the surgery. Some even prefer to travel to other countries, where the cost is significantly low, without compromising on the quality of the treatment. Patients even travel from the US to India to get the treatment done, due to the very low costs.

Experience, Expertise and Reputation of the Dentist
If the procedure is carried out by an endodontist, who is a specialist in dealing with such complex teeth, nerve, gum problems; the cost would be approximately 30% to 50% higher than the cost of the procedure done by a general dentist. It is to be understood that more the experience and expertise of the dental surgeon, more will be the cost. The reputation of the dentist also has a large impact on the cost. If he is well known to carry out dental operations successfully, he would charge more than the less known ones.

Type of the Crown
A crown is a kind of faux tooth that is placed over the original tooth which is treated. The cost of the crown is entirely separate from that of the root canal procedure. The materials used for making the crown would substantially add up to the root canal crown cost. Generally, there are three types of crowns; ceramic, half ceramic and half metal, and full metal. The ceramic one will be the costliest, as it would be of the same color as the tooth. The second one will be a bit inexpensive than the ceramic one, whereas the third one will be the cheapest. There can be many other types of materials used to make crowns.

The cost can also vary according to the treatments used for complications that occur during the procedure. Dentists generally provide suitable payment options which can be used to pay off the huge amounts in installments. You also need to check the dental insurance formalities before undergoing the root canal treatment, which can cut down the costs significantly.