A filling, a root canal, a crown and a bridge are four separate bills, and one can lead to the next on a treatment plan: a root canal fee leaves out the crown placed afterwards, and a bridge is billed as crowns plus false teeth. Published estimates without insurance run from $110, the low end of Delta Dental’s range for a silver filling (an insurer, 2024 data), to $5,197, CareCredit’s average for a traditional bridge replacing one tooth (a lender, 2024 survey). This guide sets the four side by side and points to the page that goes through each line by line.
General information about costs, not dental, medical, insurance, tax or financial advice. Your dentist decides what treatment suits you; your plan’s documents and a pre-treatment estimate decide what it pays.
Prices at a glance
These are published estimates, read on 11 November 2026, shown side by side and never averaged. An insurer’s out-of-network average is the full, non-discounted fee; a lender that finances dental work has no reason to understate prices. Code numbers are from the CDT Code, maintained by the American Dental Association; the descriptions here are our own.
| Procedure (our words, code) | Published estimates, without insurance |
|---|---|
| One filling: silver (D2140 one surface, D2150 two) or tooth-colored (D2330 and D2331 front teeth, D2391 to D2394 back teeth) | Delta Dental (insurer, 2024 data, page undated): $110 to $455 silver, $145 to $530 tooth-colored. CareCredit (lender, article 8 Nov 2024): $139 silver, $226 tooth-colored. Cigna (insurer, page modified 30 Jul 2026, citing the ADA’s 2022 fee survey): about $160 and about $191 |
| One root canal: front tooth, premolar, molar (D3310, D3320, D3330), crown not included | Delta Dental (insurer, out-of-network average, 2025 data, page 17 Jul 2026): about $1,200, $1,300, $1,500. CareCredit (lender, 11 Sep 2026): $905, $1,023, $1,220. Humana (insurer, Orlando, Florida only, updated 1 Jun 2026): $900, $1,017, $1,175 |
| One crown: porcelain or ceramic (D2740), porcelain on metal (D2750 to D2752), all metal (D2790 to D2792) | Delta Dental (insurer, out-of-network, 2023 data): $1,100 to $2,000 for any permanent crown. Ameritas (insurer, 17 Jun 2026, no source given): about $800 to $2,500. CareCredit (lender, article 15 Nov 2024): $1,399 average for porcelain, range $915 to $3,254 |
| Traditional bridge for one missing tooth: two anchor crowns (for example D6740) and one false tooth (for example D6245) | Delta Dental (insurer, out-of-network, 2025 data, page 17 Jul 2026): $3,600. CareCredit (lender, article 27 Sep 2024): $5,197 average. Pearl (dental software company, modelled, May 2026): $4,620 average |
Fillings: priced by surface and material
A filling is billed by material, by the number of tooth surfaces it covers and, for tooth-colored composite, by front or back tooth. Every source that splits its figures shows the price rising with each surface, and composite costs more than silver amalgam in every source that prices both. With insurance the gap can grow: MetLife’s 2026 federal employee brochure says that when both would do on a molar, it may pay on the amalgam and the dentist may charge you the difference, even in network (MetLife FEDVIP 2026 brochure, p. 18). Our filling cost guide prices each code by surface and works through a plan paying the silver-filling rate.
Root canals: priced by tooth, crown billed apart
A molar is the most expensive root canal in every source above, and none of those figures includes the filling or crown placed afterwards. Which one follows is your dentist’s decision. When it is a crown, adding each publisher’s molar root canal to its own crown figure gives about $2,600 to $3,500 from Delta Dental’s out-of-network data and $2,619 from CareCredit’s averages (our arithmetic). The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau used the same pairing in 2023: “a root canal procedure and dental crown could cost a patient $2,400” (CFPB, May 2023). Our root canal cost guide sets out five publishers by tooth, the lines around the root canal, and the two bills added up.
Crowns: the material sets the code
On the bill, a crown’s code changes with the material and, for metal crowns, with the alloy. We could not confirm which code a zirconia crown is billed under, so ask the office which number it will use. Rebuilding a tooth so it can hold a crown, a core buildup (D2950), is a separate line when it is done. Our dental crown cost guide has six sources by material, what the crown fee normally covers, and when a plan pays only for a cheaper option.
Bridges: priced per unit
A traditional bridge replacing one tooth is usually three units, a crown on each tooth beside the gap and one false tooth between them, billed as three lines. Delta Dental says its $3,600 is for three units, $1,200 a unit (our arithmetic); CareCredit doesn’t say how many units its figure covers. For a bonded (“Maryland”) bridge only one published figure was found, from CareCredit, a lender that finances dental work: $1,569 on average, lower than its traditional bridge; ask for the fee in your quote. Our dental bridge cost guide covers traditional, bonded, cantilever and implant-held bridges unit by unit. To set a bridge beside an implant or a partial denture on money and time alone, see implants vs bridge vs dentures: lifetime cost.
Why two quotes differ
- What is in the quote. The exam, X-rays, a buildup and the crown may sit inside one figure or on separate lines.
- In or out of network. An in-network dentist accepts your plan’s discounted allowed amount. Out of network, you may owe the difference up to the full fee, called balance billing.
- When the survey was done. Dental prices were 6.0% higher in September 2026 than a year earlier on the BLS consumer price index for dental services, and CareCredit’s crown, filling and bridge figures come from a 2024 survey.
With insurance
The plan documents behind these guides put fillings in a basic or minor class and crowns and bridges in a major class paid at a lower share; root canals sit in different classes depending on the plan. In the 2026 GEHA Connection Dental Federal High Option you pay 20% for fillings and 50% for crowns and root canals. Delta Dental of Iowa’s 2027 Individual Platinum Prime policy pays for root canals after a 6-month wait and for crowns and bridges after 12 months (form INDPLATPR-012027). Some plans won’t pay to replace a tooth already missing when coverage started: see the missing tooth clause.
The annual maximum often decides the bill. With example fees of $1,200 for a molar root canal and $1,400 for a crown, on the terms in Cigna Dental 1000’s summary (8/25) ($50 deductible, plan pays 50%, $1,000 maximum), the plan’s share would be $1,275, but the maximum caps it: the plan pays $1,000 and you pay $1,600 (our arithmetic). How dental insurance works explains the terms, and the dental insurance out-of-pocket calculator runs your own plan’s numbers.
Without dental insurance
- Medicare. Original Medicare excludes dental services “in connection with the care, treatment, filling, removal, or replacement of teeth” (42 CFR 411.15(i)(1), eCFR up to date as of 9 November 2026), with exceptions for dental care “inextricably linked to” certain covered treatment, listed in does Medicare cover dental?
- Medicaid. Adult dental is set state by state: the ADA Health Policy Institute’s December 2025 review (data as of August 2025) found 38 states plus DC at its top, “enhanced” level and one state with no adult benefit. See Medicaid dental for adults.
- Health centers. Federally funded health centers must offer preventive dental services and charge on a sliding fee by income (42 USC 254b; 42 CFR 51c.303(f)); ask what else they offer. Find one at findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov, and see free and low-cost dental care.
- “No interest” offers. On many medical credit cards, interest is deferred, not waived: if the balance isn’t paid by the promotion’s end, interest can be charged back to the purchase date (CFPB, 2023). See dental financing explained, and for tax rules dental expenses, HSAs, FSAs and taxes.
Your next step
- Ask the office for a written treatment plan with every line, its code number and its fee: exam, X-rays, each filling by surface, the root canal, any buildup, the crown, each bridge unit.
- Ask your plan for a pre-treatment estimate, how much of this year’s maximum is left, whether a waiting period or missing tooth clause applies, and whether it pays on a cheaper alternative.
- Hold a second quote against the same codes and units, and check whether each dentist is in your plan’s network.
- Before signing a credit agreement, write down the promotion end date, the rate after it, and whether interest is deferred.
Sources checked on 11 November 2026. Prices are published estimates from the named publishers on the dates shown.
