Broken Crown - Dentist

I broke an old rear molar crown while eating at my wedding reception a few weeks ago. I have many of these in my mouth so I'm not surprised. But what did surprise me was the cost of the replacement crown - $25,000 NTD. How much is that in US dollars? About $800 US. A pricey chunk for dental work in Taiwan where the crowns are to be had at country dental offices at about $250 US or so. In the US the $800 US is probably about right.

So why so much? I went with my brother-in-law to his brother's dental office. We didn't talk about money when prepping the tooth.

Mistake even with family members. Lesson: Always ask how much no matter who is there and what their relation is to you -especially for dental work and probably for mechanical work.

The office is called "California Cosmetic Dentistry." Expect to pay top dollar in Taipei if you go to anywhere that has "California" in it's name.

The crown is 100% ceramic - "VITA In-Ceram Y2." (http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.vita-in-ceram.de/en/&prev=/search%3Fq%3DVita%2BIn-Ceram%2BY2%2BCubes%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DRNWE,RNWE:2005-14,RNWE:en) (I guess this is similar material that protects the space shuttle when it enters the Earth's atmosphere.)

The crown also comes with a card with a number on it. You know you paid top dollar if your crown has its own business card.

Costs aside the crown feels great and the dentist did really good work. My only two grips are one: I should have asked the price, and two: he should have just told me the cost before the service. Oh well, that's Life in Taiwan.