Compare the first dental quote and the cost of later remakes
A crown or inlay quote is easier to understand when the material price, preliminary treatment and future expenses are separated.
A cheaper per-tooth price may exclude root canal treatment, post and core work, a temporary restoration or later care.
This calculator organizes actual South Korean quotes into 5-, 10- and 20-year household budgets using the remake assumptions you enter.
It is useful for adults arranging treatment for several teeth and families helping a parent pay for care.
Compare the initial cash requirement, the amount remaining after a confirmed initial insurance benefit, and the budget if another restoration is required during the selected horizon.
Print the comparison to discuss itemized quotes with your dentist.
South Korea scope · 2026 source check
All amounts are in KRW and use the final patient-payment amounts you enter.
The calculator does not choose treatment, diagnose tooth damage or score material quality.
Suitability depends on dental assessment, including the remaining tooth structure and bite.
Crowns and inlays have separate cost rankings because they are not automatically interchangeable treatments.
Five material options and the details to verify
Zirconia, gold and PFM crowns
Enter a separate initial price and remake price per tooth for each crown material.
For gold, check the quote date and material specification; for zirconia and PFM, also check fabrication details and included services.
The material name does not create a lifespan estimate or a quality score.
Resin and ceramic inlays
These two inlay options form a separate comparison group.
Check that a resin inlay quote has not been confused with direct composite filling.
Ask your dentist to identify the specific material and fabrication conditions within a broad label such as ceramic.
The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) non-covered fee service helps you inspect published fee details, but a published line item is not necessarily a complete personal treatment quote.
HIRA explains that the same item at the same provider can differ in price because of factors such as treatment site and time.
This calculator supplies no national average prices or provider multipliers.
Front, back or mixed teeth and clinic or hospital type are scope notes only.
Input units and how to avoid counting an expense twice
- Tooth count and per-tooth prices: enter 1–32 teeth covering the same treatment scope.
Only initial and remake unit prices multiply by that count.
If prices differ between teeth, verify an average that reproduces the total or calculate equal-price tooth groups separately.
- Root canal patient cost: enter the whole-case amount the patient pays, not the gross covered fee including the insurer share.
The dentist must confirm the treatment need and applicable coverage.
- Post and core and other initial extras: enter whole-case amounts, added once.
Exclude any expense already included in the material price.
Place separately billed initial temporary teeth, tests or other items in the other-extras field.
- Annual care: enter the annual budget for the entire scope.
It is multiplied by the selected years.
Check whether follow-up is already included in the initial quote before budgeting for it again.
- Remake price and extras: enter the future per-tooth price and the additional whole-case amount for each remake.
Initial root canal and post/core costs are not repeated automatically.
Include only separately anticipated remake procedures in remake extras.
An initial price of zero means the quote is missing, not that treatment is free.
An unknown remake assumption also excludes that option from the long-term result and ranking.
The result shows how many options are complete or incomplete so an empty field is not presented as a cheap quote.
Uncheck materials you do not need to compare.
Lifetime budget and annualized cost formulas
Separate the initial episode from later remakes
- Initial gross = initial price per tooth × tooth count + whole-case root canal cost + post/core cost + other initial extras
- Cost per remake = remake price per tooth × tooth count + whole-case extras per remake
- Horizon gross = initial gross + remake count × cost per remake + annual care × years
- Horizon net = horizon gross − confirmed initial benefit deduction
- Annualized cost = horizon net ÷ selected years
For a remake interval c months and a horizon T months, the remake count is ceil(T/c)−1.
Initial treatment is counted at the start; subsequent events occur at c, 2c and later multiples strictly before T.
Over 10 years, T is 120 months.
A 60-month interval therefore creates one remake at month 60; the event exactly at month 120 is excluded.
Annual care uses the complete number of selected years as an annual budget rather than following the remake event boundary.
Annualized cost is not an installment payment or a claim that the same bill arrives each year.
It spreads the total budget over years for comparison, while actual expenses can be concentrated at the initial treatment and remake dates.
Totals are nominal sums; inflation, gold-price changes, discount rates, residual value and a future switch to implants are not applied automatically.
Keep dental insurance benefits separate from cash needed first
Having dental insurance or knowing a policy limit does not establish the benefit for this treatment.
Confirm the policy classification, waiting period, reduced-benefit period, annual tooth limit and repeat-treatment conditions with the insurer.
Enter the whole-case benefit for the initial treatment only.
Without the confirmation checkbox, the entered amount is not deducted.
The model does not assume the same benefit is paid again for each future remake.
Initial gross versus initial net
Initial gross is the treatment cash required before insurance money arrives.
Initial net subtracts the confirmed benefit for budgeting.
To avoid a negative treatment budget, the displayed deduction cannot exceed initial cost and any excess is shown separately.
This is a budget-display convention, not a determination of the contractual payout limit of fixed-sum dental insurance.
Worked example: two back teeth over 10 years
This is a fictional arithmetic example, not an average zirconia price, clinical lifespan or insurance-product benefit.
Assume KRW 500,000 per tooth initially, KRW 100,000 whole-case root canal cost, KRW 100,000 post/core cost, KRW 200,000 confirmed initial benefit and KRW 20,000 annual care.
The remake assumption is every 60 months at KRW 550,000 per tooth plus KRW 100,000 in whole-case extras.
Fictional two-tooth ten-year cost breakdown in KRW| Item | KRW |
|---|
| Initial gross | 1,200,000 |
| Initial net | 1,000,000 |
| One remake at month 60 | 1,200,000 |
| Ten-year maintenance | 200,000 |
| Ten-year gross / net | 2,600,000 / 2,400,000 |
| Annualized | 240,000 |
Changing the interval to 75%, 100% and 125% of 60 months produces intervals of 45, 60 and 75 months.
There are respectively 2, 1 and 1 remakes within 10 years, resulting in net costs of KRW 3,600,000, KRW 2,400,000 and KRW 2,400,000.
Longer intervals can produce the same total when they leave the event count unchanged.
These percentages are interval scenarios, not probabilities or confidence intervals.
Step-by-step use and questions to take to your dentist
- Ask your dentist which options are appropriate for the same teeth and obtain itemized material quotes.
- Start with 10 years or select 5 or 20 years, then align the tooth count.
- Separate per-tooth prices from whole-case extras and remove anything already included in the unit price.
- Leave the remake assumption unknown when it is unknown.
Choose no remake or a recurring interval only as an explicit budget scenario.
- Enter a confirmed initial insurance benefit if applicable and read initial gross alongside long-term net cost.
- Expand the breakdown and interval sensitivity, then print the page to discuss omissions, remake prices and warranty conditions.
Five quote questions
- Are root canal treatment, post/core, temporary teeth and tests included?
- Is each quoted amount per tooth or for the whole case?
- Do the alternative materials cover the same teeth and procedures?
- What would a repair or remake cost, and when would a warranty apply?
- Can the clinic provide the treatment details and documents needed for an insurance claim?
Three household budgeting situations
A lower initial price with higher repeat expenses
A low first quote can create a higher long-term budget under an assumption of more remakes.
That does not establish that the material fails sooner.
Discuss the basis of each assumption with the dentist and inspect whether the ranking changes easily when intervals change.
A family sharing the cost of a parent’s treatment
Multiply unit prices by teeth but add whole-case root canal cost only once.
Discuss when insurance money may arrive separately from when family contributions and clinic payments are due.
This helps distinguish eventual net expense from the cash needed on the treatment date.
The remake plan is still unknown
Do not fill an unknown interval with an arbitrary average lifespan.
The incomplete option stays out of the long-term ranking until the assumption is specified.
Selecting no remake means a cost scenario, not a prediction of trouble-free service throughout the horizon.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose the material with the lowest cost rank?
No.
The ranking is arithmetic based on the entered quote and interval.
Your dentist must assess the remaining tooth structure, bite and treatment scope before material selection.
Does being 65 or older make a crown covered by National Health Insurance?
The specified benefit exceptions for older-adult dentures and dental implants cannot be transferred to every natural-tooth crown.
Ask the provider for the actual coverage and patient payment of each item.
Does covered root canal treatment automatically make the crown covered too?
No automatic crown discount is applied based on preceding root canal treatment.
Confirm preliminary treatment and restoration as separate billing items.
Why are average material lifespans not filled in?
Observed survival in a study is not the same as a scheduled personal remake interval.
Rather than treating unlike clinical data as fixed lifespans, the calculator uses your explicitly entered budget assumptions.
Why does a remake at exactly 10 years count as zero?
The ten-year remake window runs from the initial treatment to strictly before month 120.
A 120-month interval therefore gives zero remakes, while a 119-month interval gives one.
The endpoint event belongs beyond the selected horizon.
Does the excess-benefit message mean fixed-sum insurance cannot exceed treatment cost?
No.
The calculator limits the deduction to initial expense to keep its treatment budget nonnegative.
The actual fixed-sum payout depends on the policy and insurer assessment.
Do totals include inflation, gold-price changes and medical tax credits?
No.
They are nominal sums of entered amounts.
Inflation, gold prices, tax credits and future policy changes are not forecast automatically.
Update prices when you receive a revised quote.
Official sources and verification date
The current law versions were checked directly through the National Law Information OPEN API on 2026-09-05.
The sources are Medical Service Act Article 45, MST 285327, effective 2026-04-07; its Enforcement Rule Article 42-2, MST 286963, effective 2026-06-12; and the Rules on the Criteria for National Health Insurance Medical Care Benefits, Article 9 and Appendix 2 item 4(b), MST 285513, effective 2026-04-15.
The appendix provides the dental-prosthesis non-covered framework and the specified exceptions for dentures and dental implants in people aged 65 or older.
These sources establish disclosure and coverage context, not material prices or lifespans.