| Service | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 🇨🇿 Czech Republic | 🇹🇷 Turkey |
|---|---|---|---|
| Children's crown | from USD 49 | from USD 43 | from USD 75 |
| Composite restoration of a baby tooth | from USD 43 | from USD 50 | from USD 71 |
| Paediatric dentist consultation | from USD 12 | from USD 71 | from USD 43 |
Prices in the “Ukraine” column come from MediUkraine’s partner clinics. The Czech Republic and Turkey columns show the lower bounds of prices published by clinics there (for Turkey, also the Turkish Dental Association’s recommended 2026 tariff), collected in August 2026 and converted to US dollars at the rate on the day of collection. A dash means we could not find a comparable published price. In any country, the final cost is set by the clinic after an examination.
A crown on a baby tooth is a ready-made cap that covers the tooth on all sides and takes the chewing load. Unlike a filling, it does not rely on the remaining walls but replaces them. That is why a crown is the choice when too little of the tooth is left to hold a filling.
The main indication is decay affecting two or more surfaces, most often the biting surface plus a contact surface. Fillings hold less well in such teeth: baby-tooth enamel is thinner, the walls are lower, and a child does not always let the dentist keep the field perfectly dry. The second indication is a tooth after a pulpotomy or root canal filling: without a blood supply, the walls become brittle and chip at the edges.
A crown is also fitted when the tooth has been defective from the start: with enamel hypoplasia, molar-incisor hypomineralisation or amelogenesis imperfecta. These teeth wear quickly, are sensitive to cold and hold fillings poorly. Another group is children at high caries risk who have all their teeth treated under general anaesthesia: studies show that a preformed crown on a baby molar lasts longer and less often needs repeat treatment than a large filling over several surfaces.
Sometimes a crown is not needed. It is not fitted if more than two thirds of the root has resorbed or if the X-ray shows the tooth will be replaced within about six months. Nor is it fitted over untreated irreversible inflammation: with a fistula, swelling, abnormal mobility or changes in the area where the roots divide, the tooth is first given root canal treatment or extracted. Other obstacles are decay extending below the gum line, which leaves the crown nothing to grip, and a confirmed nickel allergy, in which case zirconia is used instead of metal.
MediUkraine is a treatment search and coordination service, not a clinic. We choose the clinic and the paediatric dentist, arrange the appointment date and support the family, including families travelling from abroad. The decision on whether a particular tooth needs a crown, and which kind, is made by the doctor after an examination and an X-ray.
Travel. Ukrainian airspace is closed, so there are no commercial flights. Patients reach Lviv overland, most often from Poland: Rzeszów and Kraków airports are the usual entry points, with a train, bus or private transfer onward to the border and on to the city. Lviv is roughly 70 km from the Polish border, the shortest crossing of any Ukrainian city.
Visas. Citizens of the EU, the United Kingdom and the United States do not need a visa for short stays in Ukraine. Rules depend on your citizenship, so check your own before booking.
Safety, plainly. Ukraine is at war. Air raid alerts occur in Lviv, and an appointment can be interrupted by one. Several governments advise against travel to Ukraine, and while that advice stands, ordinary travel and medical insurance is often void — confirm your cover with your insurer before you commit to anything.
Language. MediUkraine handles correspondence, scheduling, the written treatment plan and the quote in English. The clinic's team communicates with international patients in English.
Payment. You pay the clinic directly. Our coordination service is free of charge for you.
More on travel, safety and insurance: Safety and travel.
The preformed stainless steel crown is a factory-made cap that comes in a range of sizes for each upper and lower baby molar. There is no laboratory stage: the dentist picks the right size and adjusts it with pliers during the appointment, so treatment takes one visit. The wall is only about 0.2 mm thick, so little tooth needs to be removed, yet the crown is strong enough to last until the tooth falls out naturally.
The conventional technique goes like this: anaesthesia, isolation with a rubber dam, removal of decayed tissue, then separation of the contact surfaces with a thin bur and removal of about 1–1.5 mm from the biting surface. No shoulder is prepared: the margin is left feather-edged, because the crown is retained not by parallel walls, as in adult teeth, but by snapping around the neck of the tooth below its widest point. This is a key difference: a baby tooth is never cut down to a tapered stump, because its enamel and dentine are only about a millimetre thick and could not withstand it, and the pulp horns lie much closer to the surface than in an adult tooth.
The Hall technique is a variant with no drilling and no anaesthetic. A separator is placed between the neighbouring teeth for a few days to open a gap; at the next visit the crown is filled with glass ionomer cement and placed over the tooth, and the child bites down to push it into place. The decay is sealed in: cut off from carbohydrates and saliva, it stops progressing, and randomised trials and Cochrane reviews show that these teeth cause pain and need re-treatment less often than filled teeth.
The limits of the Hall technique are clearly defined. It is used only for symptom-free caries of the dentine: if there is spontaneous or night-time pain, a fistula, swelling, abnormal mobility or changes on the X-ray in the area where the roots divide, the tooth is treated first rather than covered. Immediately after cementation the bite is raised by about 1–2 mm; for a few days the tooth feels "high" to the child, and within a few weeks the bite evens out on its own as the teeth and surrounding bone adapt.
Preformed zirconia crowns are the white alternative to metal. It is a monolithic zirconia cap, also selected by size, but unlike steel it cannot be bent: instead of adjusting the crown, the dentist shapes the tooth to fit it. That is why more preparation is needed, about 1.5–2 mm from the biting surface and roughly a quarter of the volume all the way round, with the margin taken 1–2 mm below the gum. The crown must seat passively, without any tension, or the zirconia will chip.
Cementing a zirconia crown requires a dry field: blood from the gum margin or saliva during cementation is the most common reason a crown comes off within a few months. Glass ionomer or bioactive cements are used, gum bleeding is stopped before cementation and the tooth is isolated with a rubber dam. Because more tooth is removed, the risk of exposing the pulp is higher than with a steel crown, so zirconia is more often combined with a pulpotomy.
An intermediate option is a steel crown with a white composite facing on the visible surface. It costs less than a zirconia one and keeps the properties of metal, but the facing can chip under load, so it is used less often on back teeth. Upper incisors affected by early childhood caries are treated differently, with celluloid strip crowns: a clear form is filled with composite, placed over the tooth and cured, then peeled away to leave the finished restoration; there are also preformed zirconia crowns for the front teeth.
If decay has reached the pulp, a pulpotomy is done before the crown: the coronal pulp is removed and the root pulp is preserved. The remaining pulp is covered with mineral trioxide aggregate or another bioceramic material, a lining is placed on top and the tooth is immediately covered with a crown: a filling does not last as well on such a tooth. If the whole pulp is irreversibly inflamed, a pulpectomy is done and the canals are filled with a paste that resorbs along with the root; in this case the crown is an essential part of treatment, not an option.
There are alternatives to a crown, and the doctor discusses them before starting. A composite filling is justified when one surface is destroyed and the walls are intact. Silver diamine fluoride stops caries without a drill, but permanently stains the affected area black, so it is used mostly on teeth that will soon be replaced or as a temporary solution for very young children. The last resort is extraction, and then a space maintainer is placed where the tooth was, because otherwise the neighbouring teeth close the gap within a few months.
The choice depends not on price but on the individual situation: how many surfaces are destroyed, whether the pulp is alive, how many more years the tooth has to last, how the child copes with treatment, whether appearance matters to the family, and whether there is a nickel allergy. On back teeth that are not visible when smiling, metal remains a workable solution; for visible teeth, zirconia is worth discussing. The dentist can only predict how a particular tooth will do after an examination and an X-ray.
Keep a close eye on the child for the first few hours after anaesthesia: the lip, cheek and tongue stay numb for 1.5–3 hours, and the child may bite them without feeling pain. Do not give food until feeling has returned, and until then make sure the child does not chew their cheek. After the Hall technique there is no anaesthesia at all, so this precaution is not needed.
The gums around a new crown may be reddish in the first days and bleed a little when brushed; this is a reaction to the crown margin, not a complication. It usually passes within 3–7 days provided the tooth is brushed twice a day, including the edge next to the gum. If the redness gets worse, or swelling or pain on biting appears, the child should see the dentist.
The bite feels different after a crown is fitted; this is expected. The child may say the tooth "gets in the way" and chew more carefully or on one side for the first days. With the conventional technique the doctor adjusts the bite in the chair straight away; with the Hall technique the raised bite is part of the method itself, and it usually levels out within 2–4 weeks.
For the first day or two avoid sticky foods, toffees, chewing gum and chewy sweets, because the cement does not reach its full strength instantly. After that there are practically no restrictions: the crown withstands normal chewing load. Crunching ice, nuts in their shells and hard fruit stones is not a good idea even with healthy teeth.
The result is best judged not on the day but at a check-up 1–3 months later, when the gums and the bite can be properly assessed. After that, routine check-ups every six months are enough, or every three months with a high caries risk, with professional hygiene and fluoride application. A periapical X-ray is repeated when indicated, not routinely.
The crown is expected to last until the tooth falls out naturally, which means several years. Studies show high survival of preformed steel crowns on baby molars, but for a particular child the outlook depends on hygiene, diet, the bite and how much tooth tissue was left at the time of treatment; only a dentist can predict it, after an examination. Come back before the scheduled check-up if the crown has come off, the tooth hurts at night, or swelling of the gum or a fistula appears.
Step 1. Examination, X-ray and decision. The doctor assesses how much of the tooth is preserved, whether the pulp is alive and whether there are signs of inflammation, and takes a periapical X-ray: it shows the depth of the damage, the area where the roots divide and the developing adult tooth beneath the baby tooth. The X-ray also shows how many more years the tooth has to last: if it will soon fall out naturally, a crown is no longer needed. At this point the material is chosen and the quote is discussed with the parents.
Step 2. Anaesthesia or separation. With the conventional technique a gel is first applied to the gum, then an infiltration injection or nerve block is given, and while it takes effect the tooth is isolated with a rubber dam. With the Hall technique no anaesthesia is needed: at this stage a separator is simply placed between the teeth and the child goes home for 3–5 days so that a gap the thickness of the crown can open up.
In total, fitting one crown takes 30–45 minutes. In that time the dentist numbs the tooth, removes the decay with minimal reduction, selects a cap of the right size from the set, fits it, cements it with glass ionomer cement and finally adjusts the bite. With the Hall technique there is no drilling and no injection, but it takes two visits, 3–5 days apart, to allow for the separator. No hospital admission is needed: the child returns to normal activities the same day and comes for a check-up after 1–3 months.
Treatment starts with an examination and a full treatment plan, not with a single tooth. The paediatric dentist assesses all the teeth at once, because caries in a child is rarely isolated, and draws up a plan: what to treat first, what can wait, where a filling is enough and where a cap is needed.
The plan is then split into visits, dealing first with pain and the risk of complications. If needed, a pulpotomy is done before the crown, and most often both stages fit into one appointment. Several crowns are fitted over 2–4 visits a week or two apart; if all the teeth are treated under general anaesthesia, everything is done in one session.
Alongside treatment, the dentist tackles the cause: professional cleaning, fluoride varnish, fissure sealing of newly erupted adult molars, and a talk about snacks and sugary drinks. Without this, other teeth will decay in the same way, and no crown will change that.
A check-up is scheduled after 1–3 months, followed by routine check-ups every six months, or every three months with a high caries risk. At these visits the dentist checks the crown margin, the gums and the neighbouring teeth, and takes an X-ray when indicated to see how the root is resorbing and how the adult tooth is coming through.
The process ends naturally: the baby tooth is replaced in its own time, the root resorbs, and the tooth loosens and falls out together with the crown, most often at home while eating. There is usually no need to remove the crown separately. If it stays on a root that is still holding, the dentist removes it in a few minutes.
The most common complication is inflammation of the gum margin around the crown. It occurs if excess cement is left under the gum, the edge of the cap is too long or the tooth is poorly brushed. The gum turns red and bleeds; with a timely check-up the problem is solved by removing the excess and improving hygiene, while neglected inflammation turns into persistent gingivitis.
The second most common problem is a crown coming loose. A crown comes off if saliva or blood got into the field during cementation or if the fit was inaccurate from the start; zirconia crowns come off more often because they need a completely dry field. Once the crown is off, the tooth is unprotected, so the crown should be refitted as soon as possible; otherwise the neighbouring teeth shift and it will no longer go back on.
The third risk relates to the tooth itself. The pulp chamber of a baby tooth is large and the pulp horns are high, so even careful preparation can expose or inflame the pulp, and then a pulpotomy is needed. Sometimes inflammation develops later and shows itself as night-time pain, swelling, a fistula on the gum or mobility of the tooth; in that case the crown is removed, the tooth is re-treated or extracted, and a space maintainer is placed where the extracted tooth was.
The materials have limitations too. Stainless steel contains nickel: with a confirmed allergy to it, steel crowns are not used and zirconia ones are chosen instead. Zirconia is harder than enamel, and with bruxism the opposing tooth may wear, so the doctor discusses this separately with families of children who grind their teeth heavily. The composite facing on a steel crown can chip, and it cannot always be repaired in the mouth.
There are situations when a crown is not placed at all. These are: more than two thirds of the root resorbed or the tooth expected to fall out within six months, untreated irreversible inflammation, decay below the gum line, and marked abnormal mobility. Planned treatment is postponed with an acute infection, a high temperature or a flare-up of chronic illness; with heart defects and certain immune conditions the procedure is carried out with antibiotic prophylaxis agreed with a paediatrician or cardiologist.
The risks of anaesthesia are assessed separately. Local anaesthetics for children are dosed by body weight, not by eye, and the dentist is told about any allergies before treatment starts. Nitrous oxide sedation and treatment under general anaesthesia have their own contraindications, which the anaesthetist checks at a separate consultation. Parents have the right to a second opinion: the X-rays and treatment summary can be shown to another dentist, and if needed MediUkraine arranges a further consultation at another partner clinic.
📍 Lviv, Ukraine
A dental clinic in Lviv with a separate doctor for each field: oral surgery and implants, prosthodontics, restorative dentistry, endodontics under a microscope, periodontics, orthodontics and paediatric dentistry.
A baby molar stays in the mouth until the age of 10–12, so after treatment it still works for several years. A decayed tooth hurts, makes chewing difficult and can lead to inflammation that damages the developing adult tooth beneath it. Just as important, the tooth holds space in the dental arch: after an extraction the neighbouring teeth drift and the adult tooth runs out of room, which then has to be corrected with braces. A crown restores the tooth to its original size and so preserves the length of the arch.
At the clinics MediUkraine works with, it costs from USD 49 per tooth. Anaesthesia, preparation of the tooth and the X-ray are charged separately, as is a pulpotomy if the caries has reached the pulp. For reference, composite restoration of a baby tooth costs from USD 43, and a consultation with a paediatric dentist from USD 12. Zirconia crowns are more expensive than steel ones, and the clinic confirms the final cost after an examination and an X-ray.
On back teeth that are not visible when smiling, a preformed steel crown is usually chosen: it is thinner, requires less grinding, is placed faster and chips less often. Zirconia is chosen when the tooth is visible when talking or smiling, or when there is a nickel allergy. The trade-off for the better appearance is more tooth reduction, a longer appointment and stricter requirements for a dry field during cementation. The final choice of material is made by the doctor together with the parents after an examination.
With the conventional technique the tooth is prepared, so anaesthesia is always given: first a gel on the gum, then an injection, which the child usually hardly feels. There should be no pain during treatment, and the numbness lasts 1.5–3 hours; during this time make sure the child does not bite their lip or cheek. With the Hall technique the tooth is not drilled, so no anaesthesia is needed at all: the child feels only pressure when the cap seats in place.
It is a way of fitting a crown without drilling and without an injection. First a separator is placed between the teeth for 3–5 days to create a gap, then the cap is filled with glass ionomer cement and seated on the tooth under the pressure of the bite. The decay is sealed in: cut off from carbohydrates and saliva, it stops progressing. The method is used only for symptom-free caries: with pain, a fistula, swelling or mobility, the tooth is treated first.
Nothing special: the cap does not fuse with the bone, it is cemented onto the tooth. The root of a baby tooth resorbs in its own time whether or not there is a crown, so the tooth loosens and falls out together with it, most often at home while eating. A swallowed crown does not usually cause a problem and passes naturally. If it stays on a root that is still holding, the dentist removes it in a few minutes.
Sometimes, yes. When one surface is destroyed and the walls of the tooth are intact, a composite filling is a workable solution. When two or more surfaces are affected, the tooth has been treated after a pulpotomy, or the enamel has been defective from birth, a filling holds less well and more often needs redoing, and each repeat treatment means another visit with the drill. The decision is made by the doctor after an examination: the doctor can see how much of the tooth's own tissue is left and how many more years this tooth has to last.
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