Roughly $700 for a single-canal front tooth and up to about $1,580 for a difficult back molar — and the crown that has to follow is a separate cost again.
Those are Ontario-wide figures from the 2026 ODA Suggested Fee Guide, published each January by the Ontario Dental Association. It is a suggested guide, not a mandated price list — every practice sets its own fees. Use it to sanity-check a quote.
The number that matters is not the root canal alone. It is the root canal plus the crown, which across Canada lands around $2,300 to $2,400 for a back tooth. People who budget for the first line and not the second are the ones who abandon treatment halfway, and a half-finished root canal is the worst place to run out of money.
If you are in pain now, read how root canal treatment works and get seen. Pain that woke you up, or facial swelling, is an emergency appointment rather than a next-week booking.
Why the Tooth Decides the Price
A root canal is priced by how many canals the tooth has and how hard they are to reach. A lower front tooth has one canal. An upper second molar can have four or five, some curved or narrowed by decades of extra dentine, at the back of a jaw that only opens so far.
| 2026 ODA Suggested Fee Guide | What that tooth is usually like | |
|---|---|---|
| Single canal | $732 | Front teeth, some premolars. One root, direct access. |
| Four or more canals, easy access | $1,417 | Molars with cooperative anatomy. |
| Four or more canals, difficult access | $1,579 | Back molars, curved or calcified canals. |
Across Canada, an anterior root canal usually falls between $700 and $950. Premolars sit between the front-tooth and molar figures. Molars are the most expensive teeth in the mouth to treat and always will be — there is more work in them.
Retreatment, where a failed root canal has to be reopened and re-cleaned, costs more than a first attempt.
The Crown Is a Separate Bill
This is the most common budgeting mistake. A root canal saves the nerve space. It does not make the tooth strong. A back tooth hollowed out and drilled through the biting surface will eventually split under chewing force if nothing covers it.
Per the 2026 ODA guide, a ceramic crown in Ontario runs $1,349 to $1,449 including the laboratory fee. Added to a molar root canal, that is roughly $2,300 to $2,400 for the finished tooth — the typical Canadian all-in figure.
Skipping the crown usually costs the whole tooth within a couple of years — the root canal money gone, and an extraction plus a replacement still to pay for. Our post on what a crown costs breaks that down.
Front teeth are the exception. An intact upper incisor with a small access hole can often be closed with a bonded filling rather than crowned, because it takes shearing rather than crushing force. That is a saving of well over a thousand dollars, and worth asking about instead of assuming every root canal ends in a crown.
What You Pay Before the Root Canal Starts
Nobody diagnoses a root canal from a phone call. Under the 2026 ODA guide an emergency examination in Ontario is $55 to $159 and a single digital X-ray is $41.
That stage is not padding. It separates a tooth needing a root canal from a cracked cusp, a failing filling, sinus pain referring into upper molars, or gum disease presenting as a deep ache. Treating the wrong problem is the most expensive outcome available.
Endodontist or General Dentist?
An endodontist has done additional specialty training in root canals and does nothing else. Specialist fees are generally higher for the same tooth — and that is not a reason to avoid a referral. Complex anatomy, a retreatment or a tooth that has already failed once is what specialist training and a microscope are for, and a specialist root canal that works is cheaper than a general-practice attempt that does not. Most teeth do well in general practice. Some do not, and you deserve to be told which yours is rather than referred by default or kept by default.
CDCP, Insurance and the Gap Nobody Mentions
Root canal treatment is covered under the Canadian Dental Care Plan, but it needs preauthorisation. That affects scheduling more than cost — you cannot usually get a CDCP root canal the same day you walk in with pain.
What surprises people is that CDCP pays on its own fee schedule, which can sit below the ODA guide, and the difference is not covered. A 0% co-payment does not always mean $0. Ask what the gap is before agreeing to anything; our guide to what CDCP actually covers goes through it properly.
Private plans cover a share, often 50% to 80%, subject to an annual maximum a root canal and crown together can exhaust. Send a predetermination first. We handle direct billing where insurers permit it, and our fees and payment page explains how estimates work. If cost is the barrier, say so — there are ways to make care affordable and none start with you avoiding the office.
Root Canal Versus Extraction, Done Honestly
An uncomplicated extraction is $218 in the 2026 ODA guide and a surgical extraction $314. Against $2,300 for a root canal and crown, pulling the tooth looks like an obvious win. It is not, because the extraction is not the end of the spending — it is the start of it.
| Root canal and crown | Extract and implant | Extract and bridge or partial | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical Ontario cost | About $2,300-$2,400 | $218-$314 plus $4,165 and up | $218-$314 plus $490-$1,519 for a cast partial |
| Keeps your own root | Yes | No | No |
| Bone in the gap | Preserved | Preserved by the implant | Shrinks over time |
| Neighbouring teeth touched | No | No | A bridge is cut down two healthy teeth |
| Time to finish | Weeks | Several months | Weeks to months |
Look at what implants cost — $4,165 and up per the 2026 guide, before extras — and the arithmetic reverses. A bridge is cheaper but means cutting down two neighbouring teeth that had nothing wrong with them. A partial denture is cheaper again and many people never get used to one.
Sometimes extraction genuinely is right. A tooth split through the root cannot be saved, nor can one with too little structure left above the bone. Wisdom teeth are usually removed rather than treated because nothing depends on them, and a difficult surgical case may go to an oral surgeon. When a tooth is not restorable we will say so, and we will not take your money for a root canal that is going to fail. But if it is restorable, saving it is almost always cheaper over ten years — nothing replaces a natural root as well as the one you already have.
What Happens If You Do Nothing
An infected nerve does not heal. It dies, and the pain often stops when it does — which people read as recovery. It is not. Bacteria work down the canal into the bone at the root tip and an abscess forms.
From there it grumbles for years while destroying bone, blows up into acute facial swelling that becomes urgent or hospital care, or the tooth fractures. All three cost more than treating it would have, and the last removes the choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a root canal cheaper than pulling the tooth?
Not on the day. An extraction in Ontario is $218 to $314 against roughly $2,300 for a root canal and crown. It becomes cheaper the moment you price replacing the missing tooth.
Does OHIP cover root canals?
No. OHIP does not cover routine adult dental treatment. Coverage in Ontario comes from CDCP, ODSP, private insurance or paying directly.
How much is a root canal without insurance in Ontario?
The same as with it — the fee does not change, only who pays. Expect $732 for a single canal up to $1,579 for a difficult molar under the 2026 ODA guide, plus the crown.
Can I have the root canal now and the crown later?
For a short window, yes, and it is sometimes the sensible way to spread the cost. Weeks is reasonable. A year is how teeth get lost. Agree the deadline out loud and put it in the plan.
What if I cannot afford it at all?
Say so before you cancel. Stabilising the tooth now and restoring it properly later is a real plan. Disappearing for two years is not.
Does a root canal hurt?
It is done under local anaesthetic and usually less eventful than the toothache that brought you in, though a hot infected tooth takes extra effort to numb. See how long dental freezing lasts, and if anxiety is the real obstacle, ask about sedation options.
Get the Tooth Looked At
A throbbing tooth, one sensitive to temperature for more than a few seconds, or one tender to bite on needs an examination and an X-ray before anyone can quote a number. The written estimate covers the root canal and the restoration together.
Book online or contact the office. New here? Start with new patient information. More of our Ontario cost breakdowns are collected on the blog.
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