D6059 — Abutment-supported PFM crown (high noble metal)

What has to be true for D6059 to apply

Material — porcelain fired over a high noble, gold-rich core. The core here is a high noble alloy — at least 60% noble metal with a minimum of 40% gold — with porcelain fired over it. Gold-rich alloys are prized for a practical reason rather than a sentimental one: they are chemically inert in the mouth, so the margins do not corrode, and they are ductile enough to be burnished to a very close fit against the tooth. The alloy alone can account for $150–$300 of the laboratory bill, which is why this is the most expensive crown in the porcelain-fused family. The material is part of the code rather than a choice made afterwards, so D6059 is only the right code if that is what was actually used.

Told apart from the codes it is confused with

D6058 — Abutment-supported porcelain/ceramic crown: It specifies all-ceramic, with no metal underneath rather than porcelain fired over a high noble, gold-rich core.

D6060 — Abutment-supported PFM crown (base metal): It specifies porcelain fired over a base-metal core rather than porcelain fired over a high noble, gold-rich core.

D6061 — Abutment-supported PFM crown (noble metal): It specifies porcelain fired over a noble-alloy core rather than porcelain fired over a high noble, gold-rich core.

D6062 — Abutment-supported cast metal crown (high noble): It specifies cast high noble alloy, with no porcelain over it rather than porcelain fired over a high noble, gold-rich core.

D6059 sits in a group of 16 codes in total; the remainder are linked at the foot of this page. It is worth asking the practice to point to which of these applies. The fees are not close, and the wording is, which is precisely the combination that produces disputed bills.