US Dental Cost Index by State (2026)

How much does dental care cost across the United States, and why? This open dataset reports average single-implant, veneer and full-course braces prices for all 50 states + DC in 2026, with a composite Cost Index (100 = national average).

Key finding: a state's dental Cost Index tracks its cost of living at Pearson r = 0.835 — dental fees follow local rent and wages far more than anything clinical. A single implant averages $3,759 in Alabama vs $5,733 in California.

Dental prices vs cost of living (r = 0.835)

Explore all 51 jurisdictions (click a column header to sort)

#	State	Implant $	Veneer $	Braces $	Cost Index	Cost of living	Afford.

About this dataset

The Cost Index = each procedure's price ÷ its national average × 100, then averaged (so 100 = the U.S. average). Deliberately simple and fully reproducible from the open CSV in this repository.

Full methodology & interactive ranking: realdentalcosts.com/en/us-dental-cost-index
Citable DOI (Zenodo): 10.5281/zenodo.20531729
License: CC BY 4.0 — attribute to Real Dental Costs.

Market and pricing research, not clinical or treatment advice. Compiled by the Real Dental Costs Data & Research Team.