2026 U.S. Dental Price Transparency Study

Headline findings

• Custom night guards showed a nearly 7× published spread in the comparable sample, from $185 to $1,275, with a median observation midpoint of $525.
• Porcelain veneers ranged from $500 to $2,500 per tooth, with a median observation midpoint of $1,540 across 21 practice observations.
• Clear-aligner and Invisalign treatment observations ranged from $1,595 to $7,000. Limited, express and comprehensive cases are not identical products, so the spread should be read as market transparency rather than a like-for-like quote.
• Professional whitening splits into two distinct markets. Take-home options had a median observation midpoint around $299, while in-office or combined options were around $545.
• Public pricing itself is uncommon enough to be useful. The raw dataset lets readers see which practices disclose fees rather than relying on a single national estimate.

Comparable price ranges by category

Prices = number of comparable public price observations used for that category summary. Median = the median of each observation's exact price or, when a range was published, the midpoint of that range. Unlike units and bundles are excluded from summaries where they would create a misleading comparison.

Why the published prices vary so much

Dental prices are not standardized retail SKUs. A posted number can represent a cash-pay fee, promotional offer, limited treatment, comprehensive treatment, one arch, two arches, one tooth, an appliance, or a package containing several services. Geography matters, but the treatment definition often matters just as much.

Clear aligners: a $1,595–$7,000 published range

We found 28 treatment-price observations from 21 practices in 18 locations. The median of observation midpoints was $4,025. The low end includes limited or promotional clear-aligner treatment, while the high end includes comprehensive offerings. The useful takeaway is not that $4,025 is a universal U.S. price; it is that the publicly advertised treatment market spans several thousand dollars even before insurance or financing.

Retainers: replacement pricing depends heavily on the unit

We recorded 21 retainer observations from 10 practices across 10 locations. Publicly posted prices included per-arch clear retainers, bonded retainers, Hawley retainers, packages and paired retainers. The comparable summary spans $150 to $712 with a $350 median observation midpoint. Buyers should confirm whether a quote is for one arch or both arches before comparing it with an online replacement-retainer price.

Night guards: the widest simple-appliance spread

Fourteen practices across 12 locations publicly posted custom night-guard or occlusal-guard prices ranging from $185 to $1,275. The median observation midpoint was $525. Because these are practice-supplied appliances, material, lab, fit/remake policy and clinical evaluation can differ; the dataset does not assume every guard is identical.

Veneers and crowns: keep the “per tooth” unit explicit

Among 21 per-tooth porcelain-veneer observations, published endpoints ranged from $500 to $2,500 and the median observation midpoint was $1,540. For porcelain or ceramic crowns, 17 comparable per-tooth observations ranged from $300 to $2,200 with a median observation midpoint of $1,128.50. Multi-unit smile-makeover packages remain in the raw dataset but are not silently mixed into the per-tooth veneer summary.

Whitening: take-home and in-office should not be combined

Whitening is a good example of why one “average price” can mislead. We separated take-home trays or packages from in-office and combined treatment. The take-home subset's median observation midpoint was about $299, versus about $545 for the in-office/combined subset. The raw data preserves session, package and per-arch labels where the source used them.

33 U.S. locations represented

Arlington, TX · Atlanta, GA · Austin, TX · Baltimore, MD · Bethesda, MD · Boston, MA · Brentwood, TN · Charlotte, NC · Chicago, IL · Columbus, OH · Crofton, MD · Dallas, TX · Denver, CO · Glendale, CA · Granite Bay, CA · Houston, TX · Katy, TX · Las Vegas, NV · Los Angeles, CA · Miami, FL · Mission, KS · Nashville, TN · New York, NY · North Las Vegas, NV · Philadelphia, PA · Phoenix, AZ · Portland, OR · Raleigh, NC · San Antonio, TX · San Diego, CA · Seattle, WA · South San Francisco, CA · Tampa, FL

Methodology

1. Discovery. We searched for U.S. dental and orthodontic practices publishing specific office fees, cash-pay prices, specials or treatment ranges on their own websites.
2. Practice-level sources. Each observation links to a practice website rather than a generic cost aggregator.
3. Exact ranges preserved. If a practice published $X–$Y, both endpoints were stored. If it published one price, low and high are the same.
4. Midpoints used only for summaries. A range midpoint provides one reproducible value for calculating a median; it is not presented as the practice's exact quote.
5. Units preserved. Per tooth, per arch, appliance, treatment, package, visit and other units remain explicit in the CSV.
6. Comparable-category filtering. We excluded unlike units from category summaries when combining them would mislead. The raw dataset remains broader.
7. Observation date. Sources were collected or checked on September 9, 2026. Public prices and promotions can change at any time.

Limitations

• The sample overrepresents practices willing to publish prices online.
• It is not weighted by U.S. population, practice volume or number of dentists in each market.
• A public special may be lower than a practice's standard fee, while a broad range may include unusually complex cases.
• Insurance-negotiated fees, deductibles, annual maximums and individual treatment plans can change a patient's actual out-of-pocket cost.
• Location counts describe markets represented in this transparency sample; they do not make city-level estimates reliable when only one practice is present.

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