How much do dentures cost? Here is what is actually published

The short answer, and why it is a range

One full upper denture is priced at $525.00 on one published schedule, $988.00 on another and $1,242.12 on a third — for the same procedure, described in almost the same words. That is a spread of 2.4 times, and it is not a rounding error: it is three different payers deciding, separately, what the work is worth to them.

So the honest answer is that there is no one number, and anyone who gives you one without saying whose schedule it came from is estimating. We went looking on 24 September 2026 for a free, public, national average retail price for a denture in the United States and did not find one. What we found instead were fee schedules, and this page is built entirely from them.

Two things before the figures start. A fee schedule says what a payer has agreed to pay a provider — it is not the cash price a private practice would quote, and a private quote can sit well outside every figure here. And the number that will match your own bill does not exist yet: it is the itemised written treatment plan a dentist hands you after examining your mouth. This page exists to make that document easier to read, not to replace it.

What three published schedules pay for one denture

Here are the three, with what each one is:

• Pennsylvania Medical Assistance Program Dental Fee Schedule, effective 1 August 2026 — the state's Medicaid dental schedule, covering adults enrolled in Medical Assistance.
• Montana Healthcare Programs Denturist Services Fee Schedule, effective 1 July 2025 — what Montana's Medicaid programme pays a licensed denturist, a provider type that exists in some states and not others.
• Washington State Department of Corrections Denture Services Fee Schedule, effective 1 January 2025 — what a state agency pays contracted providers for denture work.

All three were read on 24 September 2026. None is a retail price list, and none claims to be. They are here because they are itemised, dated, free to download, and they price the same procedures — which is the only way we found to show how far a denture price moves without anybody doing anything unusual.

Three things in that table are worth slowing down for.

The flexible partial row has a gap. Flexible partials — bendy gum-coloured base, no metal clasps — are $841.78 in Montana and $1,085.04 on the Washington schedule. Pennsylvania has no line for them, and the Washington document says in as many words that "Any CDT codes not on this schedule are not authorized for payment". A procedure missing from a schedule is not cheap there; it is not paid for there.

"Immediate" is a different line from "conventional". An immediate denture is made in advance and fitted on the day the remaining teeth come out, so you do not go home without teeth. Montana prices that at $1,086.80 against $988.00 for a conventional one — about $99 more for the same arch. Pennsylvania pays the same $525.00 either way. Washington's schedule does not list immediate dentures.

A metal framework costs more than an acrylic one everywhere, by very different margins: $175.00 more in Pennsylvania, $513.76 more in Montana, $268.84 more on the Washington schedule. The metal version is thinner and more rigid; which suits your remaining teeth is an examination question, not a shopping one.

What the fee includes — and the three things it does not

A denture fee on these schedules covers making and fitting the appliance. Pennsylvania's schedule labels its denture section "Complete Dentures (Including Routine Post-Delivery Care)", so some early aftercare is inside that price. What is not inside it, anywhere, is the long tail.

Adjustments. A new denture rubs. The ADA's own patient guidance says "New dentures may feel awkward for a few weeks until you become accustomed to them", with looseness and "minor irritation or soreness" among the things people notice. The fix is an adjustment appointment, and on these schedules that is a separate line: $20.00 in Pennsylvania, $47.42 in Montana. Pennsylvania caps it at four a year and will not pay for any until 180 days after the denture was fitted, which reads as the counterpart of the "routine post-delivery care" its own denture heading says is already inside the denture fee. Washington's schedule has no adjustment line at all.

Relines. The ridge under a denture keeps changing shape, and the NHS says plainly that dentures "may become loose as your gums and jawbone shrink or change shape". A reline puts a new fitting surface on the denture you already own. Done at the chair while you wait, it is $70.00 in Pennsylvania and $237.12 in Montana. Sent away to a laboratory, it is $100.00 in Pennsylvania, $316.16 in Montana and $325.16 on the Washington schedule. Pennsylvania allows one reline every two years, again starting 180 days after the denture was fitted.

Repairs. Mending a broken base is $50.00, $118.56 and $163.24 across the three; replacing one tooth is $45.00, $79.04 and $139.92.

Add those up over a decade and the aftercare is a second, slower bill that nobody quotes at the start. Ask at the consultation: what is included in the first year, what an adjustment costs after that, and what a reline costs.

England: one price for the whole course

If you are reading this in England, the arithmetic is different and much simpler. NHS dental treatment is charged in three fixed bands per course of treatment, whatever the treatment involves. Band 1 is £27.90 and covers examination, diagnosis and advice. Band 2 is £76.60 and adds fillings, root canal treatment and extractions. Band 3 is £332.10, and the NHS page names dentures, crowns and bridges as the things it covers.

That is one charge for the course, not one per tooth: a full upper and lower set is the same £332.10 as a single denture, if both are part of the same course of treatment. The NHS also says "Some people can get free NHS dental treatment, or help with part of the cost of treatment", and who qualifies is on its own page. Read 24 September 2026 from a page last reviewed on 13 March 2025; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland charge on their own systems, and private UK dentistry is not published centrally.

Immediate dentures and extractions: two bills, not one

If teeth have to come out first, the extractions are their own line and their own appointment. Pennsylvania's schedule pays $65.00 for an extraction, whether it is a straightforward one or one needing bone removal or the tooth sectioned. A mouth that needs eight teeth out before a denture can be made has eight of those lines, not one.

The sequence matters more than the money. There are two routes, costing different things at different times:

1. Conventional. The teeth come out, the gum is left to heal for a stretch of weeks or months, and the denture is made to the healed shape. The ADA describes this as the denture "made and placed in your mouth after the remaining teeth are removed and tissues have healed, which may take several months". You are without those teeth in the meantime.
2. Immediate. The denture is made in advance and fitted the same day the teeth come out, so you are never without them. The trade is that the shape it was made to is about to change: the ADA notes that an immediate denture "may need to have the denture relined or remade after your jaw has healed". That reline is one of the separate lines above.

Neither is right in the abstract. Which is even available depends on the gums, the bone and your general health — a judgement for the dentist who has examined you.

If you have no coverage in the United States

Original Medicare does not pay for dentures. Medicare.gov states it directly: Medicare "doesn't cover dental services like routine cleanings, fillings, tooth extractions (removals), or items like dentures and implants". What it does cover is a short list of dental work needed so that another treatment can go ahead — before an organ transplant, say, or certain cancer treatment. A denture replacing missing teeth is nowhere on that list.

Medicare Advantage is a different question with a different answer for every plan. Medicare.gov says most Advantage plans "offer extra benefits that Original Medicare doesn't cover— like vision, hearing, dental, and more". What any one plan pays toward a denture, and what it makes you wait for, is in that plan's own documents.

Medicaid varies by state, which is what the Pennsylvania and Montana schedules here demonstrate: both cover dentures, at very different rates. Pennsylvania allows one complete denture per lifetime and requires prior authorisation; Montana's denture lines read "Partials: 1 every 5 years if lost; Full: 1 every 10 years if lost". Your own state's schedule is public — find it before assuming anything.

Beyond that, the places to ask are the ones that pay this site nothing: a dental school with a teaching clinic, and a community health centre.

Insurance, discount plans, and which is which

Dental insurance and a dental discount plan are two different products and the difference matters here more than almost anywhere, because a denture is the kind of bill that hits a plan's ceiling.

Dental insurance pays a share of the cost up to an annual maximum — a hard cap on what it will pay in a benefit year — and typically makes you wait a set period before paying for major work at all. A denture is major work. How that coverage is chosen and compared is a subject of its own and not this site's; what matters here is that the cap exists, that it resets on the plan's own schedule, and that you need the number before you book.

A dental discount plan is not insurance. Nobody underwrites it, nothing is claimed against it, and no benefit is paid to anyone: you buy a yearly membership, and it buys you a lower fee — at a participating dentist, for the procedures that plan's own schedule lists, and nowhere else. Before paying any membership, get that fee schedule, find the denture line on it, and check that a dentist you can actually reach is on the list. If either is missing, the membership buys nothing.

DentalPlans.com and Careington both sell discount plans in the United States, and Opencare books appointments with participating dentists in some US metro areas. Those three links are paid. Careington's is an application programme, so a link here is not a guarantee of anything. None is insurance, and none changed a figure on this page — every figure came off a schedule before any of this was written.

How to get a quote you can actually compare

You will not find a quote form here, and one is not coming: your dental history is not something to type into a web page that emails it somewhere. Ask for the same six things from every practice instead, so two quotes are comparable:

1. An itemised treatment plan, in writing, with a procedure code and a fee on every line — not one total.
2. Which kind of denture the fee is for — full or partial, acrylic base or cast metal frame, conventional or immediate. The table above shows how far apart those are.
3. Per arch or both arches. Every figure on this page is one arch. It is the single most common way two quotes stop being comparable.
4. What extractions, X-rays and the first fitting appointments add, as their own lines.
5. What is included after delivery, and for how long — how many adjustments, until when, and what one costs after that.
6. What a reline costs, and when they would expect the first one.

Read the answers cold, away from the chair. A practice that will not put a plan in writing has told you something useful.