US Dental Restorative Cost Index by State (2026)

⚠️ Version 2.0.0 — correction notice (13 July 2026). Version 1 of this dataset published per-state figures for braces and porcelain veneers that were not observed. An internal audit established that they were derived from the single-implant series by fixed multipliers (0.80× and 0.25× respectively, constant to four decimal places across all 51 jurisdictions). As a consequence, every procedure shared the same state ranking, and the “composite” Cost Index reduced algebraically to a function of the implant price alone. Those columns have been retracted and removed, and the index is renamed the Restorative Cost Index to reflect what it actually measures.

Independently sourced data refutes the shortcut: orthodontic prices are uncorrelated with restorative prices across the 51 markets (Spearman 0.04) and cosmetic prices nearly so (~0.18), while restorative procedures (implant, crown, denture) are mutually coherent (0.93–0.96). A state that is cheap for implants is not therefore cheap for braces.

What survives, and is now independently validated: the single-implant series is genuine. Its state ranking agrees with the ASQ360°/CareCredit Average Procedural Cost Study at a Spearman rank correlation of 0.945 (n = 51).

If you used version 1, discard any per-state braces or veneer figure taken from it. Full account: realdentalcosts.com/en/data-corrections/

Observed average cash price of a complete single dental implant across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia for 2026, with a Restorative Cost Index (100 = the observed national average, $4,507), each state’s cost-of-living index and an Affordability Score.

This is our own observed series, and the only one we publish here: it has been validated against an independent source (ASQ360°/CareCredit) at a Spearman rank correlation of 0.945. Crown, veneer, braces and denture prices are cited on our pages from the ASQ360°/CareCredit Average Procedural Cost Study and are not redistributed inside this dataset.

The index is valid for the restorative regime only (implant / crown / denture, mutually correlated 0.93–0.96). It does not predict orthodontic or cosmetic prices and must not be used to rank them.

Methodology: https://realdentalcosts.com/en/methodology/