What dental work actually costs in China
Three different numbers, kept apart on purpose: the government ceiling for Shanghai's public hospitals, the real listed rate at named private clinics, and the reported range from our own guides. Read them together and you can judge for yourself whether a quote is reasonable.
Last verified: 2026-08 · Reviewed quarterly · Free to reuse with attribution · Nothing here is a quote or medical advice
Read this first — the three numbers are not interchangeable
- Government ceiling. Shanghai's health insurance bureau sets a maximum price per item for public institutions — the same across all hospital grades. Hospitals can charge less, never more. It covers the medical service only. Consumables are billed separately, and for implants and crowns those are usually the bigger half.
- Private listed rate. What a named private clinic publishes itself. Private clinics are not bound by the ceiling — some charge well above it, and on whitening our partners actually list below it. These are the clinics' own rates; we do not negotiate them and do not mark them up.
- Reported range. A reference range compiled from our own published guides, covering China more broadly rather than Shanghai public hospitals.
Single dental implant (implant + crown)
Shanghai public ceiling: capped at ¥5,130 per tooth (national baseline ¥4,500).
Excludes the implant fixture and abutment themselves, sold separately at bulk-procurement cost — in practice the larger part of the bill. Also excludes extraction, bone grafting and gum treatment.
Reported range: reported ~$1,000–$2,000 all-in · US reported $3,000–$6,000.
England (NHS): not available on the NHS — private only in England. The NHS funds implants only in exceptional clinical cases.
Full arch (All-on-4 / All-on-6), per arch
Shanghai public ceiling: full-arch implant placement ¥8,889; fixed occlusal reconstruction crown work ¥9,988.
Excludes all fixtures, abutments and bridge materials; grafting.
Reported range: reported at a fraction of US pricing; varies with implant count, bridge material and grafting · US reported ~$20,000–$30,000+.
England (NHS): not available on the NHS — private only in England.
Zirconia / all-ceramic crown
Shanghai public ceiling: all-ceramic crown ¥1,700 per tooth; CAD/CAM fabrication ¥2,500.
Excludes the restorative material itself.
Private partner listed: from ~¥1,864 (~$260) — 美奥口腔 (Meao) — the clinic's own listed or promotional rate.
Reported range: reported ~$200–$400 (CAD/CAM zirconia).
England (NHS): NHS Band 3, £332.10 — but that is one charge for the entire course of treatment, however many crowns it includes.
Porcelain veneer (per tooth)
Shanghai public ceiling: all-ceramic veneer ¥1,000; CAD/CAM all-ceramic veneer ¥2,800 (material included).
Excludes material, except on the CAD/CAM item where it is included.
Private partner listed: ~¥3,360 (~$470) — 上海宏康医院·口腔科 (Hongkang) — the clinic's own listed or promotional rate.
Reported range: reported ~$250–$500+ per tooth; composite lower, ~$100–$250.
England (NHS): not available on the NHS — private only in England when done for appearance.
Orthodontics / clear aligners (full course)
Shanghai public ceiling: adult fixed appliance ¥6,000 per half-arch course, i.e. ¥12,000 for both arches; self-ligating +¥1,000, lingual +¥2,000 per course.
Excludes clear aligners themselves — aligner products such as Invisalign are priced as a separate product, which is where public and private pricing diverge most.
Private partner listed: SmilesMore from ~¥19,958 — 摩尔口腔 (Moore); entry-level courses from ~¥3,360 — 上海博厚口腔 (Bohou), promotional — the clinic's own listed or promotional rate.
Reported range: reported ~¥15,000–¥40,000 all-in.
England (NHS): NHS Band 3, £332.10 for orthodontics, and only where a clinician assesses it as clinically necessary — which in practice almost never covers adults or clear aligners.
Root canal (per tooth, excl. crown)
Shanghai public ceiling: a three-canal molar works out to roughly ¥314 in service fees under the published item prices; microscope-assisted roughly ¥600–¥700.
Excludes imaging, consultation fee, the filling or crown afterwards, and materials.
Reported range: reported ~¥1,000–¥3,000; front teeth lower, molars upper end or above · HK from ~HK$8,500; molar specialist cases HK$12,000–19,000.
England (NHS): NHS Band 2, £76.60, covering the whole course of treatment.
Wisdom tooth removal
Shanghai public ceiling: simple molar extraction ¥50; impacted ¥180; fully bone-impacted ¥700 — anaesthesia included.
Excludes imaging and any follow-up treatment.
Reported range: a simple extraction commonly from a few hundred yuan; surgical removal of an impacted tooth reported ~¥1,000–¥3,000 per tooth, plus imaging · Hong Kong ~HK$8,000, often with weeks of waiting.
England (NHS): NHS Band 2, £76.60 for extraction in general practice; surgical removal is usually referred to hospital.
Cleaning (scale & polish)
Shanghai public ceiling: scaling ¥55 per half-mouth (¥110 full mouth); polish and air-flow ¥100 per half-mouth.
Excludes nothing significant — but note scaling is not covered by public insurance.
Private partner listed: promotional: ¥30 (~$4) — 上海博厚口腔 (Bohou); ¥76 (~$11) — 上海宏康医院·口腔科 (Hongkang) — the clinic's own listed or promotional rate.
Reported range: commonly ~¥100–¥500 in tier-1 cities · HK private ~HK$800.
England (NHS): NHS Band 1, £27.90, which also covers the examination and any X-rays in the same course.
In-office teeth whitening
Shanghai public ceiling: in-clinic bleaching ¥1,500 per course.
Excludes nothing significant. Note this is one of the few items where private partner clinics list BELOW the public ceiling.
Private partner listed: ~¥760 (~$106) — 美奥口腔 (Meao) and 摩尔口腔 (Moore) — the clinic's own listed or promotional rate.
Reported range: from a few hundred yuan on promotional listings to ~¥2,000+ at premium clinics · US reported $600–$1,200.
England (NHS): not available on the NHS — private only in England.
Filling
Shanghai public ceiling: simple composite ¥50 per tooth; complex composite ¥120 per tooth.
Excludes imaging and the consultation fee.
Reported range: reported ~¥200–¥1,000 depending on size and material.
England (NHS): NHS Band 2, £76.60, covering every filling in that course of treatment.
Dentures / fixed bridge
Shanghai public ceiling: complete denture ¥200–¥1,800 per arch by type; partial denture ¥50 (acrylic) or ¥400 (metal frame) per section; fixed bridge ¥80 per unit plus crown work.
Excludes all denture and bridge materials.
Reported range: simple acrylic partial: a few hundred to a few thousand yuan; fixed bridge reported ~¥1,500–¥5,000 per crown unit.
England (NHS): NHS Band 3, £332.10, covering the whole course.
How the UK and Australia actually price this
We are not going to give you a per-tooth UK or Australian price, because the only sources for those are the websites of clinics selling the treatment — the same standard of evidence we refuse to accept about China. What follows is official, and it explains the gap better than a price ever would. Checked 2026-08.
United Kingdom (England)
The state sets a price here too — but per course of treatment, not per tooth
- NHS charges are fixed by statute in three bands: £27.90, £76.60 and £332.10 from 1 April 2026. You pay ONE band for a whole course of treatment, so ten fillings cost the same as one.
- That unit difference is why NHS and Chinese figures cannot be compared tooth-for-tooth. China caps each ITEM; England caps each COURSE.
- Implants, whitening and cosmetic veneers are not NHS treatments at all. Orthodontics is, but only where a clinician assesses it as clinically necessary — which in practice rarely covers adults.
- For everything on that list, a UK patient is in the private market, which the Competition and Markets Authority opened a 12-month study into on 5 March 2026, covering an £8.4 billion market, with a final report due March 2027.
- The CMA's own figures: between 2022 and 2024 an initial private consultation rose more than 23% to £80, and a routine check-up for an existing patient rose more than 14% to £55. One in five people in Great Britain used private dental care in 2024.
Sources: NHS dental charges, England, from 1 April 2026 · The National Health Service (Primary Dental Services and Dental Charges) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/265) · CMA market study into private dental services (opened 5 March 2026)
Australia
No government price list at all — dental sits almost entirely outside Medicare
- Australia has no equivalent of a public dental price ceiling for adults. Fees are set by each practice, and Medicare does not cover routine adult dental care.
- In 2023–24 Australians spent $13.2 billion on dental services, and 61% of that — about $8.0 billion — was paid directly by patients. The average individual paid $296 out of pocket over twelve months.
- Private health insurance narrows the gap but does not close it. On 2021–22 data for insured patients, the charge for a full crown ranged from $800 to $2,750, the insurance benefit from $63 to $1,375, and the patient was left with the difference.
- Cost is a real barrier, not a marginal one: a quarter of people who needed to see a dental professional delayed or did not go at least once in the previous year, and 16% gave cost as a reason.
Sources: AIHW, Oral health and dental care in Australia — Costs
Hong Kong comparison (third-party sourced)
Not our figures — published third-party numbers, cited because they are the most-quoted anchors for the Hong Kong / mainland gap.
| Item | Hong Kong | Mainland | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleaning | ~HK$800 (private HK clinic) | ~HK$100–200 equivalent in Shenzhen | Hong Kong Baptist University reporting, 2025 |
| Wisdom tooth removal (surgical) | ~HK$8,000, multi-week wait | ~¥1,000 in Shenzhen | Dental Tribune, 2024 |
| Cross-border volume | — | ~700,000 Hong Kong resident medical visits to Shenzhen in 2023 | Shenzhen government figures cited in press reports |
Line-by-line: dental costs in China vs Hong Kong.
Where these numbers come from
- Government ceilings: 上海市医疗服务价格汇总表（2024版） and 沪医保价采发〔2023〕10号 — 口腔种植类医疗服务项目价格, both published by the Shanghai Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau.
- Private listed rates: published by the named clinics themselves on local booking platforms, read 2026-08.
- Reported ranges: compiled from our own fact-checked guides, each linked above.
Limits you should know about
- Shanghai-specific. The ceilings are a Shanghai municipal document. Other cities set their own, and our partner clinics are in Shanghai only.
- Ceilings are maximums, not prices. A hospital charging less is normal.
- Consumables dominate implant cost. Any comparison that comes out suspiciously cheap has probably left the hardware out.
- This can change wholesale. China's national health insurance administration has ordered provinces to consolidate dental items into 114 categories and reprice. Shanghai is doing this department by department and dental had not landed as of 2026-08. We re-check quarterly.
- Not medical advice. Cost is not a clinical indication.
How to cite this
Free to reuse — including commercially — with attribution and a link, under CC BY 4.0. You do not need to ask us first.
China Dental Price Index (2026-08), China Medical Journey. https://chinamedicaljourney.com/china-dental-price-index <a href="https://chinamedicaljourney.com/china-dental-price-index">China Dental Price Index</a> — China Medical Journey Take the data
- Download CSV — opens in Excel or Sheets; the three price tiers stay in separate columns
- Download JSON — includes the source documents and what each figure excludes
Writing about this and want the reasoning behind a specific figure, or a source document in the original Chinese? Email hello@chinamedicaljourney.com — see press & media for what we can and cannot verify.
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