Dental Implants Cost: Every Stage Priced, One Tooth to an Arch

Here’s the lovely thing if you’ve been hunting for a straight answer: at Widney Dental in Knowle, one implant tooth is £2,200, and every stage inside that figure has its own price, out in the open. So let’s walk through the whole of it together, from one gap to a whole arch, and you’ll know the figures before you ever pick up the phone.

How much does one dental implant cost?

One implant tooth is £2,200, and it’s made of three stages, each with its own price.

The first is the planning, £400. That covers the assessment, the CT and intraoral scans, the digital plan and the surgical guide. Now, that might sound like a lot of homework for a single tooth, but think of a builder surveying the ground before the foundations go in. The cone beam CT scan shows the bone in 3D, along with the nerve and the sinus the implant has to keep clear of. Then the surgical guide is made from the plan, so the implant goes where the plan put it.

The second is the implant placed, £1,000. That’s the titanium post going into the jaw, under local anaesthetic, and over the next few months the bone grows onto it. You see, that’s the whole magic of an implant: the bone takes hold of the post the way it held the root that used to be there, which is why the new tooth doesn’t come out and doesn’t lean on its neighbours.

The third is the abutment and crown, £800. The abutment is the small connector fixed to the implant, and the crown is the tooth you’ll actually see and bite with, made to match the teeth around it.

You have the whole figure in the plan before anything is placed, too. The dental implants page walks through each visit, if you’d like to see how the months unfold.

Dr Mohammed Binamin (GDC 71019), who holds a master’s degree in implantology, places them, and the implants are placed and restored in house. So the whole thing, from the implant going in to the crown going on, happens at the one practice on Widney Road.

Missing more than one tooth?

Well, this is where it gets kinder than most people expect. A further implant tooth under the same plan is £1,800. That’s because the planning is done once, and a further tooth shares it. So two teeth in the same plan would be one tooth at £2,200 and a second at £1,800.

And here’s the real surprise for anyone who’s been doing the sums with a sinking feeling: you rarely need an implant for every tooth. One implant carries one tooth, yes. Two implants, though, can carry a small bridge of three or four teeth. Think of a bookshelf. You don’t need a bracket under every book, just enough brackets in the right places to hold the shelf. How many implants your gap needs, and where they go, is exactly what the scan and the plan settle.

What do full mouth dental implants cost?

If you’re missing most or all of the teeth in one jaw, there are two ways to go, and both are priced.

A full-arch bridge fixed on implants is £10,000 – £15,000 an arch. An arch is one jaw, the top or the bottom, so a whole mouth is two arches, each priced on its own. It’s a complete row of teeth fixed on several implants, and it doesn’t come out.

Then there’s the denture that clips on. An implant-retained denture is £4,500 – £6,500, and it’s made for one particular frustration: a denture that moves. It clips onto implants, and two or more of them under a lower denture hold it firm. If you’ve got a lower denture that won’t stay still, you’re in very good company, because that’s one of the most common reasons people ask about implants at all.

Now, why a range? Because no two jaws are alike. Where a figure is a range, where you fall in it depends on your case, and you’re told before treatment.

What else could be added to the price?

Only what your bone needs, or sedation if you’d like it. The CT scan shows whether your bone needs any help at all.

An implant needs enough bone to hold it, the same way a fence post needs firm ground around it. Where the bone has shrunk, it can often be built up first, and that work is priced only if your bone needs it. Guided bone regeneration is £500, for building up bone where there’s too little. Platelet-rich fibrin is £195, used where it helps healing. Soft-tissue grafting, for the gum, is £295 a site. And sinus augmentation, for the upper back teeth, is £500 – £1,200. The sinus sits just above the bone there, and sometimes it leaves too little room for an implant. Grafting adds time as well as cost.

Then there’s comfort, which matters to a lot of people every bit as much as the figure. Placing an implant is done with the area completely numb, so you feel pressure, not pain. For anyone who dreads it, intravenous sedation is available at £175 a session, given by Dr Binamin, who holds a diploma in conscious sedation. There’s more on how the practice helps nervous patients if that’s you.

Is there a cheaper alternative to an implant?

There are two, and both work. Before implants, a bridge and a removable partial denture were the only ways to replace a missing tooth, and many people are happy with each. Here are all three at Widney Dental:

A bridge for one missing tooth is three units, a false tooth and a crown on each neighbour, which is why it’s priced as three. You can see how crowns and bridges are made over two visits. A partial denture is the gentlest on the wallet: acrylic costs less to make, and cobalt chrome is stronger and lighter to wear. The dentures page sets out full and partial, plastic and chrome.

And because Widney Dental sees NHS patients too, there’s the NHS route: a bridge or a denture at Band 3, £332.10, one charge for the whole course of treatment. NHS places are limited everywhere in England, so it’s worth ringing reception to ask what’s available for you.

Can you get dental implants on the NHS?

Rarely. Implants are provided on the NHS in hospital, for particular clinical needs, such as after mouth cancer or a serious injury. The NHS website puts it this way: “Although it’s rare, implants are sometimes available on the NHS for patients who cannot wear dentures for certain reasons, such as mouth cancer or an accident.”

So, do implants become free once you’re over 60? Age alone doesn’t do it. The nhs.uk list of who gets free dental treatment starts “You can get free NHS dental appointments and treatment if: you’re aged under 18, or under 19 and in full-time education”, and the rest of the list is about pregnancy and new babies, treatment from a hospital dentist, war pension and armed forces payments, and certain benefits. Turning 60 isn’t on it.

There is some genuinely good news in that list, though. Pension Credit Guarantee Credit is one of the benefits nhs.uk names, so if you receive it, NHS dental treatment is free, and that includes the bridge or the denture in Band 3. And if you’d rather have an implant, there’s no upper age for one. What matters is your general health, your gums and the bone, all of which are checked at the consultation. Many people have implants to steady a denture later in life.

So, are implants worth what they cost?

An implant costs the most at the start. What decides it for most people is what happens to the teeth beside the gap, and to the bone beneath it.

A bridge needs the two teeth either side crowned to hold it, while an implant leaves them alone. And the bone? Under a bridge or a denture, it shrinks slowly, because nothing is using it anymore. An implant keeps it in use, a bit like a path that stays clear because people keep walking on it. As for how long they last, the implants page puts it plainly: “most studies find around 95 in 100 still in place after ten years.”

Now, in fairness to the bridge: if the teeth next to your gap already need crowns, a bridge can be the sensible choice, since those teeth were getting crowns anyway. And the waiting is the longest part of an implant: a few months while the bone grows onto it, with a temporary tooth or denture filling the gap meanwhile.

What about having implants abroad?

Lots of people look into it, and it’s easy to see why. Wherever you’re looking, there’s one question worth asking any practice: which implant system do you use?

The implants used at Widney Dental are from Straumann, Astra, Implant Direct and ETK, established systems with parts that can still be had years from now if a crown ever needs replacing. It’s a bit like choosing a car whose parts every garage can get hold of. The crown on top wears like any crown and may one day need replacing, and an implant is meant to be in your jaw for a very long time, so knowing the parts will still exist is worth a great deal.

Can you talk it through before deciding?

If you’d like to talk it through before a clinical consultation, the practice’s care coordinators offer a free conversation about implants and the alternatives, with no pressure to go ahead.

When you’re ready for the next step, it’s an assessment and a 3D scan, and a plan with every figure in it. The whole fee guide is there too, if you’d like to see everything side by side. You can book online or call 01564 773080; the practice is open Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 6pm and Friday 8.30am to 5pm.