Cleanings, deep cleanings, extractions, wisdom teeth and gum grafts are priced in different units, and that is the first thing to check on a quote. A routine cleaning is one line for the whole mouth, with the exam and X-rays usually billed beside it; a deep cleaning is priced per quarter of the mouth; extractions per tooth, with sedation apart; a gum graft for the first tooth plus a line for each extra tooth next to it. This guide takes each kind of work in the order bills usually grow and links to the page on each.
General information about costs, not dental, medical, insurance, tax or financial advice. Your dentist decides what treatment suits you; your plan’s documents and a pre-treatment estimate decide what it pays.
These pages are about money only: which cleaning, whether a tooth comes out and which anesthesia are your dentist’s call. Every price below is a published estimate, named with its publisher and date, and never averaged.
How these bills are built
One appointment is usually several lines on a treatment plan or an explanation of benefits, each with its own fee and code number. The codes let you compare offices, and your plan writes its rules code by code. Code numbers are from the CDT Code, maintained by the American Dental Association; the descriptions here are our own.
| Work (our words) | Codes you may see | How it is priced |
|---|---|---|
| Routine adult cleaning, with exam and X-rays | D1110 cleaning; D0120 or D0150 exam; D0274, D0210 or D0330 X-rays | One fee for the cleaning; exam and X-rays usually separate lines |
| Deep cleaning (scaling and root planing) | D4341 (four or more teeth in the quarter), D4342 (one to three) | Per quarter of the mouth |
| Tooth extraction | D7140 simple, D7210 surgical | Per tooth; sedation apart |
| Impacted wisdom teeth | D7220, D7230, D7240, by how deep the tooth sits | Per tooth; sedation in 15-minute blocks |
| Gum graft | D4273, D4275, D4277 or D4270, by where the tissue comes from | First tooth, plus a line for each extra tooth next to it |
Routine cleaning, exam and X-rays
MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine’s health site, says professional cleaning “includes scaling and polishing” and that routine exams may include dental X-rays (reviewed 5 February 2026). Published figures for an adult cleaning on its own, without insurance, include Delta Dental, an insurer, at $85 to $160 (no date on the page); Humana, another insurer, at $80 to $109 in the Orlando area only (updated 6 November 2026); Pearl, a dental software company, at $155 on average (modelled, May 2026); and CareCredit, a lender that finances dental work, at $210 on average from a 2025-2026 survey it commissioned.
Add a new-patient exam and a full set of X-rays and, on Pearl’s own averages, a first visit comes to about $450 (our arithmetic). Every source, the exam and X-ray lines, and how often plans pay for each are in teeth cleaning cost without insurance, with the exam and X-rays.
Deep cleaning and gum maintenance
The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research describes scaling and root planing as a deep cleaning of the affected tooth, done for gum disease (last reviewed August 2026). Published estimates per quarter of the mouth: Delta Dental, an insurer, $180 to $295 (undated page); Humana, an insurer, $235 to $303 in Orlando, Florida only (updated 1 June 2026); CareCredit, a lender, $260 on average ($190 to $420, 2025-2026 survey); and Pearl, a modelled estimate, $335 on average (May 2026). If a plan lists all four quarters, that is roughly $720 to $1,680 on the insurer and lender figures (our arithmetic).
Three nearby codes are priced and paid differently: a whole-mouth cleaning when the gums are inflamed (D4346), a full-mouth clearing of heavy buildup (D4355), and the gum maintenance cleaning that can follow treatment (D4910). The four quarters added up and what five real plan documents pay are in deep cleaning (scaling and root planing) cost.
Pulling a tooth
MedlinePlus describes a tooth extraction as removing a tooth from its socket in the jaw bone and gum (reviewed 14 October 2024). The bill depends on how it comes out. For a simple extraction (D7140), published ranges run from $137 to $450 per tooth, from CareCredit, a lender ($177 average, 2024 study), and Pearl ($260 average, May 2026); Humana, an insurer, gives $225 for Orlando only (updated 1 June 2026). For a surgical extraction (D7210), only one published range was found, from CareCredit, a lender that finances dental work ($281 to $702, average $363), plus Humana’s Orlando figure of $325, so the figure to rely on is your dentist’s written quote.
The exam, X-rays and any sedation are usually separate lines: for a simple extraction, an exam, one X-ray and the extraction come to $232 to $685 on the published ranges (our arithmetic). The full table and the sedation lines are in tooth extraction cost: simple vs surgical.
Wisdom teeth
MedlinePlus says an impacted tooth is one that does not break through the gum, most often a wisdom tooth (reviewed 5 February 2026). Figures for all four measure different jobs: Delta Dental, an insurer, puts four teeth already through the gum at $720 and four removed surgically at $3,120, with up to an hour of general anesthesia included (out-of-network averages from its 2021 data); CareCredit, a lender, puts four complicated impacted teeth at $3,340 before any sedation (2023 cost tables). Per tooth, published ranges for an impacted tooth run from $225 to $1,620.
Sedation is billed in 15-minute blocks. Medical insurance may sometimes pay, only as that plan’s own documents say; the wisdom teeth page reads one example. The build-up line by line is in wisdom teeth removal cost, with and without sedation.
Gum grafts
We found no plain definition of a gum graft from a federal health source, so we describe it only as billed: a soft-tissue graft at one or more teeth, listed by plans with gum surgery. Published estimates use different units: Humana, an insurer, $1,344 for the first tooth plus $846 for each additional tooth in a row (last updated 31 July 2026); Pearl, a modelled estimate, $600 to $1,570 per site (May 2026); and CareCredit, a lender, $2,742 on average ($2,120 to $4,982), without saying how many teeth that covers (15 November 2024).
At Humana’s averages, three teeth side by side come to $3,036 (our arithmetic). Every source, the extra-tooth arithmetic and the plan limits are in gum graft cost, per tooth, with and without insurance.
How dental plans treat this work
The plan documents we read, chiefly the three 2026 federal employee dental plans (GEHA, MetLife and Delta Dental), put each kind of work in a different class, and the class sets your share. They are examples, not every plan:
- Cleanings, exams and routine X-rays sit in the lowest-cost class, up to a set number a year; beyond that count you pay the full fee.
- Deep cleaning is a middle-tier service in the three federal plans, paid only once in a set period (24 months or 2 calendar years in those brochures); Cigna’s Dental 1000 summary lists it as major work.
- Simple and surgical extractions are in the middle class in the federal brochures, while sedation can sit in a different class, covered only under conditions each brochure lists.
- Gum grafts are major work or gum surgery in all five documents we read, with your share at half or more, and several limit how often a graft is paid in the same area.
How deductibles, coinsurance and annual maximums fit together is in how dental insurance works, and you can run one line of a bill at a time through the dental insurance out-of-pocket calculator.
Without dental insurance
Medicare. Original Medicare excludes dental services “in connection with the care, treatment, filling, removal, or replacement of teeth” (42 CFR 411.15(i)(1), eCFR up to date as of 9 November 2026), and medicare.gov names routine cleanings and tooth extractions among the services it doesn’t cover in most cases (read 11 November 2026). Dental care “inextricably linked to” certain covered treatment is not excluded (411.15(i)(3)), such as extracting teeth to prepare the jaw for radiation treatment of cancer (since 2023). The exceptions by year are in does Medicare cover dental.
Medicaid. Medicaid “covers dental services for all child enrollees” (medicaid.gov). For adults it depends on the state: the ADA Health Policy Institute’s December 2025 tables (data as of August 2025) rate 38 states and DC “enhanced”, 6 “limited”, 5 emergency-only, and Alabama with no adult dental benefit. Your state Medicaid agency decides what it pays for. Each state’s row is in Medicaid dental for adults.
Other ways to pay. Federally funded health centers must offer preventive dental services (42 USC 254b) and charge on a sliding fee scale (42 CFR 51c.303(f)). Health centers and dental schools are covered in free and low-cost dental care. IRS Publication 502 (for 2025 returns) counts teeth cleaning and extractions as medical expenses, and the 2026 health FSA limit is $3,400 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32); the rest is in dental expenses, HSAs, FSAs and taxes. Before using a “no interest” card, check whether interest is deferred; the dental loan and deferred-interest calculator shows what a missed promotion costs.
Before you agree to the work
- Ask the office for a written treatment plan with each line, its code and its fee, including any sedation and each extra graft tooth.
- Ask your plan for a pre-treatment estimate, which class it puts each line in, how much of this year’s maximum is left, and whether a waiting period or frequency limit applies.
- Without insurance, look up local prices with FAIR Health’s consumer tool and ask a health center near you, found at findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov, about its sliding fee.
Sources checked on 11 November 2026. Prices are published estimates from the named publishers on the dates shown; rules and plan terms are from the documents linked on each page.
