The UK dental implant market is experiencing rapid growth, and with that growth, comes significant differences in regional pricing. So, where you live (or are willing to travel to), will make even more of a difference in how much a dental implant costs than you're likely to see from one dentist to the next within your own area.

Fortunately, the dental implant pricing a dentist quotes to a patient is almost always given as a complete package, so that tends to be the final price the patient finds themself paying for the procedure. Further on that note, we have found implants across the whole UK are consistently priced more transparently than many standard dental procedures.

The price for a single dental implant is most commonly seen to be £2,400-£3,000 in UK, with the cheapest you'll realistically find being around £1,800 and the most expensive hitting £4,500. The dentist's own level of experience often does play a factor in the price, however, so cheap and cheerful is not always the better deal. That being said, the implants themselves do remain consistently the same in quality across the UK, due to the heavily standardized nature of the dental implants market in the UK.

How the UK Private Dental Market Actually Works

The base price, before any dentist fees, for a private dental implant in the UK is dependent upon the market for the three main components of a dental implant:

1. The titanium screw

2. The abutment that connects to it

3. The crown (your natural-looking, new tooth)

The interesting thing in the UK about this, is that there are essentially three companies selling titanium screws and abutments to 8,000 dental practices, who then compete on everything except the actual implant. Straumann, Nobel Biocare, and Zimmer Biomet control about 70% of the market, and their products are virtually identical in terms of success rates.

The abutment is also almost always made by the same manufacturers (Straumann, Nobel Biocare, Zimmer Biomet) and is only compatible with their specific implant system. A dentist can't mix and match; a Straumann implant needs a Straumann abutment, for example.

The screw and abutment together cost the practice around £200-400 wholesale, while a crown costs £150-300 to make, coming to a total of £350-700 in material costs.

The remaining 77-85% of the implant's cost, is for the dentist's time across multiple appointments in performing both the preparatory procedures and fitting of the implant itself. The overall process takes roughly 4-6 hours of dentist time spread across 3-5 appointments over 4-9 months from start to finish, on average.

Material Choices That Affect a Dental Implant's Price

For the Abutment

While titanium screws are essentially standard, the abutment is the where some of the cost variation comes in.

The preferred type of abutment used in dental implants in the UK are standard abutments. However, custom ones do exist, and are found to be most often recommended for front teeth to precisely match the unique contours of the patient's mouth. Custom abutments are often seen to add between £90-£200 to the implant's final cost.

Custom abutments are uncommon, however, and tend to be used in cases where that extra precision is particularly important to achieve a good result, as standard implants are frequently recommended by dentists across the UK to be the best solution for the vast majority of patients.

Zirconia abutments are chosen in approximately 10-15% of cases as an aesthetic tooth-colored upgrade to standard titanium abutments. The average price increase for upgrading to Zirconia abutments in the UK is £200-£250, and they are chosen primarily for front teeth in cases where titanium is predicted to show under a patient's gumline.

For the Crown

Crowns, unlike the other components of a dental implant, are not entirely standardized, and are made by a lab that the dental practice works with. The quality of the crown depends upon the lab, and so does its price, and for that reason, crowns are the one part of the implant which varies the most in cost from one practice to the next.

Composite is the standard material for crowns chosen by the vast majority of patients who get dental implants in the UK. A composite crown made by a lab in the UK is commonly seen to cost £150-300, and the pricing even varies by the type of tooth.

While the front teeth are smaller, they are far more important for aesthetics (you see them when you smile!), so labs consistently take more time to make them look as natural as possible, and that includes extra attention to custom shading work to match neighbouring teeth. A composite crown for a front tooth is typically priced around £200-350 by labs in the UK.

The back teeth, however, are less important for aesthetics, but do have to withstand bite forces as well as match the bite of the patient. These cost around £150-250 for a lab to make.

Zirconia crowns are a premium upgrade to composite, and cost £350-500 to make in a lab in the UK. While nearly all dentists in the UK are seen to offer zirconia crowns, actual patient uptake remains limited due to the higher cost, though demand for zirconia crowns continues growing as a growing number of patients see the long term costs of having composite crowns replaced make them technically more expensive than zirconia.

Plus, while zirconia is much stronger than composite for handling back teeth bite forces, it is typically capable of offering superior aesthetics for visible front teeth too, due to its more natural tooth-like appearance - all important for that perfect smile.

Patients in the UK are beginning to see the difference, but once again, the bottleneck on zirconia crown uptake is seen to almost entirely depend upon each dentist's individual ability to communicate the benefits to patients in a way that justifies the higher initial price tag.

Additional Required Procedures May Add to the Final Cost

One thing to note in particular, is that bone grafts are reported to be required for about 40% of patients who get dental implants in the UK. Bone grafts add to the total treatment cost depending on complexity, and can range anywhere from £450-£1,500 for simple socket preservation grafts at the lower end, to extensive reconstructions in the most unusual cases that cost £3,000+ at the higher end.

Sinus lifts are also sometimes required, most commonly for dental implants in the upper back teeth, and range £800-£1,500 for internal procedures and up to £2,000+ for external approaches.

CT scans for planning, or temporary teeth during healing can add £200-£600 to the total treatment cost, as these are typically charged separately from the base implant price, with CBCT scans costing £100-£250, and temporary teeth adding another £200-£400.

However, for all of these additional procedures, the costs don't come as a unwelcome surprise while treatment is ongoing, since dentists are consistently seen to provide comprehensive upfront quotes during the initial consultation for dental implant work in the UK.

Regional Price Variations Across the UK

The UK dental implants market is seeing rapid growth, and with that growth, comes large variations in regional pricing.
London is seen to have a relatively high pricing spread, but certainly not the highest costs in the country, even when Harley Street / Wimpole Street premium practices are taken into account, with single implants across London ranging from £1,800 to £4,500.

A remarkable finding from our research, is that Edinburgh and Glasgow consistently show the highest average dentist implant costs at £2,300-£5,000 for single implants, despite being found among the most affordable cities in the country for general dentistry, such as for tooth extractions.

Northern Ireland fares better, at £2,000 to £3,000, but pricing is less transparent, and the implant cost in Northern Ireland is frequently quoted separately from the crown. Wales is priced similarly, at £1,800-£3,300, while the South West follows consistently high dentistry prices as seen across other treatments, with Bristol's dental implant prices seen to be around £2,500-£2,995 region.

The most affordable options for dental implants in the UK are in Northern English cities like Newcastle (£1,900-£2,650) and Liverpool (£1,595-£2,500) offer the most competitive pricing. Birmingham follows the same Northern English pattern, at £1,700-£2,500.

UrgentCare Dental in Leeds and further locations across Northern England provides dental implants at £1,999 per implant, positioning them competitively within the Northern England market, while offering transparent fixed-rate pricing that eliminates the consultation fees and hidden charges common at the lower end of each city's price range.

Industry Pricing Outlook for Dental Implants in the UK

The UK dental implants market is continuing to consolidate around proven implant systems and standardized pricing models. Technology improvements such as 3D printing and guided surgery reduce chair time, but these efficiency gains haven't translated to lower patient costs yet. The market can support current pricing levels, so trend is that practices are capturing the benefits as improved profitability.

Competition in the UK dental implants market remains primarily on service, convenience, and financing terms rather than base pricing, which has stabilized around the £2,400 benchmark for standard treatment that was essentially set by Bupa.

Despite that, dental services such as UrgentCare Dental provide dental implants at a cost of £1,999 per implant, making the Northern England dental service an attractive option for patients seeking implants at a more competitive price than the UK standard.

The UK Dental Implants Market Runs on Financing

Zero percent APR financing has become standard pricing structure for dental implants in the UK, with the vast majority of practices offering 3-36 month terms for qualifying patients. Extended financing up to 60 months is often seen available at 7.9-14.9% APR through specialized dental lenders like V12 Finance and Novuna Personal Finance.

Many dental practices do not explicitly advertise their financing options on their website or pricing lists, but they are still available in essentially all but the newest practices. These newer practices often find themselves in the process of waiting for their application to be approved before they can offer financing from a provider, which typically takes a number of months.

Monthly payments on these finance plans are commonly seen to range from £48.83-£102 per month, while full arch implants such as All-on-4 implant systems range from £78-£325 in monthly finance payments, coming to a total of £13,000 to £18,000. Deposits of 35% of the total treatment cost are also often seen to be accepted among practices offering financing to extend the 0% terms up to the longest periods seen on the market, of 24 or 36 months.

Insurance coverage is quite limited in the UK, since most policies exclude implants as a "cosmetic" treatment, even though this is not accurate, since implants are seen to be overwhelmingly chosen by patients in the UK for functional purposes (i.e. a completely replaced tooth that has been extracted). However, Denplan provides £20,000 implant coverage, albeit with additional monthly premiums, and specialist policies are possible that do provide partial coverage for medically necessary cases.

Market Trends Indicate Continued Growth and Price Stabilization

The UK dental implant market was valued at £114.81 million in 2023 is projected to reach £220 million by 2030, demonstrating a strong 9.9% CAGR growth. Technology advances including 3D printing and CAD/CAM systems are reducing implant production costs and even producing ever-more natural looking crowns in labs. 3D printing in particular is expected to cut lab costs by 20-30% as adoption increases, but it remains to be seen whether this will translate into reduced prices for patients, relative to inflation.

Currency fluctuations significantly impact costs since over 90% of implants are imported from continental Europe, the USA, and South Korea. Unfortunately, Brexit has added regulatory compliance costs, though long-term harmonization efforts are looking to reduce these expenses. Above all, the market shows increasing price transparency pressure as patients become more informed consumers, and as dentist-patient communication improves nationwide in the post-NHS era of UK dentistry.

Final Takeaways from Our Data Study

The UK dental implant market offers strong opportunities for competitively priced options for patients willing to travel, with Northern English cities offering the most competitive rates in the UK, creating potential savings of £500-£1,000 per implant compared to the South, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The UK dental implants market is extremely competitive, and dental practices across the UK are continually raising awareness of the benefits of implants for patients. This competitive landscape creates gaps in regional pricing, and both individual practices and dental services are seen to be moving to a more transparent pricing model, including free consultations and zero percent APR financing.

The wide adoption in the UK of 0% percent financing options for practices offering dental implants in recent years has greatly enhanced patient access to implant treatments too. Patient uptake in the treatment, on the whole, continues to grow as both accessibility and awareness increase year on year, but prices do remain stable, and the pricing bands in each city are expected to become more standardized in the coming years.