Dog Teeth Cleaning Cost (with Anesthesia and Extractions)

A dog teeth cleaning under anesthesia has no single price. On 12 November 2026 we read ten published figures. For a cleaning with no or only minor extractions, six clinics post prices from “$250 and up” to $575, and a lender’s national survey gives an average of $379. Two more nonprofits post ranges that start at $575 and $771 and run to $1,200 and $1,346, and one university teaching hospital’s specialist dental service says a teeth cleaning “starts at $2,050”. With extractions or dental x-rays the first six clinics reach $1,446.90 (one nonprofit’s top level) and $1,675 (one private clinic’s x-ray package), and two other lists add up to $896 and $1,025 (our sums of their posted lines). The gap is mostly about what each price includes: the exam, the bloodwork, the x-rays and the teeth that come out. This page belongs to our guide to routine vet costs.

General information about costs, insurance and the rules, not veterinary, legal, insurance, tax or financial advice. Your vet decides what care is right for your pet; your policy’s wording and your insurer decide what a claim pays; your card or loan agreement decides what credit costs.

This page shows who published each figure and when, what a dental estimate is made of line by line, and how to work out your own share if you have insurance. It does not say whether or when a dog needs a cleaning or an extraction: your vet decides what is right for your pet.

What a dental cleaning is

Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital describes it this way: while the pet is under anesthesia, an ultrasonic, sonic or hand scaler cleans all sides of each tooth, above and below the gum line, and the teeth are then polished (Colorado State University, 13 March 2014, read 12 November 2026). Vets often call the whole visit “a dental” or “dental prophylaxis”. An extraction is the removal of a tooth during the same anesthesia.

Published prices, side by side

These are posted fees and published estimates, not a national price. Each row is what one publisher printed. We do not average them, and none of them is what your vet “should” charge. All were read on 12 November 2026.

Who published it	Figure for a dog	What it includes	Why it might lean
Humane Society of Manatee County, a nonprofit clinic’s posted fee (Bradenton, Florida)	$575 ($600 from 1 January 2027; $600 now for dogs with underlying health conditions)	Exam, sedation, pre-operative bloodwork, cleaning, scaling, polishing and minor extractions. Dogs under 90 lb that are already spayed or neutered	A nonprofit with a “low-to-moderate cost” price structure, supported by grants
Animal Humane Society, a nonprofit’s pet clinics, posted fee (Minnesota)	$556.50 standard, $389.55 reduced (income-qualified), for “Dental Level 1”	Routine cleaning, radiographs (x-rays) and oral exam, no extractions. Dogs and cats share the list. A presurgical exam comes first	A nonprofit’s low-cost clinic; “only available to otherwise healthy animals”
Lehigh Valley Humane Society, a nonprofit clinic’s posted fee (Allentown, Pennsylvania)	$500, plus a $46 consultation beforehand	The cleaning. Extractions and pre-operative bloodwork are separate lines. Dogs and cats share the list	A nonprofit clinic; one city
Helping Hands Veterinary Surgery & Dentistry of Virginia, a private clinic’s posted flat fee (Richmond, Virginia)	$475 without x-rays; $1,675 with full dental x-rays. Its dental page words the same two packages as $515 and $1,720	Anesthesia or sedation, cleaning, polishing, extractions at the doctor’s discretion and take-home medicines	A clinic built on low flat prices for surgery and dentistry only, outpatient only
Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation, a nonprofit clinic’s price list (file named for 2026, printed “REV 12/2025”, file dated April 2026)	“$450+” for dental prophylaxis	“Teeth cleaning and polishing”. The list does not say whether anesthesia, bloodwork or x-rays are inside the figure	A nonprofit low-cost wellness clinic; a starting price
Houston Humane Society Veterinary Clinic, a nonprofit clinic’s posted fee (Houston, Texas)	“Start at $250.00 and up”, plus a $50 consultation	The base cleaning. Extractions and additional medicines are not included; the vet sets a “dental grade” at the consultation	A nonprofit clinic; a starting price, with no upper figure
Humane Society of Huron Valley, a humane society clinic’s fee page and estimate forms (Ann Arbor, Michigan; form files dated January 2026)	$771 to $1,183 for a dog under 50 lb; $871 to $1,346 for 50 to 100 lb; both “not including extractions”. Not available over 100 lb	The procedure line ($650 to $750, or $750 to $850 for the larger band) covers anesthesia, cleaning, full-mouth x-rays and a pain injection. Hospitalization, IV catheter and fluids and a biohazard fee are added lines; the high end counts take-home medicines and optional items. Pre-anesthetic bloodwork is not in the estimate. A consultation is required first, and the dental section does not price it	A humane society clinic; an estimate form whose high end assumes the optional lines
Humane Colorado, a nonprofit veterinary hospital’s posted range (Denver, Colorado)	“Dental services range from $575 to $1,200”	An oral exam and treatment under general anesthesia with full-mouth dental x-rays. The range depends on severity and on whether extractions or oral surgery are needed. Dogs and cats share the range	A donor-supported nonprofit; a range with no line items
Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Dentistry and Oral Surgery, a teaching hospital’s posted minimum (Fort Collins, Colorado)	Teeth cleaning “starts at $2,050”, after a $237 consultation on a different day	Lab work, anesthesia, an imaging package (CBCT, a type of CT scan, and full-mouth x-rays), the cleaning, operating costs, medicines to take home and recovery. A $15 fee is added per visit. Dogs and cats share the list	A university hospital’s specialist dental service; a minimum, and one hospital’s price, not what a general practice charges
CareCredit, a medical credit card issuer’s survey (national average)	$379 for a “routine dental cleaning”	Not stated. The page says fees such as an in-office visit may be charged in addition	A lender that finances vet bills commissioned it (2025-2026 Synchrony study by ASQ360° Market Research); the method is not published

Read the table with two cautions. Seven of the nine clinics are nonprofits or humane societies, one is a low-price private clinic and one is a university’s specialist service, because those are the ones we found that post prices. We found no full-service private general practice and no insurer that publishes its own dog dental cleaning figure, so this table cannot tell you what a full-service general practice would quote, and the one specialist figure is a single hospital’s minimum. And Helping Hands’ two pages disagree with each other by $40 and $45; the site does not explain why, so ask which price applies.

Tooth extraction prices

Extractions are where a dental bill moves most, and each source prices them a different way. None of the lists we read posts a separate price for a “surgical” extraction; one splits minor from major, and one bills by the minute.

Source (read 12 November 2026)	How extractions are priced	Published figure
Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation	Per tooth	$15 to $55 per tooth
Lehigh Valley Humane Society	By number of teeth	Up to 3 teeth $125; up to 6 $200; up to 10 $275; more than 10 $350
Humane Society of Manatee County	Minor included; major per tooth	Major extractions $50 per tooth, for up to 8 teeth “including canine teeth or molars”, so up to $400. Baby canine tooth removal $25 per tooth
Animal Humane Society	By level, set by severity and the number of extractions	Level 2 $779.10, level 3 $1,001.70, level 4 $1,224.30, level 5 $1,446.90 (reduced: $545.37 to $1,012.83). Each level is $222.60 above the one before (our arithmetic). The page does not say how many teeth a level means
Humane Society of Huron Valley	By time	$330 an hour ($5.50 a minute) of oral surgery time, which covers the extraction, suturing and an x-ray afterwards
Humane Colorado	Inside one range	$575 to $1,200, depending partly on whether extractions or oral surgery are needed; no per-tooth price
Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital (specialist service)	A posted minimum	Extractions “starts at $2,678”, with the same inclusions as its cleaning minimum
Helping Hands (private)	Flat package	No extra charge: the package price is “the same whether your pet has zero extractions or several”
CareCredit (a lender’s survey)	No dog figure	The survey lists a tooth extraction average for cats only ($99)

Several of these clinics say the final number is set only once the dog has been examined, or only during the procedure. Animal Humane Society gives “an estimate of what level is anticipated” at the presurgical exam. Houston Humane Society’s vet sets the grade at the consultation. Manatee takes a dental x-ray “if there are ANY extractions”. Helping Hands adds that it cannot promise all the work will be done in one visit, and that a second visit is an additional fee. Two say they will not phone during the procedure: Huron Valley’s form says it cannot contact the owner before extractions are done, and Helping Hands says it does not call to discuss the extraction plan. So a dental estimate is usually a range, and it is reasonable to ask what the high end assumes.

What the bill is made of

A dental estimate usually lists the lines below. Some clinics fold several into one price and others bill each apart, which is why two estimates for the same dog can look so different. Figures are the publishers’ own, read 12 November 2026. To build a low-to-high range from the lines on your own estimate, use the vet estimate builder. Its cleaning line uses only the lists that price a cleaning with no or only minor extractions.

Line on the estimate	Published figures	Included or billed apart?
Consultation or pre-dental exam	Lehigh Valley $46; Houston $50; Idaho Humane Society “pre-dental exam” $70 (its price list); Animal Humane Society’s veterinarian exam and consultation $63.50 standard, $44.45 reduced; Colorado State’s specialist consultation $237	Billed apart at most of these clinics, on a visit before the dental day. Manatee includes the exam
Pre-anesthetic bloodwork (blood tests before anesthesia)	Lehigh Valley $86; Helping Hands’ fee list $105 (its dental page says blood testing is in the package)	Manatee includes it. Colorado State’s minimum includes lab work. Often by age: Lehigh Valley requires it over 10 years old, Huron Valley at 7 or older (not in its estimate), Animal Humane Society over 5 or with serious dental disease
Anesthesia and monitoring	No source we read posts it as its own line for a dental	Inside the price at Manatee (“sedation”), Helping Hands, Huron Valley, Humane Colorado and Colorado State. Elsewhere, ask whether it is included and whether the price changes with time under anesthesia
IV catheter and fluids, hospitalization on the day	Huron Valley’s estimate form: IV catheter and fluids $60, hospitalization $55, biohazard fee $6	Billed apart on that form. The other lists do not show them as dental lines
Cleaning, scaling and polishing	The figures in the first table	The base line
Dental x-rays	Helping Hands’ two packages differ by $1,200 (its price list; our subtraction). CareCredit’s survey has a dental x-ray average for cats only ($133)	Inside Animal Humane Society’s level 1 and the Huron Valley, Humane Colorado and Colorado State prices. Manatee takes one whenever a tooth is extracted. Lehigh Valley lists “radiographs (multiple views)” at $128 without saying whether dental x-rays are that line
Extractions (if needed)	See the extraction table	Billed apart at most of these clinics; flat at Helping Hands; minor ones included at Manatee
Medicines to go home (if needed)	Manatee: antibiotics up to $25, pain medicine up to $25. Huron Valley: pain medicine $20 to $100 (under 50 lb) or $20 to $70 (50 lb and over), antibiotics $20 to $70. Helping Hands: an anti-nausea injection from $40 by weight	Included at Helping Hands and Colorado State (take-home medicines); not included at Houston
Size	Helping Hands: a fee of $1 per lb for dogs of 90 lb or more. Huron Valley: the procedure line is $100 higher for dogs of 50 lb and over (our subtraction)	Manatee takes only dogs under 90 lb; Huron Valley none over 100 lb
Deposit	Lehigh Valley: $50, nonrefundable, credited to the final invoice. Huron Valley: $150 at scheduling	Helping Hands asks for full pre-payment a week ahead for its x-ray package
Recheck visit	Colorado State’s dental service lists a recheck appointment at $93, required there after a procedure with extractions. Idaho Humane Society lists a general recheck exam at $50. The other lists post no dental recheck fee	Ask whether a recheck is included

Three posted price lists, added up

The arithmetic below uses only the lines each clinic prints. It shows how one clinic’s “price” becomes a range.

• Humane Society of Manatee County: $575 with nothing added. With antibiotics ($25), pain medicine ($25) and all eight major extractions ($400): $575 + $25 + $25 + $400 = $1,025. The clinic’s own page gives its average as $600 with mild dental disease and $800 with significant disease.
• Lehigh Valley Humane Society: $46 consultation + $500 cleaning = $546. With more than 10 extractions ($350): $896. With bloodwork for a dog over 10 ($86): $632 to $982.
• Animal Humane Society (standard prices): level 1 at $556.50 + a $63.50 exam = $620.00. Level 5 at $1,446.90 + $63.50 = $1,510.40. The dental page requires a presurgical exam but does not price it; the $63.50 is the clinic’s posted fee for a veterinarian exam and consultation, and that the presurgical exam is billed at that fee is our assumption. Bloodwork, where required, is extra; its price was not on the pages we read.

Why the prices differ

• What is bundled. Manatee’s $575 covers the exam, sedation and bloodwork. Lehigh Valley’s $500 covers none of the three by name. Compare totals, not headline prices.
• X-rays. Four of these sources include them in the price, one takes them only with an extraction, and one charges $1,200 more for the package that has them.
• How extractions are counted. Per tooth, by tier, by level, by the minute or flat. The same six teeth cost $200 on one list and nothing extra on another.
• Who the clinic takes. Several low-cost clinics limit dentals to otherwise healthy, already-neutered or smaller dogs. Helping Hands says some conditions are referred to a board-certified dental specialist at the owner’s cost. The one specialist service whose prices we found, Colorado State’s, posts minimums of $2,050 for a cleaning and $2,678 for extractions, with CBCT imaging and lab work inside them.
• Who runs the clinic and where. Humane Colorado says donors keep its dental fees low, Manatee describes a “low-to-moderate cost” price structure, and each posted fee is one clinic’s price in one place. For the wider picture, see what vet care costs and why.

Anesthesia-free cleaning

Some groomers and clinics advertise teeth scaling on an awake dog. We found no acceptable published price list for it, so we give no figure. What we can report is what one professional body says the service is. The American Veterinary Dental College’s position statement, “Companion Animal Dental Scaling Without Anesthesia” (adopted 10 April 2004 and still posted; the PDF on avdc.org, read 12 November 2026), says that reaching below the gum line on every tooth and a complete oral examination are not possible in an awake dog or cat, and calls the effect of scaling only the visible surfaces “purely cosmetic”. That is a professional body’s position, not law.

For a price comparison, the point is narrow: by that description an anesthesia-free quote and an anesthetic dental quote are for different services, so the two numbers are not a like-for-like comparison. Your vet decides what is right for your pet.

With pet insurance

Whether insurance pays anything toward a dental depends on the policy’s wording. In the public sample policies we read, the cleaning itself is treated differently from dental illness or injury:

• One insurer’s sample accident and illness booklet (Pets Best, Maine sample, policy form APIC-PBI0001-ILL (12/2015), read 12 November 2026) excludes “prophylaxis” (Section 8.E.2), which it defines as scaling, cleaning and polishing, together with associated fees such as anesthesia, pre-anesthetic bloodwork and fluids. It covers extractions for periodontal disease only if conditions are met: no signs of the disease before the policy start or during a waiting period and, from age three, a cleaning and exam under general anesthesia in the 13 months before the claim.
• Another insurer’s sample policy (Physicians Mutual, form P970 (0821), read 12 November 2026) excludes preventive dental care including prophylaxis, and any dental illness treatment if there were signs of periodontal disease, gingivitis or tartar before the start date or during a waiting period (exclusion 16). To keep dental illness cover, it requires following the vet’s dental advice, including an annual dental exam.

Those are two documents, shown as examples of how such terms are written, not a statement about all policies. Whether a wellness add-on or plan pays toward a cleaning is a separate question; see how wellness plans work. For the general picture, see how pre-existing conditions are defined and the waiting-period checker.

An example, in both orders of deduction

This is a made-up example with round numbers. A dental bill is $1,000. The policy excludes the cleaning and its associated fees, $600 on this bill, and accepts $400 of extractions. The deductible still to be met is $250 and the reimbursement rate is 80%.

• Deductible first: ($400 − $250) × 80% = $120 paid by the insurer. You pay $880.
• Percentage first: ($400 × 80%) − $250 = $70 paid by the insurer. You pay $930.

Policies use one order or the other. The Pets Best sample above prints the percentage-first formula in its disclosure; the Physicians Mutual sample applies the deductible first. How a shared line such as anesthesia is split between an excluded cleaning and a covered extraction is for the policy’s wording and the insurer’s claim decision. Put your own bill and terms into the pet insurance payout calculator to see both orders.

Paying for it

Dental work is usually booked ahead, so there is time to ask about terms before the day. Some clinics take a deposit or full pre-payment, as the lists above show. If the clinic offers instalments or a medical credit card, read how vet payment plans work first. An offer of “no interest if paid in full” is deferred interest: if the balance is not paid in full when the promotion ends, interest is charged from the purchase date. For credit cards and other open-end credit, Regulation Z requires a lender’s ad to say so (12 CFR 1026.16(h), eCFR up to date as of 9 November 2026, read 12 November 2026). The deferred-interest calculator shows the monthly payment that clears the balance in time. One nonprofit above, Animal Humane Society, posts a reduced price for owners who qualify by income; where help with vet bills comes from explains how such programs work. Cat prices are on our cat teeth cleaning cost page.

Your next step

Ask the clinic for a written, itemized estimate with a low and a high figure, and go through it with these questions:

• Is the exam or consultation inside the price, or billed apart?
• Is pre-anesthetic bloodwork required for my dog’s age, and what does it cost?
• Is anesthesia and monitoring included? Does the price change with time under anesthesia or with my dog’s weight?
• Are dental x-rays included, optional or only taken with extractions?
• How are extractions priced: per tooth, by tier or flat? What does the high end of the estimate assume?
• Will you call me before doing work above the estimate?
• Which medicines to go home, and is a recheck included?
• Is there a deposit, and when is the balance due?

If you are insured, check the dental section and the exclusions list of your policy before the appointment, and ask the insurer in writing how it treats cleanings, extractions and the anesthesia they share.

Sources checked on 12 November 2026. Clinic fee pages are undated unless noted and can change without notice; the Humane Society of Manatee County has announced new dental prices from 1 January 2027. No full-service private general practice or insurer was found that publishes a dog dental cleaning price, and the only teaching-hospital figure is one specialist service’s minimum.