Guide · Dental implants

How much do dental implants cost in Edinburgh?

If you have searched for implant prices, you will have seen everything from suspiciously cheap offers to eye-watering quotes — often with no explanation of the difference. This guide starts with our own price: a single implant including the crown on top costs from £1,495, plus £149 for a CBCT scan with implant planning unless you already have a suitable recent CBCT taken elsewhere that we can use. It then explains what moves the cost up from there, and how to compare quotes like a clinician rather than a price list.

Where the price starts, and what moves it

“A dental implant” is not one product: it is a small surgical treatment plan built around your mouth, and two patients asking for the same thing can need very different care. Our from-price is where a straightforward single implant with its crown starts. Cases that need more cost more, and we quote them in writing after the consultation. The main factors that move the cost up:

• How many teeth are being replaced — a single tooth, several teeth on a bridge supported by implants, or a full arch are very different treatments.
• The condition of your jawbone — implants anchor into bone. Where bone has receded after a tooth has been missing for a while, preparatory grafting may be needed first, which adds a stage to the plan.
• Preparatory dental work — gum health comes first: untreated gum disease or decay needs resolving before implant surgery is sensible.
• Planning and imaging — precise implant placement relies on 3D CBCT imaging, which we provide in-house rather than referring you elsewhere. The scan with implant planning is £149 on top of the from-price, unless a suitable recent CBCT taken elsewhere can be used.
• The restoration on top — the crown, bridge or denture the implant supports is made to match your teeth, and its complexity affects the overall plan. The from-price includes a single crown; a bridge or denture on implants is a larger plan.

How to compare implant prices

An advertised implant price, ours included, is a starting point until someone has examined your mouth and taken 3D imaging, so check what each one includes: whether the crown is part of it, whether the scan and planning are extra, and what happens if grafting is needed. It is also worth being careful with very cheap packages abroad: when something needs adjusting or goes wrong months later, follow-up care is an expensive flight away. Whoever you choose — here or elsewhere — make sure the quote follows an examination, itemises what is included, and names the clinician responsible for your care.

How long implants last, and what that means for the cost

How long an implant lasts matters as much as its price. A 2019 systematic review in the Journal of Dentistry pooled 18 prospective studies of modern implants and put ten-year survival at 96.4%. A more cautious analysis, allowing for patients the studies lost track of, gave 93.2%, with lower survival in people aged 65 and over. These are averages, not a promise for any one implant, and survival means only that the implant is still in place: the crown on top may need replacing sooner.

What an implant costs to look after

The spending does not stop when the crown is fitted. The Oral Health Foundation warns that plaque around an implant can cause peri-implantitis, which can lead to the implant loosening or being lost, and advises daily cleaning with interdental brushes and regular dental and hygiene visits. A 2023 European Federation of Periodontology guideline recommends structured supportive care once an implant is in use.

Here a private hygiene appointment is £65, Guided Biofilm Therapy £110 and an existing-patient examination £55, as often as your dentist or dental therapist advises. Practice Plan memberships, from £19.50 a month plus a one-off £9.50 joining fee, not charged again if you change plan or continue into another year, include examinations and hygiene visits, though the 15% member discount does not apply to implant treatment.

NHS Lothian’s hospital dental service does not accept referrals to assess implants placed outside the NHS, so wherever an implant is placed privately, here or abroad, ask before treatment who will look after it in the years ahead and what that care will cost.

What a consultation at City Dental Care includes

Implant treatment here is led by Dr. Vikas Sharda (GDC 209880), a University of Glasgow graduate with postgraduate certificate and diploma qualifications in implant dentistry, who has placed over 1,000 dental implants. Your consultation covers:

• A full clinical examination and discussion of what you want to achieve
• 3D CBCT imaging with implant planning, taken in-house (£149), unless a suitable recent CBCT from elsewhere can be used
• An honest view of whether an implant is right for you — and the alternatives (bridges and dentures) if it is not
• A written, itemised treatment plan with the full price — before anything is done

Can you get dental implants on the NHS in Scotland?

Usually not. NHS inform lists dental implants among treatments usually available only privately. NHS-funded implants come through hospital services: in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Dental Institute, whose criteria are, in its own words, “very strict” because of restrictions in funding and capacity. Priority goes to people:

• whose dental care is complicated by head and neck cancer treatment
• with major trauma to the face and jaws that has left significant bone and soft tissue damage to restore
• who lost two or more neighbouring teeth to childhood injury, in an otherwise healthy mouth, and need input from several dental disciplines
• born with conditions such as hypodontia or cleft palate that conventional treatment cannot restore

Even then, implants are not automatically offered, and alternatives should have been tried first where clinically appropriate. Referral comes from your dentist; the Edinburgh Dental Institute does not accept referrals made for financial reasons, and its treatment is free.

For most people, the NHS option is a bridge or a denture: NHS patients pay 80% of the NHS fee, capped at £384 per course of treatment; under-26s, pregnant women and new mothers, and people on certain benefits pay nothing. Compare implants, bridges and dentures, or mix NHS and private care in a hybrid treatment plan.

Spreading the cost

City Dental Care offers 0% finance on treatment plans from £250 up to £5,000, repaid by monthly Direct Debit over 6, 9, 10, 11 or 12 months. For plans above £5,000, part-financing is available. See our payment plans and finance page, or ask at your consultation.

See a real implant journey

On our dental implants page you can watch a real patient’s two-part implant journey — from consultation and 3D scan through to surgery day — alongside Dr. Christopher Sarafiant, one of our dentists, explaining how implants work.

Sources: NHS inform, Receiving NHS dental treatment in Scotland, updated 27 July 2026; NHS Lothian RefHelp, Restorative Dentistry referral guidance, updated 30 December 2025; NHS Lothian, Edinburgh Dental Institute implant acceptance criteria, 6 April 2021; Howe MS and others, Journal of Dentistry 2019;84:9–21; Herrera D and others, EFP S3 level clinical practice guideline on peri-implant diseases, Journal of Clinical Periodontology 2023;50 Suppl 26:4–76; Oral Health Foundation, Implants, updated 19 June 2026. Practice fees are from our published price list.