Dog teeth cleaning cost: 2026 survey of 56 published prices

The median published price to clean a dog’s teeth is $409. That is the middle of 56 prices collected in October 2026 from 45 clinics, nonprofits and animal hospitals in 32 states. Half of the sample sits between $304 and $468, and the full spread runs from $125 to $700.

Who publishes the price moves that figure more than anything else. Thirty of the 56 prices come from one chain, Banfield Pet Hospital, whose hospitals have a median of $433. The 26 prices from independent clinics and nonprofits have a median of $288.

If you already have a quote, our guide to what a dental cleaning quote actually includes shows how to compare it line by line. Prices vary by clinic, by region and by what the fee covers. Nothing here is a quote. Ask your own vet for a written estimate before you book.

How much does it cost to get a dog’s teeth cleaned?

Across the 56 published prices, the median is $409 and the middle half runs $304 to $468. A quote inside that band is ordinary for a routine cleaning. One above $468 is in the top quarter of what providers publish, and it is worth asking what the higher fee covers.

The cheapest price is $125 at Low Cost Spay & Neuter Clinic in Brownsburg, Indiana, a nonprofit, for dogs of 0 to 25 lb. The dearest is $700 at The Pet Advocate Vet in Tracy, California, a private clinic that charges the same base for a dog of any size.

Every figure here is the routine price, before extractions. Where a provider lists grades or levels by how much work is needed, we recorded the lowest level, because it is the only price that compares across providers. What the higher levels cost is covered further down.

Does it matter who does the cleaning?

More than anything else we measured. The 13 nonprofit prices have a median of $225, the 13 private clinic prices $370, and the 30 Banfield prices $433. The nonprofit median is barely half the chain’s.

The nonprofit figure comes from 8 providers and the private clinic figure from 7, several of which publish one price per weight band. Both rest on fewer clinics than their counts suggest, so treat them as indicative rather than settled.

Because the chain is more than half the sample, the $409 headline sits close to its prices. If you are comparing independent clinics, the $288 median for those 26 prices is the better guide. Our dog spay survey found the same split, with a $215 nonprofit median against $475 at private clinics.

Does the same cleaning cost more in some states?

Yes, by up to 29 per cent at one chain. Banfield publishes a price for a professional dental cleaning on each hospital’s page, and across 30 hospitals it runs from $380.95 in Bossier City, Louisiana to $491.95 in Brooklyn, New York, Chelmsford, Massachusetts and Bellevue, Washington.

That is a $111 difference for a service with the same name at the same company. The cheapest hospitals in the sample are in Louisiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Ohio. The dearest are in New York, Massachusetts, the Seattle suburbs, Connecticut and northern Virginia.

The price follows the city more than the state. In Virginia the same cleaning is $424.95 in Virginia Beach and $482.95 in Reston. In Washington it is $465.95 in Vancouver and $491.95 in Bellevue. The most common price, $408.95, appears at hospitals in six states.

The state table further down is thin by comparison. Its Indiana and North Carolina rows are each one clinic’s weight bands, so the Banfield figures above are the better guide to how place changes the price.

Does a bigger dog cost more?

At the same clinic, yes, but by less than the gap between clinics. Five providers publish a dental price by weight, and every one charges more for its largest band than its smallest. Most providers in the sample, including all 30 Banfield hospitals, publish a single price.

The weight table further down the page needs a warning. It groups prices by band across providers, and because different clinics publish different bands, the over 80 lb median comes out lower than the 50 to 80 lb one. That is a quirk of which clinics publish which bands, not evidence that big dogs are cheaper.

Good Care’s figures are its annual price for returning patients. A first cleaning, or one more than a year after the last, is $405 for small and mid-size dogs and $595 over 80 lb.

What does the published price include?

Usually less than the name suggests. Of the 45 providers counted, only 6 say on the page we read that the base price includes dental x-rays. Only 4 say it includes pre-anesthetic bloodwork, and only 3 include simple extractions.

Banfield states that an office visit fee is charged on top of every service, and that some pets need additional anesthesia or lab work at extra cost. The Texas Coalition for Animal Protection, which starts at $165, does not perform x-rays or pre-anesthetic bloodwork at all.

The clearest itemised example is Animal House Veterinary Clinic in Nashville. Its cleaning starts at $376, full-mouth x-rays at $276, and a package of bloodwork, an IV catheter and fluids at $388. Those three starting prices come to at least $1,040 before any tooth is extracted or any medication is dispensed.

At the other end, Pet Dental Clinic in Loveland, Colorado charges $500 for a dog and says the price covers the anesthetized cleaning, bloodwork and full-mouth x-rays together. So a $500 quote and a $376 quote can describe very different bills. Compare the total, not the headline line.

What happens to the price if teeth need to come out?

It can more than triple. Five providers publish a ladder from a routine cleaning to their most involved level, and the top level costs between 1.3 and 3.4 times the routine price at the same clinic.

Others price extractions separately. Lehigh Valley Humane Society in Allentown, Pennsylvania charges a $46 consultation first, then adds $125 for up to three extractions and $350 for more than ten. CSNIP in Walker, Michigan quotes $500 to $700 for surgical extractions as a separate procedure.

Animal Humane Society says its dental pricing is based on severity, and Texas Humane Heroes says its prices can change with exam and x-ray findings. That is why a dental quote often arrives as a range rather than a single figure.

What about anesthesia-free cleaning?

It is a different procedure, so it is not in the median. One provider in our sheet, K-9 Smiles in Colorado, publishes a flat $295 for a cleaning done without anesthesia or sedation at clinics along the Front Range.

Its own page says the service is intended for preventive care, and that pets with loose teeth, advanced periodontal disease, infection or significant pain may be referred for anesthetic treatment instead. The $295 is listed in the sources but left out of every figure. Whether it suits your dog is a question for your own vet.

How many providers publish a price?

We opened 57 provider websites for this survey. Forty six published a dog dental price that is in our sheet, and two published one we could not place or date. Nine described the procedure in detail with no price at all, including humane society hospitals in Idaho, Oregon, Ohio and New York.

That ratio flatters the industry, because we searched for pages that publish prices. A peer reviewed study of 177 US small animal clinics found that only 3 of the 157 with a website, 1.91 per cent, listed any pricing at all (Adams and colleagues, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 4 May 2026).

Read the median here as the price at a provider that chooses to publish, then. Most private practices do not, and they are where most owners take their dogs.

Which prices we left out

Four published figures appear in our sheets but in no figure on this page. K-9 Smiles, at $295, is anesthesia-free. Animal Humane Society’s reduced price of $389.55 is for income-qualified owners, so we counted its standard $556.50 instead.

Humane Veterinary Hospitals of America publishes a cleaning with x-rays starting at $546, but the page names no state for the hospital, so we could not place it. Humane Society of Southern Arizona’s starting price of $300 comes from a 2022 handout, too old to count.

How to get a comparable written estimate

The headline price is rarely the invoice. Ask for the total in writing before you book, and ask these five questions so the quotes you compare cover the same things.

1. Are full-mouth dental x-rays included, or billed separately?
2. Is pre-anesthetic bloodwork included, optional, or required at my dog’s age?
3. Which level or grade is this quote for, and what does each higher level cost?
4. How are extractions priced: per tooth, by tier, or included?
5. Is there an exam or office visit fee on top, and are take-home medications included?

The third question matters most. Among clinics that publish a ladder, the top level costs up to 3.4 times the routine one, and the level can be set by what is found during the cleaning.

Prices on this page were collected on 1 October 2026 and change without notice. This is cost research, not veterinary advice. Your own vet is the only person who can tell you what your dog needs.