Implant vs bridge vs denture

The price on day one is only part of the story. A removable partial denture is the cheapest to start with, an implant usually costs less than a three-unit bridge, and the order can change once you count what has to be redone. The calculator above draws all three lines year by year for your state.

The day-one prices

Sources: Dental Economics, Feb. 2026; CareCredit procedure costs. The implant figure comes from a different survey than the other two, so treat a gap of a few hundred dollars as noise.

The ADA's consumer site describes a bridge as artificial teeth attached to the surrounding teeth for support, and notes that a fixed bridge can only be removed by a dentist (MouthHealthy, bridges). A partial denture comes out for cleaning.

What has to be redone, and how often

Implants. A systematic review in Clinical Oral Implants Research (2012, vol. 23 suppl. 6, pp. 2–21) pooled long-term studies of single crowns on implants. It estimated that 95.2% of implants were still in place after 10 years, and 89.4% of the crowns on them (PubMed 23062124). We turn those into yearly rates: about 0.49% a year for losing the implant (which means doing it all again), and a further 0.63% a year for remaking just the crown at the porcelain-crown average of $1,399.

Bridges. A systematic review of conventional bridges in the same journal (2004, vol. 15, pp. 654–666) put survival at 89.1% after 10 years (PubMed 15533126). That's about 1.15% a year. We price a replacement as a new bridge of the same kind.

Partial dentures. We found no published survival rate we could verify. The American College of Prosthodontists says a denture should be evaluated for replacement once it has been in use for more than five years, and that "there is currently no evidence to determine the frequency of denture relines, rebasing, or remakes" (ACP position statement, 2015, reaffirmed 2018). The calculator therefore uses five years as the starting assumption and lets you change it.

Worked example: national prices

The average cost of repairs is spread smoothly over the years, because nobody knows which year a crown will chip. The partial denture jumps each time it is remade (years 5, 10 and 15 inside a 20-year window). Each row shows the total paid up to the start of that year, so the remake due in year 5 first appears in the year-10 row. With an eight-year remake cycle instead of five, the partial's 20-year figure falls to $5,214, still above the implant. With a metal partial at $2,229, it reaches $8,916.

How much to trust the result

• These are averages over many people. One person's implant either lasts or doesn't. The averaged cost is useful for comparing options, not for predicting your bill.
• Checkups, cleanings and X-rays are left out because you need them whichever option you choose.
• A bridge involves the teeth next to the gap, and a partial denture clasps onto them. If those teeth later need work, that's a cost the model doesn't include for either.
• Not everyone can have an implant. The FDA says smoking and uncontrolled diabetes raise the risk of failure (FDA). A dentist decides whether you're a candidate.
• Insurance changes the picture. Some plans pay for a bridge or denture but not an implant, or pay the cheaper option's price. Run the result through the insurance planner.

When the gap is bigger

For several teeth in a row, or a whole arch, the options change: a bridge held by implants, an implant-retained ("snap-in") denture, or a fixed full-arch bridge. Switch the calculator to "Whole arch" or see full-arch implant costs.