Who We Are
ToothCostGuide is a small, independent publication dedicated to helping Americans understand the true cost of dental care. Our team consists of experienced health and personal-finance writers led by Sarah Mitchell, alongside a licensed reviewing dentist who fact-checks all clinical claims before publication.
We are not a dental practice, a dental insurance company, or a lead-generation service. We are a reference site — funded by display advertising — with one goal: give you the numbers you need before you walk into a dentist’s office.
Our Mission
Dental care is one of the most opaque healthcare markets in the United States. Prices for identical procedures can vary by 300–400% between providers in the same ZIP code, yet few resources help patients understand what a fair price looks like or how to negotiate one.
ToothCostGuide exists to close that information gap — especially for the roughly 68 million Americans who lack dental insurance and the millions more who are underinsured. We believe transparent cost data is a basic consumer right, and we publish it without paywalls, without sponsored rankings, and without selling your data.
Our Methodology
Every cost guide on this site draws from multiple independent data sources, cross-referenced to produce accurate national and regional ranges:
- ADA Health Policy Institute surveys of dentist fees (most recent available data, 2024–2025)
- FAIR Health consumer cost lookup tool
- Insurance Explanation of Benefits (EOB) documents shared by readers and sourced from public records
- Dental school fee schedules (publicly available from accredited U.S. dental schools)
- CostHelper Health dental cost database
- Delta Dental and Cigna annual cost reports
We update guides when new survey data is released or when reader-submitted EOBs indicate meaningful price shifts. Every page displays a “Last Updated” date so you always know how fresh the data is.
Our Team
Sarah Mitchell — Lead Writer Sarah has covered healthcare costs and personal finance for over eight years. Her work has appeared in regional newspapers and personal-finance publications. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and an M.S. in Health Communication.
Dr. James Park, DDS — Dental Reviewer Dr. Park is a practicing general dentist with 12 years of clinical experience. He reviews all ToothCostGuide articles for clinical accuracy — verifying procedure descriptions, cost drivers, and any statements about treatment outcomes. Dr. Park does not endorse specific providers and receives no commission from any dental referrals.
Editorial Independence
ToothCostGuide is funded exclusively by Google AdSense display advertising. We do not accept:
- Sponsored content or “native advertising” from dental providers
- Paid placements in our cost rankings or procedure guides
- Affiliate fees from dentist directories or patient-referral networks
Our editorial decisions are made entirely by our writing and review team. Advertisers have no input into which procedures we cover, how we rank them, or what cost data we publish. For more detail, see our Editorial Policy.
Contact
Have a question, a correction, or a data point to share? Visit our Contact page.