Real Dental Costs

realdentalcosts-mcp

A price-transparency data source for your AI assistant. Most dental-cost numbers floating around the web are guesses, ad copy, or averages nobody can trace back to a source. This server hands your assistant a structured, citable dataset instead: 12 common dental procedures, priced across all 51 US states (including DC) and 200+ cities, plus a line-by-line treatment-plan checker built only on sourced, dated figures.

Data comes from the Real Dental Costs US Dental Cost Index 2026: every figure carries its source, its period and whether it is observed or estimated (details and licensing below).

Quick Start

No installation needed — run directly with npx.

The npm package is still version 0.2.0 (4 tools). The remote server (https://mcp.realdentalcosts.com/mcp) and the Docker image below carry all 14 tools.

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

Add to your MCP config (claude_desktop_config.json or .mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "realdentalcosts": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "realdentalcosts-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "realdentalcosts": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "realdentalcosts-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart your client after saving. The server runs entirely offline over stdio — no API key, no network calls, no telemetry.

Run with Docker

The image tresor4k/realdentalcosts-mcp (linux/amd64, linux/arm64, non-root user) runs the same stdio server with the data bundled:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "realdentalcosts": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "tresor4k/realdentalcosts-mcp:latest"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

dental_cost_by_state

Low/average/high cash price for a procedure in one US state, benchmarked against the national average and the state's dental cost index.

procedure: "implant"   state: "CA"
→ California: $4,780 – $5,733 – $7,290 (observed state average, modelled band)
  National average: $3,760 – $4,507 – $5,733
  +27.2% vs. national average · Restorative Cost Index 127

dental_cost_by_city

Observed average single-implant cost and clinic count for a specific city (206 cities, open dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20819438), with the parent state's implant band for context. Only the implant series is published at city level — per-city veneer/braces figures were retired in the source site's July 2026 data-integrity work.

city: "Los Angeles"   state: "CA"
→ 567 clinics
  Implants avg $4,500 (CA implant band $4,780 – $7,290)

Treatment-plan tools

Every figure carries its source_url and period (or effective_date); a missing cell returns status: "no_source_at_this_level" with the next level up, never a number. Medicaid amounts are paid per claim line (T-MSIS), not a consumer price.

• benchmark_treatment_plan — state, lines[{code|procedure, qty?, quoted_usd?}] (1-10), coverage? (category only). Per line: state cash band (observed / estimated badges), Medicaid paid p25/median/p75, official fee schedule with its schedule_scope, position of the quote; plus the state's adult Medicaid rule. Codes outside the 61 published CDT codes return not_covered.
• medicaid_adult_dental_rules — level, program summary, annual cap, ortho and implant policy with quotes, share of dentists billing Medicaid, fee schedule.
• medicaid_paid_by_code — code, state?: national figures and 2018-2024 series, state cell, rank and official fee.
• low_cost_dental_options — state, county?: dental schools, health centers and shortage-area designations, Mission of Mercy, charity programs, county atlas row.

The modelled out_of_pocket_estimate tool was removed. Data is synced from the published API v1 with npm run sync-data (manifest with sha256 in src/data/rdc/manifest.json). Privacy: GET /privacy on the HTTP entry point.

dental_national_average

National average across all 51 states + DC, plus the cheapest and priciest state on average.

procedure: "braces"
→ National average: $2,503 – $6,352 – $10,014
  Cheapest: Indiana ($4,767 avg)
  Priciest: Nevada ($8,350 avg)

All four tools accept lang: "en" | "es" (default "en") — procedure labels, disclaimers, and Medicaid coverage notes switch to Spanish, serving the US Hispanic market covered by the source site's /es/ pages.

Every response includes source, reference_url and api_url fields plus a per-procedure basis (observed / estimated / national) with a provenance note, so the numbers stay traceable back to the published data they come from.

Open JSON API (no MCP required)

The same data this MCP server exposes is also available as a free, open JSON API — static versioned endpoints, no key, CORS enabled, documented with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec:

• Docs: https://realdentalcosts.com/en/api/
• Metadata & DOIs: https://realdentalcosts.com/api/v1/index/meta.json
• All 51 state markets: https://realdentalcosts.com/api/v1/states.json
• One state: https://realdentalcosts.com/api/v1/state/tx.json
• The 12 procedures: https://realdentalcosts.com/api/v1/procedures.json
• One procedure across states: https://realdentalcosts.com/api/v1/procedure/dental-implant.json
• OpenAPI 3.1 spec: https://realdentalcosts.com/api/v1/openapi.json

Licensing depends on the figure. Real Dental Costs' own datasets are published on Zenodo under the license stated on each record (for example the implant series, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20531728); attribution required: link to https://realdentalcosts.com or cite the DOI. State averages for crown, veneer, braces and dentures come from the ASQ360/CareCredit Average Procedural Cost Study 2023-2024: they remain the property of their publisher, are not covered by Real Dental Costs' license, and must be cited to that study.

Data & methodology

Data is derived from the US Dental Cost Index 2026, an open dataset published by Real Dental Costs:

• Dataset concept DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20531728
• Full index: https://realdentalcosts.com/en/us-dental-cost-index/
• Interactive state comparison: https://realdentalcosts.com/en/compare/
• Methodology: https://realdentalcosts.com/en/methodology/

Every procedure carries a basis field. observed state averages are measured prices (implant = Real Dental Costs' own observed series; crown/veneer/braces/dentures = ASQ360/CareCredit Average Procedural Cost Study 2023-2024), with the low/high band around them modelled from national ratios. estimated procedures have no per-state source: the national figure is scaled by the state's Restorative Cost Index, which is valid only for restorative work (implant/crown/denture — it does not predict orthodontic or cosmetic prices). national (cosmetic) procedures carry no invented state variation. National averages are the arithmetic mean of all 51 states (incl. DC) — never a separately invented number. No value in this package is hand-edited or fabricated; regenerate src/data/cities.json at any time with node scripts/extract-cities.mjs <path-to-us-dental-cost-by-city-2026.csv>.

Disclaimer

This package provides market research pricing data — not medical advice, not a quote, and not a guarantee of what any specific dentist will charge. Actual prices vary by clinic, provider, insurance plan, and case complexity. Always confirm pricing directly with a licensed dental provider before treatment.

License

MIT © tresor4k