Before an implant, ask which items the flat fee includes, prefer an institution that has pledged to join the price controls, and do not trust a low-price ad

After the 2023 concentrated price cut for implants, the overall fee for a routine implant fell from an average of 15000 yuan to 6000 to 7000 yuan. At a tertiary public hospital the service fee for a single routine implant is in principle no more than 4500 yuan. The implant and the crown are charged separately. Implants, dentures, and orthodontics are not reimbursed by yibao (basic medical insurance). Dental treatment items are generally reimbursed, and the local rules say which ones.

Cost

No money. Before the dental visit, look up the institution list once on the National Healthcare Security Administration's public account, and ask the prices to your face. It takes about a dozen minutes.

Benefit

A January 2024 announcement from the National Healthcare Security Administration says the fee for a routine single-tooth implant is made of separate parts. The first part is the medical service fee, charged as a flat fee. The flat fee covers "the consultation fee for the whole implant course, biochemistry tests and imaging fees, the implant placement fee, the crown placement fee, and the scanning, design, and modeling fee, and it does not include extraction, periodontal cleaning, root-canal treatment, bone grafting, or soft-tissue grafting." "In each locality, the medical service charge for a single routine implant at a tertiary public hospital is in principle no more than 4500 yuan." In economically developed regions, under the 2022 special price-control notice, it can be relaxed by at most 20%. The second part is the implant. In the national bulk purchase of January 2023, "the selected prices ran from 548 yuan to 1855 yuan, with an average a little over 900 yuan." The Sichuan healthcare security bureau, which led the purchase, reported that expensive imported brands fell from a median purchase price of 5000 yuan to about 1850 yuan, and the brands used in the largest amounts fell from about 1500 yuan to about 770 yuan. The third part is the crown, "with prices from 100 yuan to 656 yuan, and an average a little over 300 yuan." At a press conference in the second half of 2023, the National Healthcare Security Administration said local control measures were all in place by the end of April and the start of May (5), and that "the overall implant fee fell from an average of 15000 yuan to about 6000 to 7000 yuan." On reimbursement: a 1999 document from the labor and social security ministry and other departments lists "dentures" (false teeth) and "non-functional cosmetic or orthopedic surgery" as not paid by basic yibao. In a 2019 reply to a political-consultative proposal, the National Healthcare Security Administration said, "Cosmetic items (including restoration and straightening of missing teeth, and similar care) are not in the scope paid by the yibao fund. Treatment items in dentistry are not excluded at the national level, and localities have generally brought them into the scope yibao pays" (nationwide, as of October 2026).

Notes

The 4500 yuan line applies only to public hospitals. Private institutions set their own prices, but the special price-control notice says they must not use a false or misleading "subsidy" or "low price" to draw patients in. A low price in an ad is often only the implant itself. Extraction, bone grafting, and the other items outside the flat fee are where the price is added. So before you sign, get a sheet that writes the price of each item. The National Healthcare Security Administration publishes, on its official WeChat account, the list of institutions that have pledged to join the price controls. Missing a tooth or a couple of teeth does not mean an implant is the only repair. A fixed denture and a removable denture are also ways to repair a gap, and their prices did not move with this cut. Ask the dentist which of them suits you. Whether an employee yibao individual account can pay for an implant has no single national answer. Ask the local yibao department. For how an individual account is used for family members, see Section 5, item 13 (family pooling). For why a missing tooth should be seen, see Section 2, item 10 (see a dentist about a missing tooth). The benefit magnitude is set at medium: the price cut is brought by policy, and what this step can save you is mainly the add-on outside the flat fee and the share charged by a high-priced institution, a few thousand yuan for a single tooth.

Sources · 6

1. 国家医疗保障局 (2024). 关于发布“承诺参与口腔种植价格治理医疗机构名单”等信息的公告（2024 年 1 月 12 日）. nhsa.gov.cn/art/2024/1/12/art_109_11954.html
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4. 四川省医疗保障局 (2023). 口腔种植体系统集中带量采购拟中选结果（2023 年 1 月 11 日）. ylbzj.sc.gov.cn/scsybj/nc020100/2023/1/11/ac5…
5. 劳动和社会保障部等 (1999). 关于印发城镇职工基本医疗保险诊疗项目管理、医疗服务设施范围和支付标准意见的通知（劳社部发〔1999〕22 号，附件一）. policy.mofcom.gov.cn/claw/clawContent.shtml?i…
6. 国家医疗保障局 (2019). 关于政协十三届全国委员会第二次会议第 4043 号提案答复的函. nhsa.gov.cn/art/2019/12/3/art_26_2096.html