A routine scaling and polishing at a private clinic in Singapore runs about $50 to $175, a tooth filling $100 to $270, surgical wisdom-tooth removal $980 to $2,180 per tooth, and a crown $1,200 to $1,635. Two things bring those numbers down: a CHAS card (free for every Singapore Citizen, deducted off the bill at participating private dental clinics) and MediSave, which pays for surgical dental work like buried wisdom teeth. From 1 October 2025 MOH raised the CHAS dental subsidies and extended them to ten basic procedures for Orange cardholders, and from mid-2026 seniors aged 60 and above can tap Flexi-MediSave for up to $400 a year on root canals and crowns. This guide gives you the real 2026 price ranges, the exact subsidy amounts, and how to keep your dental bill as low as it can go.
Dental fees in Singapore are not regulated, so the same procedure can cost very differently depending on whether you go to a polyclinic, a CHAS-participating neighbourhood clinic, or a private practice in town. The ranges below are private-clinic rates inclusive of GST. Polyclinics charge less for basic work but run waiting lists of around three months for non-emergency treatment like scaling, so the trade-off is price against time.
MOH introduced fee benchmarks for 18 common CHAS dental procedures from 1 October 2025 as reference points, not caps. They give you a sense of what is reasonable: a consultation benchmarked at $21 to $31, scaling at $35 to $60, root canal treatment for a front tooth at $400 to $775, and a permanent crown at $750 to $1,400. If a private quote is far above the top of the benchmark, it is fair to ask why.
The single biggest swing in any dental bill is whether a procedure counts as basic or surgical. A simple extraction is a few hundred dollars and not MediSave-claimable. A surgical extraction of a buried wisdom tooth crosses into oral surgery, costs four figures, and can be paid from MediSave. Knowing which side of that line you are on changes how you budget for it.
| Procedure | Typical price range |
|---|---|
| Consultation | $27 to $65 |
| Scaling and polishing | $50 to $175 |
| X-ray | $36 to $327 |
| Tooth filling | $98 to $273 |
| Simple extraction | $98 to $273 |
| Surgical wisdom-tooth extraction (per tooth) | $980 to $2,180 |
| Root canal treatment | From $710 |
| Crown | $1,200 to $1,635 |
| Complete denture | From $436 |
| Dental implant | From $3,815 |
| Braces / Invisalign | $3,900 to $9,810 |
| Teeth whitening | $360 to $1,300+ |
Public dental clinics at the polyclinics are the cheaper route for basic work, and unlike CHAS the subsidy is built into the fee rather than deducted at the counter. The catch is residency: Singapore Citizens pay the subsidised rate, Permanent Residents pay more, and foreigners pay close to full cost. The table below shows SingHealth Polyclinics' published dental charges so you can see the gap. Fees rise within each band depending on whether the case is simple or complex, and a first visit adds an examination and diagnosis fee.
For a citizen, a polyclinic scaling and polishing at roughly $53 to $89 undercuts most private clinics even before any CHAS subsidy, which is why a Green cardholder (who gets no dental subsidy) often does best going public for routine cleaning. PRs and foreigners get no CHAS dental subsidy at all, so for them the polyclinic's subsidised-but-higher rate is usually still cheaper than a private clinic. The trade-off stays the same across the board: public clinics carry longer appointment waits, so book early and treat them as a planned, not urgent, option.
If you are a PR weighing up the public versus private route, our PR CPF guide explains where your MediSave can and cannot help with the bill.
| Procedure | Singapore Citizen | Permanent Resident | Foreigner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Examination and diagnosis / review | $22 to $39 | $34 to $60 | $57 to $100 |
| Scaling and polishing | $53 to $89 | $80 to $133 | $148 to $277 |
| Filling (amalgam) | $27 to $49 | $40 to $74 | $74 to $135 |
| Filling (tooth-coloured) | $38 to $68 | $57 to $102 | $95 to $176 |
| Extraction | $31 to $58 | $47 to $87 | $81 to $218 |
| X-ray | $16 to $41 | $24 to $43 | $48 to $60 |
Three government schemes touch dental costs, and they cover different things. CHAS is a point-of-payment subsidy on routine dental work at participating private clinics. MediSave lets you pay for surgical dental procedures from your own CPF MediSave account. Flexi-MediSave is a smaller annual MediSave allowance for seniors that, from mid-2026, also covers root canals and crowns. None of them turns dental into free, but stacked correctly they can take hundreds off a single visit.
A quick way to think about it: CHAS knocks money off basic and preventive work for lower- and middle-income citizens, MediSave handles the big surgical bills for anyone with CPF, and Flexi-MediSave is the over-60s top-up for restorative work. The rest of this guide takes each in turn.
CHAS, the Community Health Assist Scheme, is run by MOH. At a participating private dental clinic you show your card, the clinic looks up your tier, and the subsidy comes off your bill before you pay. There is no claim form. Your card colour decides how much you get, and dental subsidies apply to Blue, Orange, Pioneer Generation and Merdeka Generation cardholders. Green cardholders get no dental subsidy. Use the clinic locator at chas.sg to confirm a clinic takes part, because not every dentist is on the scheme.
Your tier is set by your household monthly income per person (total gross household income divided by the number of people living in the home), or, if no one in the household earns an income, by the Annual Value of your home as assessed by IRAS. Higher income means a lower subsidy, so higher earners land on Green. The card is free, lasts two years, and any citizen aged 21 and up can apply for the whole household at once on Singpass. For the full breakdown of acute and chronic subsidies beyond dental, see our CHAS card guide.
From 1 October 2025 MOH raised the dental subsidies. The change extended a subsidy of up to $45.50 to ten basic and preventive procedures for Orange cardholders (who previously got little dental help), and increased the subsidies on restorative work like root canals, crowns and dentures for all four eligible card types. The figures below are the current per-procedure subsidies after that increase. Remember these are subsidies, not prices: the clinic deducts them from its own fee, so what you pay is the clinic's charge minus the subsidy.
| Tier | Income per person | Home Annual Value (if no income) |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | $1,500 and below | $21,000 and below |
| Orange | $1,501 to $2,300 | $21,001 to $31,000 |
| Green (no dental subsidy) | Above $2,300 | Above $31,000 |
These are the maximum subsidies per procedure for each card. The clinic applies up to the figure shown, capped at your actual fee. Subsidised basic procedures run on annual limits: consultation, scaling and polishing up to twice a calendar year; extractions up to four; root canals up to two; crowns up to four; and dentures up to one upper and one lower per three calendar years. Pioneer Generation gets the most, then Merdeka Generation, then Blue, then Orange.
CHAS dental subsidies stop at basic and restorative care. Cosmetic work is out: teeth whitening, veneers, and orthodontics like braces or Invisalign get no subsidy, and you pay those in full. Dental implants are not on the CHAS dental list either. The scheme is also citizens-only for the card itself, so Permanent Residents and foreigners cannot use CHAS dental subsidies at all; their cheaper route is a polyclinic at the residency rate in the table above, or pricing around at private clinics.
Applying is free and done once for the whole household. Any Singapore Citizen aged 21 or above can apply on the CHAS website with Singpass and add household members in the same application, and the card lasts two years before renewal. To check whether you already hold a card and which tier you are on, log in to the CHAS portal or the HealthHub app, which also shows your tier. Before any treatment, confirm the clinic is on the scheme using the locator at chas.sg, since plenty of dentists are not CHAS-participating and the subsidy only applies at those that are.
MediSave, the medical-savings part of your CPF, can pay for dental work only when it counts as a surgical procedure. The classic case is wisdom-tooth removal: a simple, non-surgical extraction is not MediSave-claimable, but a surgical extraction (tooth division, or a fully buried tooth needing bone removal) is. Other oral and jaw surgery, such as removing cysts or surgical exposure of teeth, can also qualify. Routine cleaning, fillings and basic extractions are never MediSave-claimable.
MediSave for surgery works on per-procedure withdrawal limits set by the procedure's complexity, not a single flat dental allowance. Each surgical procedure sits in CPF's Table of Surgical Procedures, and the limit attached to its band is what you can draw. Across all surgical procedures those band limits run from $240 at the low end to $5,290 for the most complex, and surgical wisdom-tooth removal sits in the lower-to-middle range, so the claimable amount typically covers a large slice of the four-figure fee. If the work is done as day surgery, there is also a separate withdrawal of up to $830 a day for the day-surgery charges (ward, treatment, investigations and medicines). Because the exact ceiling depends on the procedure code your dentist or oral surgeon assigns, ask for the procedure code and the MediSave withdrawal limit before you commit, and confirm it against the CPF table. You can use your own MediSave or an immediate family member's, which matters for a young adult whose own MediSave is thin but whose parent's is not.
One scheme does not block the other. On a single course of treatment you can use CHAS and MediSave together, just not on the same line item: CHAS subsidises the basic parts (consultation, X-rays) while MediSave covers the surgical extraction itself. MediSave also does not cover the full bill if the procedure costs more than the withdrawal limit, so for an expensive surgical case you may still pay a cash top-up. Keep an emergency fund for that gap rather than assuming MediSave clears the lot, and see how MediSave fits the rest of CPF in our MediSave guide. If you are budgeting around a planned surgery, our personal budget calculator helps you slot the cash portion in.
Flexi-MediSave lets Singapore Citizens and PRs aged 60 and above use up to $400 a year of MediSave for outpatient treatment at polyclinics, public specialist clinics and participating CHAS GPs. From mid-2026 MOH is extending it to cover select restorative dental work, specifically root canal treatment and permanent crowns, at CHAS dental clinics and public healthcare institutions.
Two details matter. The $400 is a yearly total, not per visit, and it is shared across all your Flexi-MediSave outpatient use, so a senior who already draws on it for chronic-disease consultations has less left for dental. And the clinic has to be Flexi-MediSave accredited for dental; MOH gave CHAS dental clinics until 31 December 2026 to get accredited or be removed from the scheme. If you are over 60 and facing a root canal or crown, ask the clinic whether it is Flexi-MediSave accredited before booking.
For an over-60 cardholder, the schemes stack on a restorative procedure: the CHAS subsidy comes off first, then up to $400 of Flexi-MediSave covers part of what remains. On a root canal plus crown costing well over a thousand dollars, that combination can take several hundred dollars off the cash bill. See how MediSave and the wider CPF system fit together in our CPF guide.
Numbers in the abstract are hard to act on, so here are three realistic 2026 scenarios at a participating private clinic, using mid-range fees. Your own clinic's fee and your tier change the figures, but the shape holds.
Scenario one, a working adult on the Orange tier going for a routine scaling and polishing. Clinic fee around $120. CHAS subsidy: $20 scaling plus $13.50 polishing, so $33.50 off. You pay about $86.50. A Green cardholder at the same clinic pays the full $120 because Green has no dental subsidy, which is why a six-monthly cleaning at a polyclinic (around $50 to $89) often wins for higher earners.
Scenario two, a Blue cardholder needing a molar root canal. Clinic fee around $1,000. CHAS subsidy for a molar root canal is $584.50, leaving about $415.50 cash. Add the crown later (fee around $1,300, subsidy $615) and you pay roughly $685 on the crown. The two together: about $1,100 out of pocket on what would otherwise be $2,300.
Scenario three, a 30-year-old with a buried wisdom tooth needing surgical removal. Clinic fee around $1,500 per tooth. Not CHAS-subsidised (it is surgery, not basic care), but MediSave-claimable: you draw the surgical withdrawal limit from MediSave, often covering most of it, and pay any shortfall in cash. The cash hit can be small if the limit is close to the fee. This is the case where MediSave, not CHAS, does the heavy lifting.
Most dental spending is avoidable maintenance gone wrong. The cheapest filling is the cavity you never got, so the habits that keep teeth healthy are also the ones that keep the bill flat. Beyond that, a few moves make a real difference to what you pay.
Dental is a predictable, recurring cost, which makes it easy to plan for and easy to neglect. Build a small line into your budget for two cleanings a year plus a buffer for the occasional filling, and treat big-ticket work (implants, braces, multiple crowns) as a savings goal rather than an emergency. A funded sinking fund for known dental work beats reaching for card debt when the bill lands.
Health-cost protection in Singapore is layered: CHAS and MediSave handle routine and surgical dental, while MediShield Life and Integrated Shield Plans cover large hospital bills that have nothing to do with teeth. Dental is rarely covered by hospital plans, so do not assume your Shield plan helps here; it is mostly out of pocket plus the schemes above. For the full picture of how the public schemes interlock, our insurance and health protection guide lays it out.
At a private clinic in 2026, a consultation runs about $27 to $65 and scaling and polishing about $50 to $175, before any CHAS subsidy. A polyclinic is cheaper (roughly $50 to $89 for scaling and polishing) but has a waiting list of around three months for non-urgent care.
Only for surgical dental procedures, such as surgical removal of a buried wisdom tooth or other oral surgery. Routine cleaning, fillings and simple (non-surgical) extractions are not MediSave-claimable. The claimable amount follows the procedure's MediSave withdrawal limit, so ask your dentist for the procedure code.
Yes, for Blue, Orange, Pioneer Generation and Merdeka Generation cardholders at participating private dental clinics. Green cardholders get no dental subsidy. From 1 October 2025 MOH raised the subsidies and extended them to ten basic procedures for Orange cardholders.
After the October 2025 increase, a molar root canal is subsidised up to $389.50 (Orange) and up to $594.50 (Pioneer Generation), and a permanent crown up to $410 (Orange) and up to $625 (Pioneer Generation), with Blue and Merdeka Generation in between. The subsidy is deducted from the clinic's fee.
From mid-2026, Singapore Citizens and PRs aged 60 and above can use up to $400 a year of MediSave under Flexi-MediSave for root canal treatment and permanent crowns at accredited CHAS dental clinics and public institutions. The $400 is a yearly total shared with other Flexi-MediSave outpatient use.
A surgical wisdom-tooth extraction (tooth division or a fully buried tooth) is MediSave-claimable up to its surgical withdrawal limit, often covering most of the four-figure fee. A simple, non-surgical extraction is not claimable. Confirm with your dentist whether the procedure is coded as surgical.
Polyclinics charge less for basic work but run waiting lists of around three months for non-urgent treatment. For a Blue or Orange cardholder, a CHAS clinic with the subsidy applied can be competitive and faster. Green cardholders, who get no dental subsidy, usually save most at a polyclinic for routine cleaning.
No. The CHAS card is for Singapore Citizens only, so PRs and foreigners get no CHAS dental subsidy. Their cheaper option is a polyclinic, where they pay a subsidised-but-higher rate than citizens: for example a polyclinic scaling and polishing runs roughly $80 to $133 for a PR and $148 to $277 for a foreigner, versus about $53 to $89 for a citizen.
No. CHAS dental subsidies cover basic and restorative work such as scaling, fillings, extractions, root canals, crowns and dentures, but not cosmetic or specialist work. Braces and Invisalign, teeth whitening, veneers and dental implants are all paid in full, with no CHAS subsidy.
Log in to the CHAS portal with Singpass or use the HealthHub app to see your tier (Blue, Orange or Green) and card status. Subsidised basic procedures run on annual limits, such as two consultations and two scalings a calendar year, so ask the clinic how much of each limit you have left before treatment.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.