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 the insurance-coverage math that turns a list price into what a patient actually pays out of pocket.

Data comes from the Real Dental Costs US Dental Cost Index 2026 — an openly published dataset (DOI below), not a scrape or an estimate pulled from thin air.

Quick Start

No installation needed — run directly with npx.

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.

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)

out_of_pocket_estimate

What a patient actually pays under cash, insurance (typical US PPO: preventive ~100%, basic ~80% up to a $1,500 annual max, major/ortho ~50% up to the same max, cosmetic/implants not covered), or savings_plan (~20-40% network discount).

procedure: "crown"   state: "TX"   mode: "insurance"
→ List price: $955 – $1,250 – $2,130
  Estimated out-of-pocket: $478 – $625 – $1,065
  "Major tier: plan typically pays ~50%, up to the $1,500 annual max."

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

License CC BY 4.0 — attribution required: link to https://realdentalcosts.com or cite DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20531728.

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