Yes, CareCredit does cover dental care. The Synchrony Bank–issued healthcare credit card can be used at more than 285,000 participating provider locations to pay for nearly any dental service a dentist offers, from a routine cleaning to a full-arch implant case. It is not dental insurance. It is a credit card with promotional financing on purchases of $200 or more, and the fine print on that financing is where patients get into trouble.
Dental Procedures You Can Put on CareCredit
There is no list of dental procedures CareCredit refuses to cover. If a participating dentist performs the service, the card can pay for it. In practice that includes:
- Preventive and routine care: cleanings, exams, and X-rays.
- Restorative work: fillings, crowns, bridges, root canals, extractions, and dentures (traditional, flexible, immediate, and implant-supported).
- Implants, including single-tooth implants and full-arch procedures such as All-on-4.
- Orthodontics: braces, clear aligners, and retainers.
- Cosmetic dentistry: whitening, veneers, and smile makeovers.
- Emergency care such as same-day extractions and root canals.
The card is most useful on the large bills insurance won’t touch. A single filling might run $100 to $400. A single-tooth implant typically runs $3,000 to $7,000, and full-arch implant work can reach $12,000 to $45,000, according to cost figures published on CareCredit’s dental page.
How It Works Alongside Dental Insurance
CareCredit does not replace a dental plan and does not pay claims. It sits next to your insurance and picks up what the plan does not. That usually means copays, deductibles, and any balance left after you hit your annual maximum, which many dental plans cap at $1,000 or less per year. It also covers procedures insurance commonly excludes, like cosmetic whitening, veneers, and adult orthodontics.
At the front desk you can split the bill. Part goes through insurance or comes out of pocket, and the remainder gets charged to CareCredit up to your available credit limit.
The Financing Terms, and the Deferred Interest Trap
CareCredit’s draw is its promotional financing on purchases of $200 or more. Two structures are offered.
The first is deferred interest, marketed as “no interest if paid in full,” available in 6-, 12-, 18-, or 24-month windows. Minimum monthly payments are required throughout the promotional period.
The second is a reduced APR with fixed monthly payments, aimed at larger balances. Purchases of $1,000 or more qualify for 24 months at 17.90% APR, 36 months at 18.90%, or 48 months at 19.90%. Purchases of $2,500 or more can stretch to 60 months at 20.90%.
For accounts opened as of May 30, 2024, the standard purchase APR is 32.99%, the penalty APR for late payments is 39.99%, there is no annual fee, and the minimum interest charge is $2.
The deferred interest option is the one to understand carefully. It is not a true 0% APR. Interest accrues from the date of purchase for the entire promotional period. If you pay the balance in full before the window closes, that accrued interest is forgiven. If any amount is still owed when the window ends, the full accrued interest is charged retroactively on the original purchase amount at the 32.99% standard APR.
A 2022 National Consumer Law Center report found that the required minimum payments on these plans are frequently set below the amount needed to retire the balance before the deadline. A patient who pays only the minimum every month, on time, can still be hit with retroactive interest at the end.
A May 2023 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report found that patients in the United States paid $1 billion in deferred interest on medical credit cards and other healthcare financing between 2018 and 2020, and named CareCredit as one of the top companies driving healthcare debt. The CFPB’s analysis of deferred interest loans from 2015 to 2020 found that 20% of healthcare purchases on these products ended in interest charges, rising to 34% for borrowers with credit scores below 619.
If you use deferred interest, work out the payoff figure yourself. Divide the balance by the number of months in the promotional window and pay at least that amount each month, not the statement minimum.
Applying and Using It the Same Day
You can apply online, by phone at (800) 677-0718, or at a participating dental office. The application takes about ten minutes and asks for your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, income, and housing information. You must be at least 18 to apply online, or 21 by phone.
Before you commit, you can check whether you prequalify through a soft credit inquiry that does not affect your credit score. Prequalification is not the same as approval, but CareCredit describes prequalified applicants as “very likely to be approved.” Submitting the full application triggers a hard credit pull. Synchrony does not publish a minimum credit score; approval turns on the whole credit profile.
For emergencies, this matters: decisions typically come back within seconds to minutes, and the credit line can be used immediately. You don’t have to wait for a card in the mail. The office pulls up the account in its system and starts treatment the same day.
What Recent State Laws Changed at the Front Desk
Several states have restricted how dental offices can put a CareCredit application in front of you. The card is still available; the sales script around it has changed.
California’s Senate Bill 639, signed in October 2019 and effective July 1, 2020, bars dental providers and their staff from setting up credit applications with deferred-interest provisions on a patient’s behalf. Staff cannot fill out any part of the application, promotional materials cannot be presented in treatment areas, and charges cannot be run on a third-party card more than 30 days before treatment. You can still apply for CareCredit yourself, directly with the lender.
An Illinois law effective January 1, 2025, prohibits dental practices from submitting, brokering, or completing financing applications for patients, and bans branded links, QR codes, or tablets used for that purpose. Advertising financing in treatment rooms or to patients under sedation or nitrous oxide is prohibited. A written notice in at least 14-point font must tell patients they are applying for credit from a third party. Fines run up to $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for later ones, and violations can lead to license suspension.
New York has enacted regulations along similar lines, requiring independent patient applications and standardized disclosures. The California Attorney General has separately warned consumers not to apply for medical credit cards while undergoing treatment and to understand that deferred interest can produce retroactive charges.
If you are being asked to fill out a CareCredit application in the chair before a procedure, you can decline, take the paperwork home, and apply on your own time.
Alternatives Worth Comparing Before You Sign
CareCredit is the most established dental financing product, not the only one. A few options avoid deferred interest or reach patients with lower credit scores.
- Sunbit is a point-of-sale installment lender with a reported approval rate around 85%, compared with an estimated 60 to 65% for CareCredit. It uses a soft credit pull, offers fixed installment loans up to $10,000 to $20,000, and charges APRs from 0% to 35.99% based on credit. It does not charge late fees but requires an upfront down payment.
- Cherry offers true 0% APR promotional plans for up to 24 months and loans up to $50,000, with a soft credit check. Late fees run $15 with a 29.99% late-payment APR, and it may not be available for orthodontics or specialized services.
- Personal loans from lenders like LendingClub, SoFi, LightStream, and Upgrade can be used for dental work. Rates generally run from about 6.5% to 36% over two to seven years, with origination fees of 1% to 12% at some lenders. There is no retroactive interest risk, but the best rates require stronger credit.
- General-purpose 0% APR credit cards, for those with good to excellent credit, offer true 0% introductory periods of 15 to 21 months without retroactive interest.
- In-house dental payment plans, where the practice still offers them, may involve interest or setup fees but keep the arrangement between you and the office.
- Dental schools provide treatment at reduced cost under supervised student care. Programs are listed through the American Dental Association.
- Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts let you pay for medically necessary dental care with pre-tax dollars.
- Dental discount plans charge a monthly or annual fee for reduced rates within a network of participating dentists.
Some practices now run applications through automated “waterfall” systems that pass a declined CareCredit application on to a lender like Sunbit that serves lower credit tiers. If you are denied by one, ask what other options the office runs before you commit to any of them.