Does CareCredit Cover Dentures? Costs, Financing, and Insurance

Yes, CareCredit does cover dentures. The healthcare credit card, issued by Synchrony Bank, lists dentures as an eligible dental expense and can be used to pay for conventional full sets, partials, immediate dentures, implant-supported dentures, snap-on dentures, overdentures, and premium options at participating dentists.¹ You can put the whole bill on the card or just the portion your insurance leaves behind, and CareCredit offers promotional financing that stretches payments over several months or years.

The card also covers the extras that usually come with getting dentures: exams, X-rays, extractions, and anesthesia. Outside dentistry, it works for vision care, veterinary bills, cosmetic procedures, and other health and wellness expenses at providers in the network.

What Dentures Actually Cost

Financing tends to matter here because the sticker prices are high. A 2024 study conducted for Synchrony put the national average for conventional full dentures at about $1,968, with a range of roughly $1,520 to $3,648. Implant-supported permanent dentures average $3,976 and can reach $7,294. Low-cost dentures average $452; premium sets can run $6,514 or more.²

Partials are cheaper but still substantial: resin-based partials average about $1,738, flexible nylon partials $1,761, and metal partials $2,229.² On top of that, expect a dental exam (averaging $203), surgical extractions ($363 each), and general anesthesia ($639) if it’s needed.

How the Financing Works

CareCredit operates like a dedicated healthcare credit card. You can apply online, by phone, or at a participating dentist’s office and get an instant decision, and you can check whether you prequalify without affecting your credit score.³ You have to be at least 18 to apply online or 21 by phone. There is no annual fee.

Approved applicants get either a standard CareCredit card, which works only inside the CareCredit provider network, or a CareCredit Rewards Mastercard, which works anywhere Mastercard is accepted. You don’t choose between them: online applications are evaluated first for the Rewards Mastercard, and if that’s denied, you’re considered for the standard card.³ Promotional financing on qualifying healthcare purchases is the same either way. Synchrony does not publicly disclose a minimum credit score, and your credit limit is set during the application based on your credit history.⁴

Promotional Financing Terms

On qualifying purchases of $200 or more, CareCredit offers two types of promotional financing, though not every provider offers every option:

Deferred-interest, branded as “No Interest if Paid in Full,” in 6-, 12-, 18-, or 24-month terms. Pay the full balance before the promo period ends and no interest is charged. Miss it, even by a dollar, and all the interest that accrued from the original purchase date is added to your account.
Reduced-APR fixed-payment plans in 24-, 36-, 48-, or 60-month terms for larger purchases. A 24-month plan on a purchase of $1,000 or more carries a 17.90% APR; 36 months is 18.90%; 48 months is 19.90%; and 60 months, for purchases of $2,500 or more, is 20.90%. Interest starts accruing on day one, and monthly payments are fixed.⁵

The deferred-interest option is the one most patients encounter, and it’s the one to watch. If you finance $3,000 in dentures on a 24-month “No Interest if Paid in Full” plan and pay off $2,900 by month 24, you don’t just owe the remaining $100. You owe $100 plus all the interest that quietly accumulated on the original $3,000 over two years.

Rates Outside Promotional Terms

If a balance sits outside a promotional plan, the regular purchase APR on new accounts is 32.99%. A penalty APR of 39.99% can be triggered by two late payments within 12 consecutive billing cycles, and once applied it may stay in effect indefinitely. Late fees run up to $41, and the minimum interest charge is $2.⁶

Using It Alongside Dental Insurance

CareCredit is not insurance. It works on top of whatever coverage you have: the dental office calculates your insurance benefit first, and you use the card for the patient portion.⁷ If that portion is $200 or more, promotional financing can apply to it.

The gap is usually significant. Private dental plans typically cover only about 50% of denture costs and often cap annual benefits around $1,500, after which the patient pays everything else.² Basic Medicare doesn’t cover dental work at all, though some Medicare Advantage plans include dental allowances; Humana’s Medicare Advantage plans, for example, offer allowances from $500 to $6,000 depending on the plan.⁸ Medicaid coverage for adult dentures varies by state, and many states impose frequency limits like one set every five to six years.

Dental plans also commonly impose 6- to 12-month waiting periods for major services like dentures, so signing up for insurance specifically to cover dentures can mean waiting a year for benefits to kick in.⁹ CareCredit has no waiting period. Once approved, you can use it the same day.

Finding a Dentist Who Accepts CareCredit

CareCredit is accepted at more than 290,000 healthcare provider locations nationwide.³ The provider locator on the CareCredit website lets you search by city, zip code, or a specific dentist’s name, with filters for distance and a dedicated dental category. The mobile app does the same.¹

One large denture-focused network worth knowing about: CareCredit is accepted at more than 450 Affordable Dentures & Implants, DDS Dentures + Implant Solutions, and Advanced Dental Implant Center practices across 43 states, following a partnership renewal announced in May 2024.¹⁰

What to Know Before You Sign

CareCredit’s deferred-interest model has drawn regulatory attention. The product can look like an interest-free loan while functioning more like a countdown: interest accrues in the background, and if any balance remains when the promo period ends, the full accumulated interest hits at once.

In December 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered CareCredit’s then-parent company, GE Capital Retail Bank, to create a $34.1 million reimbursement fund for roughly 1.2 million consumers. The CFPB found that patients were often led to believe they were signing up for interest-free plans rather than deferred-interest credit, that healthcare office staff were inadequately trained to explain the terms, and that many consumers never received paper copies of their credit agreements.¹¹ The settlement required CareCredit to call new applicants within three days to explain terms and to use its own representatives, rather than dental office staff, to complete transactions over $1,000.¹²

A May 2023 CFPB report found that between 2018 and 2020, consumers used medical credit cards with deferred-interest terms to pay for about $23 billion in healthcare expenses and ended up paying $1 billion in deferred interest. Consumers were assessed interest on 20% of all healthcare purchases made with these products; for borrowers with credit scores below 619, the rate was closer to 34%.¹³

State Restrictions on In-Office Signup

Several states have passed laws that change how dental offices can market and process CareCredit applications:

California banned deferred interest on medical credit cards and prohibits dental providers from signing patients up in treatment areas or while sedated.¹⁴
Illinois, effective January 1, 2025, prohibits dental practices from completing any part of a patient’s third-party financing application, handing a patient a tablet to apply, or advertising financing to patients in a treatment area or under sedation. Violations carry fines of up to $1,000 per offense.¹⁵
New York, as of October 20, 2024, bars healthcare providers from completing any portion of a medical financial product application on a patient’s behalf. Providers must obtain payment consent separately from treatment consent and must warn patients that paying with a credit card may forfeit certain medical debt protections.¹⁶

These laws don’t ban CareCredit. They restrict how aggressively dental offices can pitch it during your appointment.

If You’re Denied CareCredit

Getting turned down doesn’t leave you out of options for paying for dentures:

Ask about in-office payment plans. Many dental practices offer internal plans without a credit check and don’t always advertise them.
Look at dental schools. University programs perform work under faculty supervision at 30% to 70% below standard prices.¹⁷
Try a Federally Qualified Health Center. These community clinics charge on a sliding scale based on income.
Consider a dental savings plan: a flat annual fee for 10% to 60% discounts on procedures, with no credit check.¹⁷
Look at alternative patient lenders. Cherry (minimum credit score of 520), Sunbit, and Denefits use soft credit checks and have higher approval rates than traditional healthcare credit cards.
Ask your dentist to phase the treatment so you can spread costs over time without needing full financing up front.
Use FSA or HSA funds. Pre-tax dollars from a Flexible Spending Account or Health Savings Account can be applied to denture costs.
Check charity programs. Organizations such as Dental Lifeline Network provide free care to qualifying seniors and disabled adults.

Adding a co-signer with stronger credit can improve your approval odds for CareCredit itself, and prequalifying with multiple lenders within a 14-day window generally counts as a single credit inquiry for scoring purposes.¹⁷

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CareCredit. Dentistry
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CareCredit. Denture Cost
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CareCredit. How CareCredit Works
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CareCredit. Understanding Promotional Financing
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CareCredit. Your Terms
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CareCredit. FAQs
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Forbes. Best Medicare Dental Plans
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Humana. Dental Insurance Waiting Period
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CareCredit. Affordable Care Partnership
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Prepared Remarks on the CareCredit Enforcement Action
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PBS. Dental Care Credit Card to Pay for Deceptive Practices
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Report Highlights Costly Credit Cards and Loans Pushed on Patients
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The American Prospect. Predatory Lenders in the Operating Room
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GovInfo. New Requirements for Illinois Dental Practices Using Third-Party Financing Programs
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Barclay Damon. New York Consumer Protection Laws Aimed at Medical Practices
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FirstCard. Dental Loans for Bad Credit