Short answer: for most puppies, dental care in the first year runs about $50 to $150 total — the oral exam is usually bundled into routine puppy visits, and the rest is a toothbrush, dog toothpaste, and chews. The big line item only shows up if your vet recommends a cleaning under anesthesia or an extraction, which typically runs $300 to $800, and more when dental X-rays or multiple extractions are involved. Prices swing a lot by region and clinic, so treat these as planning numbers, not quotes.
What are you actually paying for?
Here's how puppy dental spending usually breaks down:
- Oral exam — often $0 extra. Your vet checks your puppy's bite and teeth at each round of shots. It's normally folded into the wellness visit rather than billed separately.
- Toothbrush and dog toothpaste — $10 to $20, once. Never use human toothpaste; xylitol and fluoride are not safe for dogs.
- Chews — $20 to $40 a month, depending on the dog. A big chewer goes through more than a 10-pound puppy.
- Retained baby tooth extraction — $100 to $400. Most vets do it while your puppy is already under anesthesia for a spay or neuter, which saves you a second anesthesia fee.
- Full cleaning under anesthesia — $300 to $800+. Uncommon before age one in a healthy puppy. Dental X-rays add roughly $100 to $250.
The point of the small numbers is to avoid the big ones. The American Veterinary Medical Association calls periodontal disease the most common dental condition in dogs and cats, and notes that most pets show early evidence of it by age three — which is exactly the outcome home care is meant to push back.
Does my puppy need a professional cleaning?
Usually not in the first year. Puppies start with 28 baby teeth and end up with 42 adult teeth, and that turnover happens between roughly four and seven months of age. A healthy young mouth doesn't have years of tartar on it yet.
What your vet is watching for is a baby tooth that refuses to leave. Retained deciduous teeth — most often the upper canines, and most often in small, toy, and flat-faced breeds — crowd the adult tooth, trap food, and set up early gum disease. VCA Animal Hospitals recommends removing them, and the standard advice is that no two teeth should occupy the same socket. If you see a double row of canines around five or six months, get it looked at rather than waiting.
When do puppies lose their baby teeth?
Teething generally starts around three to four months — incisors first, canines around five to six months, premolars and molars through about eight months — according to the American Kennel Club. Most puppies are done by six or seven months. You may find a tiny tooth on the rug, but most get swallowed while eating — that's normal and nothing to spend money on.
This is also the window where puppies chew everything. Giving them something appropriate to work on is cheaper than replacing a chair leg, and it keeps them off things that crack teeth. Hard nylon bones, antlers, cooked bones, and ice cubes are the usual culprits behind slab fractures — and a fractured tooth is exactly the $800 problem you're trying to avoid.
Do dental chews really cut costs?
They help, but they don't replace brushing. Mechanical scraping from chewing reduces plaque along the tooth surface; it does very little under the gumline, which is where periodontal disease lives. Brushing a few times a week plus a daily chew is the combination that actually moves the needle.
What you give matters as much as whether you give it. We built Bully Sticks Central around single-ingredient chews for this reason: they're 100% natural, 100% real meat, fully digestible, and there's no rawhide — no starch binders, no basting, no chemical bleaching. Everything is ethically sourced from grass-fed American and Argentinean farms and 100% high-quality guaranteed. For a teething puppy, softer options tend to work better than the hardest thing on the shelf: beef trachea gives way under puppy teeth, and thin bully sticks are manageable for a small mouth. If you're weighing bully sticks specifically, we wrote up the safe age, size, and supervision rules for puppies here, and a broader rundown of the best natural treats for puppies.
Always supervise, and take the last stub away before it can be swallowed whole.
How do I keep the bill down?
- Start brushing while they're small. A puppy who thinks a toothbrush is a game becomes an adult dog who tolerates it. That habit is worth more than any product you can buy.
- Time extractions with the spay or neuter. One anesthesia event instead of two is the single biggest savings available.
- Ask for a written estimate before a dental. Cleanings are usually quoted as a range because nobody knows what's under the tartar until the X-rays are done. Ask what triggers the high end.
- Look at insurance early, and read the fine print. Most policies cover dental injury and illness but exclude routine cleanings, and anything already visible at enrollment counts as pre-existing.
- Skip chews that break teeth. If you can't dent it with a thumbnail, it's hard enough to fracture a molar.
Is it worth it?
Yes, and not for sentimental reasons. A tube of toothpaste and a bag of chews is a rounding error next to an anesthetized dental with extractions at age four. Spending a little every month is how you avoid spending a lot all at once.
— Preston Smith, co-founder, Bully Sticks Central
This article is general information, not veterinary advice. Your vet is the right person to evaluate your puppy's mouth.
This post was last updated at August 7, 2026 02:34
