dental cleaning in Austin runs $120 cash. At the UT Health dental school on the east side, it runs $0. A crown runs $1,200 at a private office or $600 through a cash network. A full-mouth implant case can run $45,000 at a chain or $12,000 at a Progreso clinic in Mexico forty minutes south of McAllen. This guide is the decision tree.
Routine: cleanings and fillings
For a routine cleaning and exam, the UT Health Dell Medical dental school runs a supervised-student clinic that costs $0 for students and $40 for adults. Wait times are long — two to four hours — and the work takes twice as long as a private visit. The supervision is rigorous. Quality is equal or better.
For fillings, the cheapest reliable route in town is a cash-network clinic that bills under a subscription model ($19/mo). Fillings run $95–$140 per tooth. Quality is equivalent to a standard dental office. The catch: cosmetics are not covered, and anesthesia upgrades are extra.
Crowns, root canals, periodontal
These are where the cash network shines. A crown cash-network: $600. Cash-pay at a private Austin office: $1,100–$1,500. Insurance-billed with a PPO: $600–$900 after 50% coinsurance. The cash network matches insurance for most people and beats it for anyone with a $1,500 annual dental max.
Implants — the Progreso math
A single implant in Austin: $4,800. In Progreso, Nuevo Progreso, or Los Algodones — all well-established dental-tourism zones — the same implant is $1,200. A full-mouth restoration (8–10 implants + crowns) runs $45,000–$65,000 in Austin and $9,000–$14,000 south of the border. Quality is equivalent at the best clinics; research before you go.