The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) pays for check-ups, cleaning, X-rays, fillings, root canals, gum treatment, extractions, crowns and dentures for Canadian residents with an adjusted family net income under $90,000 and no access to private dental insurance. It pays 100% of its own established fee if your family income is under $70,000, 60% from $70,000 to $79,999 and 40% from $80,000 to $89,999. Two things it never pays are the difference between its fee and your dentist's fee, and anything on its excluded list, which includes orthodontics and implants.
Who qualifies
You must meet all four conditions:
- No access to dental insurance. That means no cover through an employer or a family member's employer, a pension, a professional or student organisation, or a plan you bought yourself. It is access that counts, not whether you use it. The one exception is a retiree who opted out of a pension plan's dental cover before 11 December 2023 and cannot opt back in.
- Adjusted family net income under $90,000. This is worked out from your tax return (and your spouse's or partner's), using net income adjusted for universal child care benefit and registered disability savings plan amounts.
- A filed tax return for the previous year, for you and your spouse or partner if you have one.
- Canadian resident for tax purposes.
Coverage through a provincial, territorial or federal social programme does not disqualify you; the CDCP coordinates with those programmes so the same item is not paid twice. Eligibility is reconfirmed each year, and applications for the 2026–27 benefit period are open on the Canada.ca page in the sources.
The three co-payment tiers
The plan calls your share a co-payment, and it is a percentage of the CDCP established fee, not of the dentist's fee.
| Adjusted family net income | CDCP pays | Your co-payment |
|---|---|---|
| Under $70,000 | 100% of the established fee | 0% |
| $70,000 to $79,999 | 60% | 40% |
| $80,000 to $89,999 | 40% | 60% |
The Canada.ca examples page walks through a scaling appointment where the practice charges more than the CDCP fee. Every patient pays the gap; on top of that, the 40% tier pays 40% of the established fee and the 60% tier pays 60%. Only the 0% tier with a dentist billing at the grid pays nothing.
What is covered
The covered services fall into four groups.
- Diagnostic and preventive: examinations, X-rays, cleaning (scaling and polishing), fluoride and sealants. The plan sets frequency limits; a routine examination and cleaning are typically covered once a year, with more for some patients.
- Basic: fillings, root canal treatment and treatment for gum disease.
- Major: crowns, complete and partial dentures, and oral surgery for extractions or removal of a lesion.
- Anaesthesia and sedation: local anaesthetic, nitrous oxide and oral sedation. Deeper sedation and general anaesthesia need preauthorisation.
Some items need preauthorisation before treatment starts: crowns and crown cores, some crown repairs, partial and immediate dentures, root canal retreatment, deeper sedation and some periodontal procedures. The dentist submits the request; treatment started before approval may not be paid.
Not covered: orthodontics (braces and aligners), implants and anything to support an implant, cosmetic work such as whitening and veneers, and services above the frequency limits. If you need an implant at $3,500–6,000 or aligners, the CDCP contributes nothing and the whole fee is private.
Why you can still owe money
This is the part that surprises people. The CDCP has its own fee grid, administered by Sun Life and updated each April. Dentists are not required to charge those fees. Most practices set fees from their provincial or territorial dental association's suggested fee guide, and the Canadian Dental Association says plainly that many CDCP established fees do not meet the full cost of treatment in a dental office and the difference is on you.
So the bill for a covered service is:
- the difference between the practice's fee and the CDCP established fee (if any), plus
- your co-payment percentage of the CDCP established fee.
Both are paid to the practice; the plan pays its share to the provider directly. Before you book, ask two questions: does the office participate in the CDCP, and does it bill at the CDCP grid or above it? Enter the answers into the Out-of-pocket dental cost calculator as the quote and the confirmed plan payment.
How this compares with an employer plan
Most Canadians with dental cover have it through work. Those plans usually pay a percentage of the provincial fee guide: commonly 80% to 100% of preventive care, 50% to 80% of basic work and around 50% of major work, up to an annual maximum per person. Because the reference price is the provincial guide rather than a lower federal grid, the gap you pay is smaller, but the annual maximum caps what the plan will spend, and orthodontics typically has a separate lifetime maximum.
The CDCP has no annual dollar maximum for covered services within its frequency limits, which is an advantage for someone who needs several crowns or a denture in one year. It has no cover for orthodontics or implants, which an employer plan sometimes does. Neither is simply better; they are aimed at different people, and you cannot hold both.
The Dental insurance / rebate calculator takes a percentage and an annual limit and shows what a plan actually returns on a given quote. For the CDCP, enter the percentage for your tier against the established fee, not the practice fee.
What routine and common items cost privately
If you are not eligible, or the item is excluded, these are the private-practice ranges in Canadian dollars from the site's price data.
- Examination and check-up: $150–450
- Filling: $200–400
- Root canal treatment: $720–1,760
- Crown: $1,000–1,700
- Full denture (one arch): $900–2,500
- Single implant with crown: $3,500–6,000
Fees vary by province and by city; the provincial fee guides differ from one another, and practices in large cities tend to sit at the top of the range. The Annual dental care cost calculator budgets a year of check-ups, cleaning and X-rays at published Canadian fees, which is useful whether or not the CDCP pays for them.
Applying and using the plan
Apply through the Canada.ca portal or by phone. Once approved you receive a welcome package from Sun Life with your member card and coverage start date. Treatment before that date is not covered. At the practice, show the card, confirm the office is participating, and ask for a written estimate that separates the CDCP established fee, the co-payment and any additional charge for each line before agreeing.
You must renew each year, and eligibility is checked against your most recent tax return, so file on time. Giving incorrect information can end your cover and require repayment of benefits.
What to do next
- Check the four eligibility conditions on the Canada.ca page in the sources, and work out your adjusted family net income from last year's return to find your tier.
- Ask your practice whether it participates in the CDCP and whether it bills at the established fee; get a written estimate that shows the gap and the co-payment on each line.
- Put the estimate into the Out-of-pocket dental cost calculator, and for anything the plan excludes, compare the quote with the Canadian range above before deciding.
