What Denplan costs — every band, every price

At Parkview Dental Centre it runs from £6.09 a month for a child on band A, and from £20.35 a month for an adult on Denplan Care band A. The most expensive adult band is £64.51 a month.

There is no single national Denplan price — each practice sets its own fees, and within a practice your band depends on how much routine care you need. Every one of our 12 bands is listed above, so you can see the whole range before you ask.

Your dentist does, after an assessment appointment. It is based on your oral health and how much treatment you are likely to need — someone with healthy gums who needs nothing beyond their check-ups sits at the bottom of the scale; someone who needs regular hygiene visits sits above that, and someone with active gum disease higher again.

You are told which band applies, and what it costs, before you commit to anything.

For most people who attend regularly, yes. Two examinations and two hygiene appointments paid individually come to £300 a year, before X-rays. Denplan Care starts at £244.20 a year at band A, and covers X-rays, fillings, root canal treatment and extractions as well as your examinations.

Compare the band you are actually placed in rather than the entry one: cover follows what your dentist prescribes, so if you need regular hygiene visits your assessment will normally put you above band A, and they are covered from there.

The gap widens the moment you need any actual treatment. If you never need anything beyond a check-up, paying as you go is the cheaper option and we will say so.

Denplan Care includes restorative treatment — fillings, root canal treatment and extractions are covered by your monthly fee, and crowns, bridges and dentures are charged at laboratory fees only.

Denplan Essentials covers your preventive care only, and gives you 15% off all private treatment instead. It suits people whose teeth are in good shape and who would rather pay for work as it comes up.

Care starts at £20.35 a month; Essentials at £24.35. Essentials looks dearer at band A because it buys you less — the discount, not the cover.

Not quite. A plan is a way of budgeting for care you know you are going to need, paid monthly to your own dentist. Insurance pays out against something going wrong.

The two overlap in one place: every plan here includes supplementary insurance at 60p a month, already in the fees above, which covers dental injury and dental emergencies worldwide.

No. Parkview Dental Centre is a private practice and does not provide NHS dental treatment. We would rather be straightforward about that than have you book and find out.

If NHS care is what you need, the NHS find-a-dentist service lists practices taking NHS patients in Suffolk, and NHS 111 can help if you are in pain. If you have been looking for a while and are weighing up going private, the figures above are what it actually costs.

Yes. Most plans start with an assessment appointment so we can see where things stand and agree any treatment needed before the plan begins. Nobody here is going to lecture you about the gap — it is far more common than you would think, and the point of the appointment is to move on from it.

Denplan for Children covers ages 6 to 17, from £6.09 a month. Band A covers two examinations a year with routine X-rays and fluoride applications, plus 50% off private fees; bands B to D include routine and restorative treatment.

Children under 6 are examined at £16.25, and free of charge if a parent is registered with us. More on how we look after younger patients is on our children's dentistry page.