With over 70% of Iranians unable to afford basic dental care, the regime’s policies have turned essential treatment into a luxury reserved for the wealthy.
While global advances in dentistry now allow people to maintain healthy teeth well into old age, Iran is experiencing a silent but severe oral health crisis. Surging dental costs have transformed essential medical care into an unaffordable luxury, particularly for low-income households, who increasingly resort to tooth extraction as their only option for relief from pain.
Officials and experts now warn that a majority of Iranians simply cannot afford basic dental treatment. According to members of Iran’s Medical Council and dental health specialists, around 70% of the population lacks the financial ability to pay for dental services.
One of the key drivers of this crisis is Iran’s extremely weak insurance coverage. More than 90% of dental expenses are paid out-of-pocket, far exceeding global averages and effectively removing dental care from the household budget for millions. Depending on the plan, insurance rarely covers more than 2 to 5 million tomans, a fraction of actual treatment costs.
Runaway Costs in the Private Sector
Estimates from 2023–2025 show staggering price differences between public and private dental clinics—yet even public-sector fees remain unaffordable for many.
Typical private-sector costs include:
- Tooth extraction: 1.5–2 million tomans
- Single-canal root canal + filling: 3.5–5 million tomans
- PFM crown: 3.5–4.5 million tomans
- Standard dental implant: 16–30+ million tomans
For most families, such expenses are completely out of reach.
Even in the public system, where prices are lower, costs remain prohibitive. The 2025 public tariff for a general dentist examination is reported at only a few thousand tomans, but other services are far more costly. For example:
- Wisdom tooth extraction: ~633,000 tomans
- Scaling & polishing (each jaw): ~1.3 million tomans
Insurance coverage for these procedures is incomplete, and many specialised treatments are either unavailable or heavily restricted in state-run centers.
A National Health Catastrophe in the Making
Financial hardship is now visibly reflected in Iran’s dental health indicators, which experts describe as alarming:
- The average Iranian has six decayed or missing teeth.
- Among seniors over 65: more than 55% are completely toothless, and 90% suffer from decay.
- Adults aged 30–40—those in peak working years—have an average of 12–13 damaged or missing teeth.
- Iranian children are severely affected: the average 5-year-old has five decayed or extracted baby teeth.
The removal of subsidised currency and the implementation of programs like Daroyar have further accelerated the crisis, raising dental-related costs by an estimated 70%.
Forced Extraction: The Last Resort for Millions
Due to the soaring cost of level 2 and 3 treatments—restorations, root canals, crowns, and implants—Iran’s public clinics have become centers primarily for extractions. With limited services and incomplete insurance coverage, people now typically seek help only when extraction is unavoidable.
Health experts warn that extraction statistics are rising rapidly, reflecting a population that cannot afford therapeutic treatment. In many cases, dental issues go untreated until pain becomes unbearable.
A System Designed to Fail the Poor
Iran’s policymakers have largely removed dental care from the category of essential medical services. Through a mix of privatization, mismanagement, and budget cuts, dental treatment has been redefined as a cosmetic or optional service—despite being fundamental to public health.
This policy shift, combined with unregulated fee inflation, has effectively created a two-tier dental system:
- one for the wealthy,
- and one where the poor are left with no option but to lose their teeth.
As experts increasingly warn, this is not merely a dental problem—it is the emergence of a preventable national health crisis, fueled by economic mismanagement and a regime that prioritizes profit and control over public wellbeing.
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