Why there is no fixed price
In countries with a national price list, the answer to “what does it cost?” is a number. In Germany, private dental services are priced through a fee schedule — the GOZ for dental services and the GOÄ for medical ones — and the schedule works differently from a price list.
Each service has an item number and a base value. The practice then applies a multiplier within a legally defined range, depending on how demanding the individual case is. A straightforward examination sits at the standard rate; genuine additional difficulty can justify a higher one, and the reason has to be stated on the invoice.
For a 3D scan there is a wrinkle worth knowing, because it explains the item numbers you will see on the invoice. The GOZ contains no item for a DVT at all, so the examination is billed through section O of the medical schedule, the GOÄ: the exposure as GOÄ 5370 and the three-dimensional analysis of the data set as GOÄ 5377, the latter only at the single (1.0) rate. In section O of the GOÄ the permitted multiplier runs from 1.0 to 2.5, and 1.8 counts as the average case — a figure frequently confused with the 2.3 that applies within the GOZ, which is a different schedule with a different range (1.0 to 3.5). Anything above 1.8 has to be justified in writing on your invoice for the specific service. Taking the scan at all requires a separate radiation-protection qualification for cone-beam imaging (Fachkunde), which is a legal condition rather than a selling point.
Three consequences follow, and they explain most of the confusion online.
Two invoices for the same examination can both be correct. A range of prices is built into the system, not a sign that someone is overcharging.
A price only means something with its item list attached. A “from” figure in an advertisement tells you nothing until you know whether the assessment of the images sits inside it.
You are entitled to know in advance. Because this is a private service, you should receive a written agreement with the expected cost before the appointment, and you may take it away and think about it.
Field of view
Effort of the analysis
Billing multiplier
What the figure usually covers — and what it might not
The examination is not a single act. It is worth knowing which parts are typically inside the price you are quoted.
| Step | Usually included | Worth asking |
|---|---|---|
| Positioning and the exposure itself | Yes | — |
| Reconstruction of the data set | Yes | — |
| Assessment of the whole volume by the dentist | Often, but not always | “Is the reading of the images included?” |
| Explaining the images to you on screen | Normally part of the consultation | — |
| Storage of the data in your file | Yes, this is a legal duty | — |
| A copy of your data on request | Records belong to your file; a handling fee may apply | “How do I get the DICOM data?” |
| Digital implant planning on the data set | No — a separate service | “Is planning quoted separately?” |
| A surgical guide produced from the scan | No — a separate service | “What does the guide cost?” |
The last two rows are where comparisons between practices most often go wrong. A low imaging price next to a high planning fee can easily come to more than a higher imaging price with planning included. Ask for the whole diagnostic and planning block in writing, then compare the totals.
What we charge, and why we publish it
Our price for a 3D scan is 178 €. It is on this page for the same reason it is said aloud in the treatment room: people are entitled to know what something costs before they agree to it, and a figure you only discover on the invoice is not a figure you agreed to. What the examination itself involves is set out on the 3D X-ray (DVT) – service page (EN).
Two things sit around that number. The first consultation is free, so the conversation about whether you need a scan at all costs you nothing — and it does sometimes end with “not needed”. And instalment payment (Ratenzahlung) is possible, subject to a credit decision, which matters more for a full treatment plan than for the imaging alone.
If you are weighing up an implant, the surgical part with us starts at 999 € for the implant itself, and the imaging is a separate item — the two are not bundled into one opaque figure.
Why the same scan costs different amounts elsewhere
Five factors explain nearly all of the variation, and none of them implies anyone is doing anything wrong.
The multiplier applied. The fee schedule allows a range, and a case with genuine additional difficulty may justify more than the standard rate.
Whether the assessment is billed separately. Some practices quote the exposure and the reading as one figure, some as two.
Whether the practice owns the device. Not every dental practice has a scanner. If you are referred to a radiology or maxillofacial practice, you attend a second appointment and receive a second, separate invoice — and your dentist then works from the images. That route is entirely normal; just budget for a separate bill and an extra journey across Wuppertal or into Düsseldorf.
What the scan is for. A scan taken purely for diagnosis and one taken as the basis of a guided implant plan may sit in different item combinations.
Region and practice structure. Costs differ between city centres and smaller towns, as they do in every service.
None of this makes the cheapest quote the wrong one or the dearest the best. It makes the itemised list the thing worth reading.
Where the imaging sits in the cost of the whole treatment
Most patients meet this examination inside a larger plan, and it helps to see the proportions. The following are general market ranges in Germany, not our prices:
- An implant with a crown, everything included: roughly 2,100–4,000 €
- of which diagnostics account for roughly 100–350 €
- the surgical stage (implant and operation) roughly 1,000–2,000 €
- the crown on the implant roughly 800–2,000 €
- A bone graft (Knochenaufbau), where one is needed: 500–2,500 €
So the imaging is typically a single-digit percentage of an implant treatment. That is worth holding on to when the 178 € feels like the moment to economise: the decisions the scan informs — how deep an implant can safely go, whether a wisdom tooth root is wrapped around the nerve canal — are considerably more expensive to get wrong than to plan properly.
Where a treatment can be planned perfectly well without a 3D scan, it should be, and you should be told so. The point is not that more imaging is better. It is that the imaging is rarely the line worth cutting.
national guide values, not our practice pricesOur fixed price: €178 (our own machine in-house)
How not to pay for the same picture twice
Bring what you already have. A usable 3D data set or recent panoramic image from a previous practice — in NRW, elsewhere in Germany, or from abroad — can make a new scan unnecessary. Ask for the DICOM files, not a printout; only data can be reassessed and measured.
Ask before a repeat. If a scan was taken a few months ago and nothing has changed clinically, ask what a new one would add.
Ask whether the scan will be reused. In a well-organised plan, one data set serves the diagnosis, the implant planning and the surgical guide.
For a second opinion, take the data with you. Another practice can assess the same volume without repeating the exposure, which saves both a fee and a dose of radiation.
Ask whether a flat image would answer the question. Sometimes it will. Where the honest answer is that it will not, you at least know what you are paying for. The comparison is set out in 3D X-ray or a normal dental X-ray — which do you need?.
Who ends up paying
In short: statutory insurance (gesetzliche Krankenversicherung, GKV) does not cover a dental 3D scan for most indications, so it is a private service you pay for yourself, with a written agreement signed in advance. Private insurers (PKV) and supplementary dental policies (Zahnzusatzversicherung) frequently do reimburse a medically indicated scan, at anything from a tariff-dependent share depending on tariff, but you should ask them in writing before the appointment rather than afterwards.
The mechanics of all of that — the paperwork, the exceptions, how to ask your fund so the answer is usable — are covered in Does German health insurance pay for a 3D X-ray (DVT)?.
What to check before you agree — and on the invoice afterwards
If something on the invoice does not match what you agreed, ask the practice first. Most discrepancies are administrative, and a phone call resolves them faster than a complaint.
What is normal — and when to ask questions
Saying “please put that in writing and I will decide this week” is entirely reasonable, and no reputable practice will take it badly.
If the cost is the deciding factor
Ask what happens without the scan. Not as a challenge — as a genuine question. Sometimes the answer is that treatment can proceed with a flat image and slightly more caution. Sometimes it is that a specific step cannot be planned safely, and then you are deciding between imaging and a different treatment, not between imaging and nothing.
Do not assume a smaller scan is cheaper. A limited field means less radiation, which is reason enough to prefer it — but the price often reflects the examination rather than the volume. Ask.
Ask about paying in instalments for the treatment as a whole rather than for the scan alone.
Keep every invoice. Whether medical expenses can be set against your German income tax as an exceptional burden (außergewöhnliche Belastungen) depends on your income and total medical spending, and that is a question for a tax adviser — but only if you still have the paperwork.
If your German is limited, ask for the estimate in writing and go through it slowly. We work in English every day, alongside German, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Kurdish and French, and money conversations are exactly the ones worth having in a language you are comfortable in: English-Speaking Dentist in NRW.
Because there is no standard price. Private dental services are billed through a fee schedule with item numbers and a permitted range of multipliers, so the final figure depends on the case and on what the practice includes in the quote. This is also why an itemised written estimate is worth more than any number you find online.
That is what a 3D scan costs with us, quoted before it is taken. Wherever you have it done, ask for the figure as a total for the examination, in writing — a “from” price is not something you can plan with.
Possibly, and possibly not: it means a separate appointment and a separate invoice, and your dentist then works from images taken elsewhere. If you are referred, ask both sides what their part will cost before you book anything.
Yes — you are paying for the examination and the assessment, not for a particular result. A scan that rules something out has done its job. This is why the decision beforehand matters, and why our first consultation is free.
Often yes, if it is recent enough, covers the right region and comes as DICOM data rather than as printed images. Bring it to the first appointment; if it is usable, you save the exposure as well as the fee.
Your records belong to your file and you can request copies of the data; a handling fee is possible depending on the format. Ask at reception so it can be prepared rather than improvised at the desk.
A dental 3D scan has no national fixed price, and comparing bare figures between practices tells you very little. What tells you something is the itemised list: whether the assessment is included, whether planning and a surgical guide are extra, and whether the scan is taken in-house or somewhere that will send its own invoice. Within a larger treatment the imaging is a small share of the total — and the cheapest imaging decision available to anyone is not to repeat a picture that already exists. Ask for the total in writing, keep the paperwork for your insurer, and decide without being hurried.
Zahnarztpraxis Tsypin · Wuppertal. This article was medically reviewed and is provided for information; it does not replace an examination. Updated August 2026.
