TRICARE Dental in 2026: What the TDP Costs Each Month, What You Pay at the Chair, and the FEDVIP Choice Retirees Make by December 14

An active duty family of two or more enrollees with an E-5 or above sponsor pays $30.47 a month for the TRICARE Dental Program, $365.64 over a year, at the rates in force from March 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027. A single enrollee under an E-4 sponsor pays $8.79. The program is voluntary, it is administered by United Concordia, and it is the only piece of TRICARE most families see as a line on the LES. Retirees are not in it at all: their dental coverage is the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, chosen in the open season that runs November 9 through December 14, 2026, a week longer than the TRICARE medical open season that closes December 8.

Who the TDP is for, and who it is not

The TDP covers family members of active duty service members and of National Guard and Reserve members, and it covers Guard and Reserve members themselves when they are not on active duty and not in the Transitional Assistance Management Program. Active duty members do not enroll: they use the Active Duty Dental Program, which charges no out-of-pocket cost for covered services, and a Guard or Reserve member on orders for more than 30 days, or covered by TAMP, gets those active duty dental benefits for the period. Enrollment is online through milConnect, by phone or by mail with the first premium. A form received by the 20th starts coverage on the first day of the next month; one received after the 20th starts it a month later. The minimum enrollment is 12 months, the sponsor must have 12 months left on the service commitment, and after the first year coverage runs month to month.

The monthly premiums, and what a year costs

The premium depends on who the sponsor is and, for active duty and Selected Reserve sponsors, on pay grade: E-4 and below pay less than E-5 and above. The twelve-month column is the published monthly rate multiplied by twelve.

Two things follow from the table. The sponsor's pay grade sets the family's premium, so a promotion from E-4 to E-5 raises a family enrollment from $22.85 to $30.47 a month, $91.44 a year. And the Selected Reserve rates are the ones to read carefully: a sponsor-only enrollment costs the same as an active duty single enrollee, but a Reserve family pays $76.18 and a sponsor plus family $87.90 at E-5 and above, because the Government subsidy is smaller outside active duty. The military pay calculator shows where a premium like this lands against a month of take-home pay, and the LES auditor is the place to confirm the deduction matches the table.

What you pay at the chair

Premiums buy a share of each service, not the service. Diagnostic and preventive care, including sealants, costs nothing. Consultations, post-surgical services and basic restorative work (fillings) carry a 20 percent cost-share. Endodontics (root canals), periodontics and oral surgery are 30 percent for an E-1 to E-4 sponsor and 40 percent for E-5 and above. General anesthesia is 40 percent, intravenous sedation 50 percent, and crowns, implants, prosthodontics (bridges and dentures) and orthodontics are 50 percent for everyone. Command-sponsored family members overseas pay nothing in every category except the 50 percent ones; that overseas column does not apply to Selected Reserve or IRR families, who pay the stateside shares.

The plan pays up to $1,500.00 per enrollee per contract year for non-orthodontic care and $1,200.00 per enrollee per year for dental accident care. Orthodontics has a lifetime maximum of $1,750.00 per enrollee, with orthodontic diagnostic services counting against the annual maximum instead. Orthodontic coverage reaches children to age 21, or 23 as students, spouses to 23, and Guard and Reserve sponsors to 23.

Retirees: FEDVIP, and a window that closes December 14

Retired members and their families may be eligible for FEDVIP dental, the program the Office of Personnel Management runs for federal employees; a surviving spouse who loses TDP eligibility becomes eligible for FEDVIP as well. Enrollment, changes and cancellations happen during the Federal Benefits Open Season or after a FEDVIP qualifying life event, and tricare.mil notes that FEDVIP life events differ from TRICARE ones. For 2027 coverage the season is November 9 through December 14, 2026, with FEDVIP and FSAFEDS closing at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on December 14. The TRICARE 2027 costs guide covers the medical side, whose season ends December 8.

OPM has published the 2027 dental premium workbook: 21 plan options from 12 carriers, priced by rating region. Across every option and region, a Self Only enrollment runs from $13.02 (Triple-S Salud, Puerto Rico only) to $74.71 (EmblemHealth, a single region) a month, and Self and Family from $34.00 to $223.97. The seven carriers that price in six nationwide regions show the spread a retiree actually chooses from; their Standard options are below, and their High options run roughly $39.50 to $72.41 for Self Only.

The right comparison is not the premium alone. A FEDVIP plan pays a percentage of its negotiated fee schedule with its own annual maximum, so a retiree expecting a crown or an implant in 2027 should price the High option against the Standard one on that procedure, in their rating region, on BENEFEDS before December 14.

What to do with this

1. 1Active duty families: check the SGLI-style line on the LES against the table; a premium that does not match your sponsor's grade and your enrollee count is a milConnect record to fix.
2. 2Promoting to E-5 or above: expect the family premium to move from $22.85 to $30.47 the month the grade changes.
3. 3Guard and Reserve: enroll yourself only when you are off orders; on orders over 30 days you have active duty dental at no cost.
4. 4Retiring in the next year: TDP ends with active status; plan the FEDVIP enrollment for the open season or the retirement life event, and compare plans in your rating region.
5. 5Retirees: the 2027 window is November 9 to December 14, 2026; do nothing and your 2026 FEDVIP plan continues at the 2027 rate.

Figures are the published 2026 TDP rates and the 2027 FEDVIP rates as posted by OPM; confirm your own premium on milConnect or BENEFEDS before you budget.