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Months after baring their teeth in a dispute over dental fees, Alberta’s health minister and the group that represents the province’s 2,600 dentists were all smiles Wednesday after reaching an agreement to lower prices.

Health Minister Sarah Hoffman announced the two sides settled on a newly revised dental fee guide touted to make cleanings, fillings and other procedures more affordable.

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“Alberta was an outlier in Canada in terms of not having a fee guide and an outlier in terms of average costs, and we are no longer an outlier,” she told a news conference.

The fees listed in the new guide are recommendations only, and dentists are still free to set their own rates.

The guide calls for an 8.5 per cent reduction in prices for 60 common dental services. That’s nearly triple the three per cent drop the Alberta Dental Association and College called for when it initially published the fee guide in August.