Method
Where the numbers come from, and how they are scored
Every figure on TODAY DENTAL comes from public records. We do not visit clinics to assess them, and we do not accept material from them. 98 areas are covered so far, collected between 2026-09-07 and 2026-09-27.
Sources
What each source provides
Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA)
What we take — Specialist counts by field, registered cone-beam CT units, opening date, facility category
We query Korea's public data portal by institution identifier (ykiho) for each clinic's basic record and its specialists by field. Cone-beam CT counts come from HIRA's annual medical equipment file, and the edition in use is as of 31 December 2025; clinics that opened after that date, or are absent from the file, are checked individually against the live API instead. These are values the clinic filed, so they can differ from who is on duty or which machines are actually in use, and equipment added after the file's cut-off may not appear yet.
Naver Place
What we take — Visitor review count, blog and cafe post count
Visitor reviews and blog posts are different things and we never merge them. A visitor review is written by someone whose visit was recorded; blog posts can be promotional. Only visitor reviews feed the score.
Google Maps
What we take — Star rating and rating count, shown where verified
A star rating swings wildly on a handful of ratings, so we always print the rating count next to it. Google ratings are shown for reference only and never enter the score — that way the ranking will not shift when more ratings are collected later.
HIRA non-covered fee disclosure
What we take — Declared fees for implants (per tooth) and crowns — lowest, median and highest
We pull the whole disclosure dataset from the public data portal for facility class 41 (dental hospitals) and match it to a clinic by its institution id (ykiho). Far more listings are blank than not — not because we skipped them, but because the disclosure holds dental hospitals only and returns nothing at all for dental clinics, which is what most listings here are. Orthodontics has no declared item whatsoever, so no fee appears on any orthodontic page. Every amount is declared by the clinic itself for public disclosure, can differ from what you are billed, and never enters the score.
Google star ratings and rating counts were collected from Google Maps between 2026-08-07 and 2026-09-04, and are confirmed for 919 of the clinics compared here. A clinic without one has not been collected yet — it does not mean there is no rating — so the cell and the card are simply left blank. In neither case does the rating enter the score.
Formula
The scoring method in full
Common to all three treatments (14 points)
- Years open — 1 point at 4 years, 2 at 7, 3 at 10, 4 at 15, 5 at 20, 6 at 25 or more
- Review sample — Naver visitor reviews: 1 point at 100, 2 at 150, 3 at 200, 4 at 300, 5 at 500, 6 at 750 or more
- Online information — 1 point for a clinic website, 2 if that website carries treatment or equipment information we could confirm
Implants (remaining 6 points)
- Cone-beam CT — 2 points for one unit, 4 for two or more
- Relevant fields — 1 point for a registered oral and maxillofacial surgeon, 1 for a registered prosthodontist
Orthodontics (remaining 6 points)
- Registered orthodontists — 2 points each, up to 4
- Cone-beam CT — 2 points for one unit or more (orthodontics uses CT only occasionally, so it counts for half of the implant maximum)
Crowns & prosthodontics (remaining 6 points)
- Registered prosthodontists — 2 points each, up to 4
- Dentists — 1 point for two, 2 for three or more
- Cone-beam CT is not counted here. What separates prosthodontic work is intraoral scanners and CAD/CAM, and HIRA's equipment register lists only CT, so public records cannot show them.
Years open and visitor reviews carry the most weight for a reason. The previous method leaned on specialist counts and CT units, but of the 4,944 clinics compared only 11% had a specialist in the relevant field and 83% had exactly one CT unit, so half of all ranking positions ended in ties. A column that is the same for most clinics cannot put them in order. Years open and visitor reviews spread evenly across clinics, so they became the main axes. Online information is a bonus, not a penalty — a clinic whose website we could not find is not pushed down for it. Ties break on online information, then visitor reviews, then total specialists, then the earlier opening date. Every sub-score is printed in the comparison table on each area page, so anyone can recalculate it — and a pre-publication check blocks release if the printed score and a fresh recalculation disagree.
Limits
What this data cannot tell you
Implant brands, the extra cost of a bone graft, which dentist performs your surgery, warranty length and aftercare terms appear in no public record. Those belong in a consultation, in writing. A registered specialist means that specialist is affiliated with the clinic — not that they will be the one treating you.
Figures are as of the collection date. A clinic that changes its filing will differ from what is shown here, so call before you visit. If you find something that does not match, we will re-check the original source and update.
Can a clinic pay to move up?
No. The order follows the scoring method above and nothing else. No clinic is moved up or down by hand, and we have no partnership with any clinic.
Read the operating principles and how corrections work →Go to the area comparison pages →