Portobello Dental Clinic
According to our open methodology, this clinic scored 82.8/100 for transparency, reputation, service accessibility, and digital visibility.
Overall rank: #2 of 20 ranked clinics · Last checked: 8 September 2026
82.8/100
39.6 of 100
Visibility in ChatGPT and Gemini answers
How often ChatGPT and Gemini name this clinic when a patient asks them to recommend a dentist. Measured by Ansmeter, 8 October 2026.
Ansmeter is an affiliated service. Its figure is not part of this rating and does not affect positions — scores change only when public data changes.
Positions by Rating Profile
- Overall Transparency & Trust#282.8/100
- Best for Expats#179.3/100
- Best for Dental Implants#380.5/100
- Best for Emergency Dental Care#178.5/100
- Best Price Transparency#190.8/100
- Best English-speaking Clinics#178.8/100
- Best for Families / Children#281.2/100
- Sleep Dentistry (GA / deep sedation)not ranked
General Anaesthesia & Deep Sedation
Whether the clinic documents treatment under general anaesthesia or deep / twilight sedation — "sleep dentistry", where the patient is asleep and unaware (does not feel, see, or hear the procedure). Ordinary conscious sedation, where the patient stays awake and responsive, does not count here. This is informational and does not affect the transparency score.
- ✗ General anaesthesia / deep sedation (sleep dentistry) — No general anaesthesia or deep sedation documented Resolved against the clinic’s own dedicated sedation page (linked from the price page nav): "Conscious Sedation ... you will not be asleep or unconscious and will be able to respond to questions and move", delivered intravenously. Conscious sedation is explicitly excluded by the methodology, and the page names general anaesthetic only as the alternative it is not. Inhalation Sedation (Happy Air) is nitrous oxide and does not qualify either. [s2] [s4]
Summary
Long-established general and cosmetic dental practice in Portobello, Dublin 8, with a five-dentist team and a fully itemised, permanent price list covering exams through implants and orthodontics.
Strengths
- Information Transparency: 20 of 20 points.
- Price Transparency: 15 of 15 points.
- Reputation & Reviews: 18.5 of 20 points.
- No red flags identified in public sources.
Weaknesses
No category fell below the weakness threshold (50% of verifiable points).
Score Breakdown
Every criterion below is scored from public sources. ✓ verified yes · ✗ verified no / not found · ◐ partial · ? unverified (scores 0, not a negative finding).
Information Transparency
20 / 20
Whether basic facts about the clinic - its team, premises, services, and location - are publicly verifiable.
| ✓ | Has a working website Own domain, live 2026-09-07, substantial original content (not a placeholder/parked page). [s1] | 4/4 |
| ✓ | Dentist names listed Dedicated /dentists/ page names five practising dentists individually with photos and bios: Dr Helen Walsh, Dr Nick Beirne, Dr Daniel Browne, Dr Stephen Taylor, Dr Charlotte Kinsella. [s3] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Dentist specializations listed Dr Nick Beirne’s bio states expertise in "implant dentistry, sedation dentistry, cosmetic dentistry and smile design"; Dr Helen Walsh’s bio names an Oral Surgery clinical attachment and a sedation/nervous-patient attachment. [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Real clinic photos Individually captioned headshot photographs of each named dentist, not generic stock imagery. [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Service list published Full navigable treatment menu (general, cosmetic, orthodontics, preventative, dental phobia) plus an itemised price list of ~40 named procedures. [s1] [s2] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Clear contact details Phone 01 454 2022 / +353 1 454 2022 and postal address consistent site-wide and matching the Google Business listing. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | English website version [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Address and map published Street address published in the footer; matches the Google Maps listing exactly (34 S Circular Rd, Portobello, Dublin 8, D08 PHK2). [s1] [gmp1] | 2/2 |
Price Transparency
15 / 15
Whether patients can estimate costs before visiting. Published price ranges count; exact prices are not required.
| ✓ | Prices or price ranges published Permanent, dated price list (/prices-and-offers/) covering dozens of procedures, not a time-limited promotion. [s2] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Cleaning price listed Intensive Hygienist Appointment €95; Hygienist Removal of Sub-Gingival Calculus (Tartar) €142. [s2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Filling price listed Silver amalgam fillings €87–115; White composite fillings €155–212. [s2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Crown price listed All-porcelain cosmetic crown from €1100; tooth-coloured crown, metal inside, from €1000. [s2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Implant price listed Single Straumann implant (including crown, without bone graft) from €2860. [s2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Consultation price listed Comprehensive consultation and examination for existing patients €75; new-patient assessment €55–95. [s2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | X-ray / imaging price listed X-Rays (panoral – full mouth) €85. [s2] | 2/2 |
Reputation & Reviews
18.5 / 20
Public review signals. The Google rating is adjusted with a Bayesian prior (rating 4.0, weight 25) so a 5.0 from a handful of reviews does not outrank a 4.8 from hundreds.
| ✓ | Google rating (Bayesian-adjusted) Read live on the place page in a browser on 2026-09-08. Unchanged from the automated reading of 2026-09-07. The star histogram — 304 five-star, 8 four-star, 0 three-star, 6 two-star and 7 one-star — sums to 325, matching the 325 in the place-page header exactly, and its weighted mean 4.834 reproduces the published 4.8. [gmp1] [gmp2] | 6/6 |
| ◐ | Google review volume Read live on 2026-09-08 from the place-page header, and the star histogram sums to the same figure. The card held 323 and the listing has gained 2 since. [gmp1] [gmp2] | 2.5/3 |
| ✓ | Review recency The newest review visible is 2 months old, which proves the within_3_months bucket and no better. Visible dates: 2 and 3 months, three entries at 4 months and three at 5 months (one edited). Sample: the eight reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order — the "Newest" sort does not open to automation, so a review more recent than the newest one visible may exist. [gmp2] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Clinic responds to reviews The owner answers all eight of the reviews visible on the place page on 2026-09-08. Sample: the eight reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order — the "Newest" sort does not open to automation, so a review more recent than the newest one visible may exist. [gmp2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | No recurring complaints One critical account is readable and it is a four-star rather than a one- or two-star: a patient who went through several months of Invisalign treatment and was «disappointed by the lack of communication and empathy», adding that the practice itself is well run but that the experience with the doctor left her frustrated; the rest is cut off at Google's truncation, which cannot be expanded. The owner has answered it, thanking her for the original and the updated review. No second critical account is readable, so no theme repeats. One- and two-star ratings together are 13 of 325, 4.0 % of the base, well below the 25 % at which the methodology's rule withholds a verdict. Sample: the eight reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order — the "Newest" sort does not open to automation, so a review more recent than the newest one visible may exist. [gmp2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | No suspicious review patterns Judged on the histogram shape, the spread of dates, the variety of reviewers and the wording, on 2026-09-08. The distribution 304/8/0/6/7 keeps a real negative tail under a published 4.8 and is not a wall. Every one of the eight visible reviews falls inside five months, which on a base of 325 is simply where the newest reviews are rather than a burst; the accounts describe different treatments at very different lengths, name four clinicians and their assistants, and the owner answers each individually, several of the replies signed with initials. Nothing suggests solicited or purchased review activity. [gmp2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Active Facebook presence facebook.com/portobellodental linked from the clinic’s own site. [s1] | 1/1 |
| ✗ | TripAdvisor presence No TripAdvisor listing found via its search for "Portobello Dental Clinic Dublin" and "Portobello dental"; the clinic's site does not link to TripAdvisor. [portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence] [portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-2] [portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-3] | 0/0.5 |
| ✗ | Other review platforms No profile found on WhatClinic, Doctify or Trustpilot (checked 2026-10-02). [portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-4] [portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-5] [portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-6] | 0/0.5 |
Medical Infrastructure
11 / 15
The range of publicly documented equipment and services. This measures documented availability, not clinical quality.
| ✓ | On-site X-ray [s2] | 2/2 |
| ? | CBCT (3D imaging) | 0/2 |
| ✓ | Implantology [s1] [s2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Orthodontics Invisalign clear braces service page. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Oral surgery Bone grafting and sinus lifts; surgical extractions from €205. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Pediatric dentistry Dedicated Children’s Dentistry service page and a children’s fee schedule. [s1] [s2] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Emergency care Own-channel promise: "See you in an emergency (even over the weekend for existing patients)." [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ? | Works with international patients | 0/2 |
Communication & Service
6.5 / 10
How easy it is to contact the clinic, get answers, and book - especially for international patients.
| ? | WhatsApp / LINE available | 0/2 |
| ? | Response speed | 0/1.5 |
| ✓ | English spoken [s1] | 2.5/2.5 |
| ✓ | Pre-visit consultation possible Free consultations with a dedicated Treatment Coordinator. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Clear service explanations Own-channel promise of "full treatment explanations and clear, written estimates". [s1] | 1/1 |
| ✓ | Convenient opening hours Confirmed independently on 2026-09-08 against the clinic's own Google Business Profile, which publishes the full week: Monday to Thursday 08:00–20:00, Friday 08:00–17:00, Saturday 08:30–13:30 and Sunday closed. Both halves of the rule this index applies are satisfied — a weekday close at 20:00 and a Saturday morning surgery — so the criterion holds on the clinic's own record as well as on its website. [s1] [gmp2] | 1.5/1.5 |
AI & Search Visibility
3.5 / 10
Whether the clinic is discoverable when patients search - including via AI assistants. Checked with fixed queries: "best dentist Ireland", "English speaking dentist Ireland", "dental implants Ireland", "emergency dentist Ireland", "Ireland dental clinic for expats".
| ✓ | Mentioned for: best dentist Ireland Rank 5 of 7 for "best dentist Dublin Ireland" (AV-2 re-run, 2026-09-07). [av1] | 1/1 |
| ✗ | Mentioned for: English speaking dentist Ireland "English speaking dentist Dublin" checked 2026-09-07: not among the results; ≥3 results in the list clearly target Dublin, Ireland (charlestowndentalcentre.ie, greendental.ie, enhance-dental.ie), so the SERP is not judged off-target for this query. [av2] | 0/1 |
| ✓ | Mentioned for: dental implants Ireland Rank 7 of 8 for "dental implants Dublin Ireland" (AV-2 re-run, 2026-09-07). [av3] | 1/1 |
| ? | Mentioned for: emergency dentist Ireland SERP off-target (namesake towns): "emergency dentist Dublin" checked 2026-09-07 returned 8 results, only 1 (24dentist.ie) targeting Dublin, Ireland — the rest are Dublin, OH/CA/GA (US). Below the ≥3-Irish-result bar, so left null rather than false. [av4] | 0/1 |
| ✗ | Mentioned for: Ireland dental clinic for expats "Dublin dental clinic for expats" checked 2026-09-07: not among the 9 results. [av5] | 0/1 |
| ✗ | Structured data on website Only generic Yoast SEO WebPage/WebSite/BreadcrumbList JSON-LD; no LocalBusiness/Dentist/Organization node with address, phone or geo. [s1] | 0/1.5 |
| ? | Google indexing quality | 0/2 |
| ✓ | Dedicated service pages Individual URLs per treatment, e.g. /dental-treatments/general-dentistry/dental-implants/, /dental-treatments/orthodontics/invisalign-clear-braces/. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
Licensing & Credentials
Whether the clinic publishes its operating licence and the dentists working there together with their professional licence numbers. A verified “not published” is recorded as a red flag; data we have not checked yet is shown as unverified and carries no penalty.
Clinic operating licence: not checked against public sources yet — unverified, no penalty
Dentists & professional licences
| Dentist | Specialization | Licence No. |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Helen Walsh [reg1] | General dentist; Oral Surgery and sedation/nervous-patient postgraduate clinical attachments | IDC 3198 |
| Dr Nick Beirne (registered as Nicholas Beirne) [reg2] | Implant dentistry, sedation dentistry, cosmetic dentistry and smile design | IDC 704 |
| Dr Daniel Browne [reg3] | — | IDC 7219 |
| Dr Stephen Taylor [reg4] [s3] | — | IDC 9020 |
| Dr Charlotte Kinsella [reg5] [s3] | — | IDC 12824 |
Red Flags
No red flags identified in the public sources we reviewed.
Data We Could Not Verify
- Medical Infrastructure: CBCT (3D imaging)
- Medical Infrastructure: Works with international patients
- Communication & Service: WhatsApp / LINE available
- Communication & Service: Response speed
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: emergency dentist Ireland
- AI & Search Visibility: Google indexing quality
Unverified items score 0 points but are not treated as negative findings. If you can document any of them, please send a correction.
Contact Information
| Website | https://www.portobellodental.ie/ |
|---|---|
| Phone | +353 1 454 2022 |
| https://www.facebook.com/portobellodental | |
| Google Maps | Map listing |
| Address | 34 South Circular Road, Portobello, Dublin 8, D08 PHK2, Ireland |
Contact details are provided for identification only and may change; verify with the clinic directly.
Sources
| ID | Source | What it supports | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| s1 | https://www.portobellodental.ie/ | Clinic homepage: services, contacts, team summary, social links, "See you in an emergency" promise | 2026-09-07 |
| s2 | https://www.portobellodental.ie/prices-and-offers/ | Permanent itemised price list | 2026-09-07 |
| s3 | https://www.portobellodental.ie/dentists/ | Own-site dentists roster page (not previously fetched) names this dentist: "Dr Stephen Taylor", with a bio stating he joined the Portobello Dental team in February 2023 (read 2026-09-10). | 2026-09-10 |
| gmp1 | https://www.google.com/search?tbm=map&q=Portobello%20Dental%2C%20Du… | Google Maps automated lookup: rating, geo, address, phone, website (not review count/histogram — browser-only per brief) | 2026-09-07 |
| reg0 | https://www.hiqa.ie/find-a-centre | Confirms Ireland has no institutional/facility register covering private dental practices | 2026-09-07 |
| reg1 | https://www.dentalcouncil.ie/dentists?keyword_filter=Walsh | Dental Council Register of Dentists entry for Helen Walsh | 2026-09-07 |
| reg2 | https://www.dentalcouncil.ie/dentists?keyword_filter=Beirne | Dental Council Register of Dentists entry for Nicholas Beirne | 2026-09-07 |
| reg3 | https://www.dentalcouncil.ie/dentists?keyword_filter=Browne | Dental Council Register of Dentists entry for Daniel Browne | 2026-09-07 |
| reg4 | https://www.dentalcouncil.ie/dentists?keyword_filter=Taylor | Dental Council Register of Dentists entry for Stephen Taylor | 2026-09-07 |
| reg5 | https://www.dentalcouncil.ie/dentists?keyword_filter=Kinsella | Dental Council Register of Dentists entry for Charlotte Kinsella | 2026-09-07 |
| av1 | search:best dentist Dublin Ireland | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-07 |
| av2 | search:English speaking dentist Dublin | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-07 |
| av3 | search:dental implants Dublin Ireland | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-07 |
| av4 | search:emergency dentist Dublin | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-07 |
| av5 | search:Dublin dental clinic for expats | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-07 |
| s4 | https://www.portobellodental.ie/dental-treatments/dental-phobia/sed… | Clinic’s own Conscious Sedation service page (linked from the site nav): defines the level of consciousness offered | 2026-09-07 |
| gmp2 | https://www.google.com/maps/place/x/@53.3325472,-6.2705625,17z/data… | The clinic’s Google Maps place page, opened in a real browser on 2026-09-08. The Reviews tab (this URL) gives the headline rating, the review-count header, the five star-histogram buckets read whole from their accessibility labels, and the eight most-relevant reviews with their star values, dates, text and owner replies; the sibling Overview URL https://www.google.com/maps/place/x/@53.3325472,-6.2705625,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x48670c1f16103699:0x57f84adf2474eba!8m2!3d53.3325472!4d-6.2705625?hl=en gives the listing name, address, telephone, website, business category, the published opening week and the lead owner photograph. The listing opens as «Portobello Dental Clinic», category Dental clinic, at 34 South Circular Road, Portobello, Dublin 8, D08 PHK2, telephone +353 1 454 2022, website portobellodental.ie — the identifiers the card itself carries, so the place identifier resolves to this practice and not to a neighbour. | 2026-09-08 |
| portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence | https://www.tripadvisor.com/TypeAheadJson?action=API&query=Portobel… | TripAdvisor's own search for "Portobello Dental Clinic Dublin", run 2026-10-02, returns 12 results, none of them this clinic (e.g. Viet Han Dental Clinic, Nha Trang; Symmetry Dental and Aesthetics Clinics, Cancun; CM Liria Dental Clinic, San Jose del Monte) | 2026-10-02 |
| portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-2 | https://www.tripadvisor.com/TypeAheadJson?action=API&query=Portobel… | TripAdvisor's own search for "Portobello dental", run 2026-10-02, returns 12 results, none of them this clinic (e.g. Portobello Road Market, London; Portobello Beach, Edinburgh; Portobello Swim Centre, Edinburgh) | 2026-10-02 |
| portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-3 | https://www.portobellodental.ie/ | Clinic's website (home and contact pages) read 2026-10-02: no link to TripAdvisor | 2026-10-02 |
| portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-4 | https://www.whatclinic.com/dentists/ireland/county-dublin | WhatClinic: its County Dublin dentist listing read page by page (15 pages, 175 of the 183 clinics it declares), checked against its profile sitemaps (224 County Dublin profiles; the 49 not shown in the listing opened, none of them this practice or at its address) and the profile addresses built from the clinic's name ("portobello-dental-clinic" and "portobello-dental" do not exist); no profile of the practice (checked 2026-10-02) | 2026-10-02 |
| portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-5 | https://www.doctify.com/sitemap.ie.practices.xml | Doctify: none of the 2,012 Irish practice profiles in its practice sitemap is this practice, by name or address (checked 2026-10-02) | 2026-10-02 |
| portobello-dental-clinic-dublin-presence-6 | https://www.trustpilot.com/review/portobellodental.ie | Trustpilot: no page for portobellodental.ie (checked 2026-10-02) | 2026-10-02 |
Change History
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-02 | Presence on review platforms checked 2026-10-02: no TripAdvisor listing; no profile on WhatClinic, Doctify or Trustpilot. |
| 2026-09-10 | Name-verification write-back 2026-09-10: 2 dentists confirmed via the clinic's own dentists roster page https://www.portobellodental.ie/dentists/ (not previously fetched -- earlier attempts reached only the home page and treatment subpages); sources added. |
| 2026-09-08 | Checked by hand in a browser: the clinic’s Google Maps place page was opened in a real browser and read on both its Reviews and Overview tabs. Recorded from it: the rating re-verified against the star histogram, the review count, the histogram itself (304/8/0/6/7 = 325, weighted mean 4.834), review recency, the owner-reply state, the complaint reading and the manipulation reading from the eight most-relevant reviews and the full published opening week. Fields this pass did not measure are untouched. |
| 2026-09-07 | Adversarial verification: googleReviewCount read live (323); offersSedation resolved null → false against the clinic’s own Conscious Sedation page (added as s4); Google rating 4.8, geo and place id re-read live and confirmed unchanged; all five registered dentists re-checked against a full download of the Register of Dentists (4,003 rows) and confirmed. |
| 2026-09-07 | Initial data collection: clinic website (home, price list, dentists page), Dental Council of Ireland Register of Dentists (five named dentists, all found), Google Maps automated lookup for rating/geo/address/phone, AI-visibility pass canonical-query file. |
A question or a correction?
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