How TrustDento's Verification and Trust Score Work

TrustDento shows several separate signals on a profile: a “Verified” badge, a Trust Score out of 10, patient reviews, and (for paying members) a “Premium Member” label. They measure different things, and it helps to know what each one does and does not mean before you rely on it.

What “Verified” checks

When a dentist or clinic signs up, a member of the TrustDento team reviews the details they submit — degree (BDS/MDS), State Dental Council registration number, and clinic details where applicable — against what is shown on the public profile. The registration number is displayed in a masked form for privacy. Only after that review is the Verified badge shown, and the profile records the date of the review when one was logged.

Profiles without the badge are not verified. Some listings are created by TrustDento from public information so that patients can find local clinics; these are marked as unclaimed and have no badge until the practitioner claims the profile and completes review. Verification confirms identity and registration details. It is not an assessment of clinical quality, and you should still confirm a dentist’s registration with the State Dental Council before treatment.

Where reviews come from

A patient can only leave a review for a dentist they have booked through TrustDento, once that booking has been accepted or completed by the clinic — there is no open “rate any dentist” form. Each patient can hold one review per dentist. Reviews go through a moderation check before they are published, and only published reviews count toward the Trust Score or appear on the profile.

How the Trust Score is calculated

The Trust Score is calculated only from published, booking-verified patient ratings. It is not a simple star average: it blends a dentist’s real ratings with a neutral starting assumption that is gradually replaced as more genuine reviews come in, so a single very positive or very negative rating on a new profile does not swing the score to an extreme. A dentist with no published reviews is shown as “New on TrustDento” rather than given an artificial score. Qualifications, experience and payment are not inputs to the score.

Paid placement: how listings are ordered

TrustDento is a paid directory. Dentists and clinics with an active annual membership are listed ahead of non-members on city, area and treatment pages, and are labelled “Premium Member”. Everyone else follows, ordered by Trust Score. This means the first result on a page may be there because of membership rather than a higher rating, so compare Trust Scores and read the reviews rather than relying on list position. Membership does not change a Trust Score, does not buy a Verified badge and does not remove or hide a review.

What can lower a Trust Score

Only published, booking-verified reviews feed the score. There is no separate penalty system, no way for a clinic to pay to remove a genuine low rating, and no mechanism to raise a score other than earning better reviews from real patients.

Frequently asked questions

Can a dentist or clinic remove a bad review? Not by request or payment. A published review from a verified booking stays on the profile. If you believe a review is fake, abusive or defamatory, report it through our Grievance Redressal process and it will be investigated.

Why does a highly-rated dentist sometimes have a lower Trust Score than expected? The score reflects how many reviews back it up, not just the average — a 5.0 average from 2 reviews and a 4.6 average from 200 reviews are different levels of certainty.

Is a high Trust Score a medical endorsement? No. It summarises patient experience on the platform. It is not a clinical rating.

See our guide to choosing a dentist for how to use these signals together, and our Editorial Policy for how TrustDento produces its content.