Newtown Dental
According to our open methodology, this clinic scored 76.1/100 for transparency, reputation, service accessibility, and digital visibility.
Overall rank: #7 of 21 ranked clinics · Last checked: 10 September 2026
Positions by Rating Profile
- Overall Transparency & Trust#776.1/100
- Best for Expats#571.5/100
- Best for Dental Implants#674.8/100
- Best for Emergency Dental Care#669.7/100
- Best Price Transparency#779.8/100
- Best English-speaking Clinics#670.5/100
- Best for Families / Children#671.4/100
- 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 Own FAQ: “Will I be totally asleep? No, IV sedation is ‘conscious sedation.’ You will be in a state of deep relaxation and may drift off to sleep, but you will not be [unconscious]” — explicitly not the deep/GA sedation the methodology counts. [s4]
Summary
Newtown, Wellington family and emergency practice open 8:00am–8:30pm seven days, with six named dentists, a published itemised price list (checkups through implants), a seven-language team page, and an own-channel FAQ explaining that its IV sedation is conscious, not general anaesthesia.
Strengths
- Information Transparency: 18 of 20 points.
- Price Transparency: 13 of 15 points.
- AI & Search Visibility: 8 of 10 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
Whether basic facts about the clinic - its team, premises, services, and location - are publicly verifiable.
| ✓ | Has a working website [s1] | 4/4 |
| ✓ | Dentist names listed About Us page names six dentists — Dr Rafid Salih (Ray), Dr Graham Symes, Dr Varsha Jeyaprakash, Dr Lakshmi Petikam, Dr Minh Ton, Dr David Wang — and two oral health therapists, each with a photo and bio. The first pass recorded null because it never opened /about-us/. [s5] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Dentist specializations listed Each bio states qualifications and interest: e.g. Dr Graham Symes “BDS, MDS, FRACDS … a particular interest in oral surgery”; Dr Varsha Jeyaprakash “MDent Aesthetics (Otago)”; Dr Rafid Salih “PGDipClinDent (Otago)”. [s5] | 2/2 |
| ? | Real clinic photos | 0/2 |
| ✓ | Service list published Full services nav: general dentistry, checkups, fillings, root canal, teeth cleaning, night guards, gum disease, cosmetic dentistry, smile makeover, whitening, veneers, restorative dentistry, implants, crowns, bridges, dentures, oral surgery, wisdom teeth, IV sedation, SureSmile orthodontics. [s1] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Clear contact details [s1] [gmp1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | English website version [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Address and map published [s1] [gmp1] | 2/2 |
Price Transparency
Whether patients can estimate costs before visiting. Published price ranges count; exact prices are not required.
| ✓ | Prices or price ranges published Permanent “Dental Prices Wellington” page, itemised across nine services. [s3] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Cleaning price listed Professional Dental Hygiene Clean from $120. [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Filling price listed White Composite Fillings from $150 to $350. [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Crown price listed Same-Day Ceramic Crown from $1,400. [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Implant price listed Dental Implants from $4,500. [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Consultation price listed New Patient / Routine Checkup Package $100. [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✗ | X-ray / imaging price listed Checked: no x-ray price is itemised separately from the $100 checkup package. [s3] | 0/2 |
Reputation & Reviews
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) Automated Google Maps place lookup, re-read today; star histogram 1★ 32 / 2★ 7 / 3★ 4 / 4★ 10 / 5★ 437 = 490 reviews. [gmp1] [gmp2] | 5/6 |
| ◐ | Google review volume [gmp1] | 2.5/3 |
| ✓ | Review recency Newest review rendered on the place page is a month old. Only star-rated first-person reviews were counted: owner replies and Google Business Posts render in the same record with their own age stamp and were excluded. [gmp2] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Clinic responds to reviews Seven of the seven star-rated reviews rendered on the clinic’s Google place page carry a dated owner response (owner replies and Business Posts excluded from the denominator). [gmp2] | 2/2 |
| ? | No recurring complaints | 0/2 |
| ? | No suspicious review patterns | 0/2 |
| ✓ | Active Facebook presence The clinic's own Facebook page (Level 1, 100 Riddiford Street, with the clinic's phone, e-mail and website) is active: latest post 2025-12-24 (checked 2026-10-05). [newtown-dental-wellington-fb] | 1/1 |
| ? | TripAdvisor presence | 0/0.5 |
| ✗ | Other review platforms No profile found on WhatClinic, Dental Departures, Bookimed, Trustpilot or RateMDs (checked 2026-10-02). [newtown-dental-wellington-oop] [newtown-dental-wellington-oop-2] [newtown-dental-wellington-oop-3] [newtown-dental-wellington-oop-4] [newtown-dental-wellington-oop-5] | 0/0.5 |
Medical Infrastructure
The range of publicly documented equipment and services. This measures documented availability, not clinical quality.
| ? | On-site X-ray | 0/2 |
| ? | CBCT (3D imaging) | 0/2 |
| ✓ | Implantology [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Orthodontics SureSmile Clear Aligners service. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Oral surgery Oral surgery and wisdom teeth removal service pages. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Pediatric dentistry Services nav: “Kids Dentistry (Free Under 18)” under Specialised Care. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Emergency care Site tagline “Family & Emergency Dentist in Wellington”; also independently named as Wellington’s emergency provider on emergencydentists.nz. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Works with international patients Dedicated Multilingual Dental Team page: “Languages spoken in clinic — English, Arabic, Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi dialects, Samoan, Vietnamese”, plus a written policy on interpreters and printed take-away information for consent. [s6] | 2/2 |
Communication & Service
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 | 0/1.5 |
| ✓ | Clear service explanations Own IV-sedation page carries a plain-language FAQ (“What is IV Sedation?”, “Is it safe?”, “Will I be totally asleep?”, “Can I drive home after?”). [s4] | 1/1 |
| ✓ | Convenient opening hours The clinic’s own About Us and Multilingual pages both state “Monday – Sunday: 8:00am – 8:30pm” and “We are open seven days … early morning and late evening appointments”. The earlier “Monday 8am–5pm, Saturday closed” was a mis-read of the automated Maps record and is refuted by the clinic’s own channel. [s5] [s6] | 1.5/1.5 |
AI & Search Visibility
Whether the clinic is discoverable when patients search - including via AI assistants. Checked with fixed queries: "best dentist New Zealand", "English speaking dentist New Zealand", "dental implants New Zealand", "emergency dentist New Zealand", "New Zealand dental clinic for expats".
| ✓ | Mentioned for: best dentist New Zealand Named #5 in 10best.co.nz’s “9 Best Dentists in Wellington” listicle for “best dentist Wellington New Zealand”. [av1] | 1/1 |
| ✓ | Mentioned for: English speaking dentist New Zealand Own domain ranks #4 for “English speaking dentist Wellington” (result “Newtown Dental | Family & Emergency Dentist in Wellington”). [av2] | 1/1 |
| ? | Mentioned for: dental implants New Zealand SERP off-target: all 10 results for “dental implants Wellington” are Wellington, FL/CO namesake clinics. [av3] | 0/1 |
| ✓ | Mentioned for: emergency dentist New Zealand Ranked #10, emergencydentists.nz: “Newtown Dental’s emergency team provides fast, reliable 24/7 urgent dental care in Wellington” — the only NZ-Wellington result in this SERP. [av4] | 1/1 |
| ? | Mentioned for: New Zealand dental clinic for expats No individual Wellington, NZ clinic appears in the SERP for this query. [av5] | 0/1 |
| ✓ | Structured data on website FAQPage JSON-LD schema found on the IV-sedation page. [s4] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Google indexing quality [av2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Dedicated service pages [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
Ranking leaders in AI answers
The queries above are this index's own check. The three leading clinics have also been measured in full: how often ChatGPT and Gemini name them when a patient asks them to recommend a dentist.
- #1Wellington Dentists50.4 of 100View report →
- #2Greenhithe Dental Boutique19.1 of 100View report →
- #2Christchurch Boutique Dental53.8 of 100View report →
Measured by Ansmeter, 8 October 2026 – 9 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.
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 Rafid Salih (Ray) [reg0] | Owner and principal dentist; crown and bridge, root canal treatment, wisdom teeth (BDS, NZDREX, PGDipClinDent Otago) | not verified |
| Dr Graham Symes [reg0] | Oral surgery and oral medicine (BDS, MDS, FRACDS) | not verified |
| Dr Varsha Jeyaprakash [reg0] | Aesthetic and restorative dentistry (BDS, NZDREX, MDent Aesthetics Otago) | not verified |
| Dr Lakshmi Petikam [reg0] | Preventative dentistry and oral health | not verified |
| Dr Minh Ton [reg0] | General dentistry (DDS, University of Oklahoma); English and Vietnamese | not verified |
| Dr David Wang [reg0] | Oral surgery and restorative dentistry (BDS, University of Otago) | not verified |
Dentists are named; their licence numbers have not been checked against public sources yet — unverified, no penalty.
Red Flags
No red flags identified in the public sources we reviewed.
Data We Could Not Verify
- Information Transparency: Real clinic photos
- Reputation & Reviews: No recurring complaints
- Reputation & Reviews: No suspicious review patterns
- Reputation & Reviews: TripAdvisor presence
- Medical Infrastructure: On-site X-ray
- Medical Infrastructure: CBCT (3D imaging)
- Communication & Service: WhatsApp / LINE available
- Communication & Service: Response speed
- Communication & Service: Pre-visit consultation possible
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: dental implants New Zealand
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: New Zealand dental clinic for expats
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://newtowndental.co.nz/ |
|---|---|
| Phone | +64 4 389 3808 |
| https://www.facebook.com/p/Newtown-Dental-61556566194788/ | |
| Google Maps | Map listing |
| Address | Lychgate Centre, Level 1/100 Riddiford Street, Newtown, Wellington 6021, New Zealand |
Contact details are provided for identification only and may change; verify with the clinic directly.
Sources
| ID | Source | What it supports | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| s1 | https://newtowndental.co.nz/ | Clinic homepage: full services nav, tagline | 2026-09-10 |
| s3 | https://newtowndental.co.nz/patient-information/pricing-fees/ | Itemised price list (checkup, hygiene, fillings, extraction, root canal, crown, whitening, aligners, implants) | 2026-09-10 |
| s4 | https://newtowndental.co.nz/services/iv-sedation/ | IV sedation FAQ page (FAQPage schema) | 2026-09-10 |
| gmp1 | https://www.google.com/search?tbm=map&hl=en&gl=nz&q=Newtown%20Denta… | Google Maps automated lookup: rating, review count, geo, address, phone, hours | 2026-09-10 |
| reg0 | https://dcnz.org.nz/practitioners | DCNZ statutory register (reCAPTCHA-gated) and HealthCERT scope (our registry research) | 2026-09-10 |
| av1 | search:best dentist Wellington New Zealand | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-10 |
| av2 | search:English speaking dentist Wellington | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-10 |
| av3 | search:dental implants Wellington | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-10 |
| av4 | search:emergency dentist Wellington | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-10 |
| av5 | search:Wellington dental clinic for expats | (the five canonical city queries) | 2026-09-10 |
| s5 | https://newtowndental.co.nz/about-us/ | About Us page: named dentists with qualifications, practice hours, team size | 2026-09-10 |
| s6 | https://newtowndental.co.nz/patient-information/languages/ | Multilingual team page: languages spoken and interpreter policy | 2026-09-10 |
| gmp2 | https://www.google.com/maps?cid=8261150349137837189 | Google Maps place page read again automatically on 2026-09-10 (two-step /maps?cid= → /maps/preview/place): name, address, phone, rating, review count, star histogram, review dates and owner responses | 2026-09-10 |
| newtown-dental-wellington-oop | https://www.whatclinic.com/dentists/new-zealand/wellington | WhatClinic, read 2026-10-02: its Wellington dentist listing (1 page, 1 clinic shown), checked against its profile sitemaps (78 dentist profiles in New Zealand; the 10 Auckland and Christchurch profiles not shown in the city listings opened one by one) and the profile addresses built from the clinic's name (not found), has no profile for Newtown Dental and none at Level 1/100 Riddiford Street, Newtown | 2026-10-02 |
| newtown-dental-wellington-oop-2 | https://www.dentaldepartures.com/ | Dental Departures, read 2026-10-02: its clinic search does not recognise New Zealand, Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington as a location and lists no clinic in New Zealand | 2026-10-02 |
| newtown-dental-wellington-oop-3 | https://bookimed.com/clinics/country=new-zealand/ | Bookimed, read 2026-10-02: its New Zealand clinic page has been removed (HTTP 410) | 2026-10-02 |
| newtown-dental-wellington-oop-4 | https://www.trustpilot.com/review/newtowndental.co.nz | Trustpilot, read 2026-10-02: no company page for newtowndental.co.nz | 2026-10-02 |
| newtown-dental-wellington-oop-5 | https://www.ratemds.com/best-doctors/?text=Symes&country=au | RateMDs (Australia and New Zealand), read 2026-10-02: searches for the practice's dentists (Symes, Jeyaprakash, Petikam) list none of them in New Zealand | 2026-10-02 |
| newtown-dental-wellington-fb | https://www.facebook.com/p/Newtown-Dental-61556566194788/ | Facebook page "Newtown Dental" read on 2026-10-05; address Level 1, 100 Riddiford Street, Newtown, Wellington, 6021; phone +64 4-389 3808; website https://newtowndental.co.nz/; 20 followers; latest post 2025-12-24 | 2026-10-05 |
Change History
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-05 | Facebook presence checked on 2026-10-05: the clinic's own page is active (latest post 2025-12-24). |
| 2026-10-02 | Review-platform presence checked on 2026-10-02: no profile found on the platforms checked. |
| 2026-09-10 | The verification pass adversarial verification: every cited URL re-opened, clinic /about, /team, /fees, /services and /contact pages read, Google place record read again automatically (rating, review count, star histogram, review dates, owner responses), AI-visibility citations re-checked against the AI-visibility record and the listicles it ranks. |
| 2026-09-10 | Initial data collection: clinic website (home, pricing, IV sedation FAQ), automated Google Maps lookup, DCNZ/HealthCERT registry conclusion applied, AI-visibility record canonical queries (implants/expats queries found off-target due to Wellington, FL/CO namesakes). |
A question or a correction?
Have a question, a suggestion, or a correction to this page? Get in touch — we read every message. Verified data corrections are reviewed against sources and applied with a public change-history entry.