Preston Dental Centre
According to our open methodology, this clinic scored 61.7/100 for transparency, reputation, service accessibility, and digital visibility.
Overall rank: #20 of 29 ranked clinics · Last checked: 8 September 2026
61.7/100
Positions by Rating Profile
- Overall Transparency & Trust#2061.7/100
- Best for Expatsnot ranked
- Best for Dental Implants#2056.5/100
- Best for Emergency Dental Care#2158.8/100
- Best Price Transparency#2141.4/100
- Best English-speaking Clinics#2358.8/100
- Best for Families / Children#1862.1/100
- 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 The clinic publishes what it calls semi-conscious sedation, and the Ontario register, read on 2026-09-07, records the practice sedation and anaesthesia facility permit as Type A with facility modality "Parenteral Conscious Sedation" and the named dentist authorisation as "Minimal Nitrous Oxide/Oral Sedation". Methodology 1.4.0 counts only general anaesthesia or deep intravenous / twilight sedation, so no qualifying level is documented. [s4] [regd1]
Summary
Practice in the Adobe Tower at Preston Square, in Ottawa Little Italy, offering family, cosmetic, paediatric, periodontal, sedation and emergency dentistry at one location. Three dentists are named on the site and all three are members of the Ontario college; two of the three records give this exact suite as their primary practice. No fees are published. The Ontario register records a current Type A sedation and anaesthesia facility permit at this practice, with facility modality parenteral conscious sedation, and no CT scanner permit.
Strengths
- Information Transparency: 20 of 20 points.
- No red flags identified in public sources.
Weaknesses
- Price Transparency: 0 of 15 verifiable points (missing: prices or price ranges published; cleaning price listed; filling price listed; crown price listed; implant price listed; consultation price listed; x-ray / imaging price listed)
- Communication & Service: 3.5 of 8.5 verifiable points (missing: whatsApp / LINE available; pre-visit consultation possible; convenient opening hours)
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 Live on 2026-09-07: HTTP 200 with the practice content in the body. [s1] | 4/4 |
| ✓ | Dentist names listed The team page names Dr. Karen MacDonald DDS, Dr. Sassi DDS and Dr. Jennifer Bayne DDS, alongside the named hygienists, assistants and administrators. [s2] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Dentist specializations listed Each named dentist carries their dental degree on the team page, and the practice states the clinical areas it covers at this one location. [s2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Real clinic photos Newly settled in a browser on 2026-09-08 — the criterion had been null because the delivered HTML of the clinic's team page carries no staff photographs. The place page's lead owner photograph is the practice's own team: eight members of staff in white coats over the clinic's navy uniform, standing in its own reception with the practice's name lettered on the wall behind them. Team and premises together, so the criterion is met from a channel the clinic controls. [gmpb] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Service list published Service menu covering family, cosmetic, hygiene, fillings, implants, veneers, emergency, paediatric, periodontics, aligners, whitening, sports and wisdom-teeth care. [s1] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Clear contact details Address, phone 613-729-3338, fax, e-mail info@prestondentalcentre.com and full opening hours are published on the contact page and the phone matches the Google place record. [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | English website version The site is published in English. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Address and map published Full street address with suite and postcode plus an embedded map. [s3] | 2/2 |
Price Transparency
0 / 15
Whether patients can estimate costs before visiting. Published price ranges count; exact prices are not required.
| ✗ | Prices or price ranges published Homepage, service pages and contact page read on 2026-09-07: no fee list, no ranges and no fee-guide figures anywhere on the clinic site. [s1] [s3] | 0/3 |
| ✗ | Cleaning price listed No cleaning fee is published on the clinic site. [s1] | 0/2 |
| ✗ | Filling price listed No filling fee is published on the clinic site. [s1] | 0/2 |
| ✗ | Crown price listed No crown fee is published on the clinic site. [s1] | 0/2 |
| ✗ | Implant price listed No implant fee is published on the clinic site. [s1] | 0/2 |
| ✗ | Consultation price listed No consultation fee is published on the clinic site. [s1] | 0/2 |
| ✗ | X-ray / imaging price listed No radiography fee is published on the clinic site. [s1] | 0/2 |
Reputation & Reviews
15 / 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 — 80 five-star, 0 four-star, 0 three-star, 0 two-star and 7 one-star — sums to 87, matching the 87 in the place-page header exactly, and its weighted mean 4.678 reproduces the published 4.7. [gmp1] [gmpb] | 5/6 |
| ◐ | 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 carried no count before this pass: the automated map method used in the initial data collection returns the rating but never the review count on this listing, which is why it was queued for a manual browser check. [gmpb] | 1.5/3 |
| ✓ | Review recency Newest Google review is dated 2026-09-15 (listing read 2026-09-25). [preston-dental-centre-ottawa-gbp-2026-09-25] | 3/3 |
| ? | Clinic responds to reviews 6 reviews from the last 24 months were read on the Google listing, none with an owner reply, too few to say the clinic does not answer reviews (read 2026-10-05). | 0/2 |
| ✓ | No recurring complaints One critical account is visible, a one-star six months old saying that two different receptionists asked the reviewer questions she describes as ableist and that she had expected staff working with the public to have had sensitivity training; the rest is behind Google's truncation. It is recorded as an unproven patient account and without naming anyone. It stands alone in the visible sample, so no theme repeats and the criterion is false. The one- and two-star mass is 7 of 87 = 8.0 %, and the other six accounts are not surfaced by relevance ordering. The count is read here for the first time, so a 4.7 with no disclosed base now rests on a measured 87. Sample: the eight reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order; a newest-first list was not available, so a review more recent than the newest one visible may exist. [gmpb] | 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 is strictly two-valued — 80 five-star and 7 one-star, with nothing at four, three or two — and that is disclosed rather than explained away. Against a manipulation reading: the visible dates run from five months to ten years, the accounts describe different treatments at very different lengths, several identify their writers as patients of five years or more, and the owner answers none of the reviews at all, which is the opposite of a curated record. [gmpb] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Active Facebook presence The practice Facebook page was opened on 2026-09-07 and carries the name Preston Dental Centre - Ottawa. The clinic site itself does not link it. [fb1] | 1/1 |
| ✗ | TripAdvisor presence TripAdvisor's own search index was queried in a real browser on 2026-09-10, under the clinic name and again with the city appended; it carries no listing for this practice. [preston-dental-centre-ottawa-deepen] | 0/0.5 |
| ✓ | Other review platforms Has its own WhatClinic profile at the clinic's address with staff biographies, photos and opening hours; no patient reviews there yet. [preston-dental-centre-ottawa-deepen-4] | 0.5/0.5 |
Medical Infrastructure
11 / 15
The range of publicly documented equipment and services. This measures documented availability, not clinical quality.
| ✓ | On-site X-ray The clinic states on its family-dentistry page that its own dental x-ray techniques and equipment are designed to keep patient radiation exposure as low as possible (read 2026-09-10). [preston-dental-centre-ottawa-deepen-3] | 2/2 |
| ✗ | CBCT (3D imaging) The Ontario register publishes a CT Scanner Facility Permit flag for every practice address on a dentist record. Read on 2026-09-07, the record for this practice (343 Preston St #110) carries "CT Scanner Facility Permit: No". A dental cone-beam scanner in Ontario requires that permit, so this is a checked negative from the statutory regulator rather than an unchecked field. [regd1] | 0/2 |
| ✓ | Implantology Dental implants service page. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Orthodontics Clear-aligner service page. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Oral surgery Wisdom teeth removal and periodontics pages. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Pediatric dentistry Paediatric dentistry page. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Emergency care Emergency dentistry page. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✗ | Works with international patients The clinic addresses a domestic Canadian patient base and documents no international-patient provision. [s1] [s3] | 0/2 |
Communication & Service
3.5 / 10
How easy it is to contact the clinic, get answers, and book - especially for international patients.
| ✗ | WhatsApp / LINE available No WhatsApp or LINE contact is published. [s3] | 0/2 |
| ? | Response speed | 0/1.5 |
| ✓ | English spoken The practice operates and publishes in English. [s1] | 2.5/2.5 |
| ✗ | Pre-visit consultation possible An appointment-request form exists, but the clinic does not offer a preliminary estimate through it. [s3] | 0/1.5 |
| ✓ | Clear service explanations Each treatment has its own explanatory page. [s1] | 1/1 |
| ✗ | Convenient opening hours Revised on the clinic's own Google Business Profile, read in a browser on 2026-09-08, which publishes the full week: Monday to Thursday 08:00–17:00, Friday 07:30–14:30, **Saturday and Sunday closed**. The value was previously true and rested on the site's line that Saturday appointments are offered. The methodology's rule is applied uniformly here as elsewhere: an offer of appointments «on request» or «by arrangement» is not a published weekend opening, and where a clinic's own two channels disagree the more favourable one is not credited. No weekday close reaches 19:00 on either channel, so the criterion becomes a verified false. Both readings are on the record. [s3] [gmpb] | 0/1.5 |
AI & Search Visibility
6 / 10
Whether the clinic is discoverable when patients search - including via AI assistants. Checked with fixed queries: "best dentist Canada", "English speaking dentist Canada", "dental implants Canada", "emergency dentist Canada", "Canada dental clinic for expats".
| ✗ | Mentioned for: best dentist Canada Canonical visibility query best dentist Ottawa, run in the AI-visibility pass on 2026-09-07: the clinic own domain does not appear in the recorded result set. The Ottawa result set of this query is partly occupied by same-name results from Ottawa, Illinois; five of the nine recorded results are unambiguously Ottawa, Ontario, which is enough to read the clinic absence or presence. [av1] | 0/1 |
| ✗ | Mentioned for: English speaking dentist Canada Canonical visibility query English speaking dentist Ottawa, run in the AI-visibility pass on 2026-09-07: the clinic own domain does not appear in the recorded result set. [av2] | 0/1 |
| ✗ | Mentioned for: dental implants Canada Canonical visibility query dental implants Ottawa, run in the AI-visibility pass on 2026-09-07: the clinic own domain does not appear in the recorded result set. [av3] | 0/1 |
| ✓ | Mentioned for: emergency dentist Canada Canonical visibility query emergency dentist Ottawa, run in the AI-visibility pass on 2026-09-07: the clinic own domain prestondentalcentre.com appears in the recorded result set. [av4] | 1/1 |
| ? | Mentioned for: Canada dental clinic for expats The fifth canonical query was run only for the first research city of each country in the AI-visibility pass, so no result set exists for this city: query not run in the AI-visibility pass. | 0/1 |
| ✓ | Structured data on website The site ships schema.org Dentist, WebPage and BreadcrumbList markup. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Google indexing quality A name query on 2026-09-07 returned the clinic own domain in first place with four further own pages inside the first fourteen results, alongside its Facebook page, Yellow Pages and a business-improvement-area profile. [sx1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Dedicated service pages Individual pages exist for implants, aligners, paediatrics, periodontics, sedation, emergencies and each general and cosmetic treatment. [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.
- #1Haysboro Dental Care5.3 of 100View report →
- #1Beacon Hill Dental2.9 of 100View report →
- #3Hemlock Dental Clinic21 of 100View report →
Measured by Ansmeter, 7 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. | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Karen MacDonald [reg1] | General dentist, DDS | RCDSO 11702 | Confirmed active on the provincial college’s public register. |
| Dr. Jennifer Bayne [reg1] | General dentist, DDS | RCDSO 79602 | Confirmed active on the provincial college’s public register. |
| Dr. Sassi [reg1] | General dentist, DDS | not found in the public register (checked 7 September 2026) | — |
One or more named dentists could not be found in the public register on the date checked — recorded as unverified, no penalty.
Red Flags
No red flags identified in the public sources we reviewed.
Data We Could Not Verify
- Reputation & Reviews: Clinic responds to reviews
- Communication & Service: Response speed
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: Canada 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://www.prestondentalcentre.com/ |
|---|---|
| Phone | +1 613-729-3338 |
| https://www.facebook.com/pdcottawa | |
| Google Maps | Map listing |
| Address | 343 Preston Street, Suite 110, Ottawa, ON K1S 1N4, Canada |
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.prestondentalcentre.com/ | Clinic website read live: service menu, single location, structured data | 2026-09-07 |
| s2 | https://www.prestondentalcentre.com/our-team/ | Named dentists with degrees, named hygienists, assistants and administrators | 2026-09-07 |
| s3 | https://www.prestondentalcentre.com/contact/ | Address, phone, fax, e-mail and published opening hours | 2026-09-07 |
| s4 | https://www.prestondentalcentre.com/sedation-dentistry/ | Sedation offered at the practice | 2026-09-07 |
| gmp1 | https://www.google.com/maps/preview/place/Preston+Dental+Centre,+34… | Live Google place record: rating, category, pin coordinates, address, phone and website | 2026-09-07 |
| reg1 | https://www.rcdso.org/find-a-dentist/search-results?Alpha=Bayne&Cit… | RCDSO public register, live query: registration number, status and primary practice for the named dentists | 2026-09-07 |
| reg3 | https://cdsa.portalca.thentiacloud.net/rest/public/facility/search/… | Provincial facility-register check evidencing that no public clinic register exists | 2026-09-07 |
| fb1 | https://www.facebook.com/pdcottawa/ | Clinic Facebook page, opened live | 2026-09-07 |
| sx1 | search:"Preston Dental Centre" Ottawa | Name query: own domain ranks first with several own pages; independent listings on Yellow Pages, WhatClinic, Facebook and the Preston Street business directory | 2026-09-07 |
| av1 | search:best dentist Ottawa | Canonical visibility query recorded in the AI-visibility pass | 2026-09-07 |
| av2 | search:English speaking dentist Ottawa | Canonical visibility query recorded in the AI-visibility pass | 2026-09-07 |
| av3 | search:dental implants Ottawa | Canonical visibility query recorded in the AI-visibility pass | 2026-09-07 |
| av4 | search:emergency dentist Ottawa | Canonical visibility query recorded in the AI-visibility pass | 2026-09-07 |
| regd1 | https://www.rcdso.org/find-a-dentist/search-results/dentist?id=11702 | The Ontario register publishes a CT Scanner Facility Permit flag for every practice address on a dentist record. Read on 2026-09-07, the record for this practice (343 Preston St #110) carries "CT Scanner Facility Permit: No". A dental cone-beam scanner in Ontario requires that permit, so this is a checked negative from the statutory regulator rather than an unchecked field. (The supports text of this source was missing from the card; it was written on 2026-09-10 from the finding the card itself records for it, and the page was not re-read on that date.) | 2026-09-07 |
| gmpb | https://www.google.com/maps/place/x/@45.4020316,-75.7101172,17z/dat… | 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/@45.4020316,-75.7101172,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x4cce04344c7929e3:0x68c207bf01e1fd80!8m2!3d45.4020316!4d-75.7101172?hl=en gives the listing name, address, telephone, website, business category, the full published opening week and the lead owner photograph. The listing opens as «Preston Dental Centre», category Dentist, at 343 Preston Street, Suite 110, in Preston Square, Ottawa ON · +1 613-729-3338 · prestondentalcentre.com — the identifiers the card itself carries, so the place identifier resolves to this practice and not to a neighbour. | 2026-09-08 |
| preston-dental-centre-ottawa-deepen | https://www.tripadvisor.ca/TypeAheadJson?action=API&query=Preston+D… | TripAdvisor's own type-ahead search endpoint, the one its search box calls, opened directly in a real browser on 2026-09-10. Queried under the clinic name alone and again with the city appended, it returns no listing for this practice; the query broadens to dental-clinic listings in other countries instead. A control query for an existing dental-clinic listing (Old Igarashi Dental Clinic, Shizuoka) returns that listing at rank 1, so the method does surface dental clinics when they are in the index. The /Search results page itself never resolves past its loading spinner for a signed-out session, which is why the search endpoint is cited. | 2026-09-10 |
| preston-dental-centre-ottawa-deepen-3 | https://www.prestondentalcentre.com/family-dentistry/ | Read in a real browser on 2026-09-10. The page states: 'At Preston Dental Centre, our dental x-ray techniques and equipment are designed to expose our patients to as little radiation as possible.' That is a first-person statement about equipment at this practice, not a general explainer. The FAQ and pediatric pages add that the practice takes X-rays for wisdom-tooth assessment, and the our-difference page names intra-oral cameras. | 2026-09-10 |
| preston-dental-centre-ottawa-gbp-2026-09-25 | https://www.google.com/maps?cid=7548604442378108288&hl=en | Google listing read on 2026-09-25: rating 4.7 from 88 reviews; star histogram 1★ 7 / 2★ 0 / 3★ 0 / 4★ 0 / 5★ 81; newest review dated 2026-09-15. | 2026-09-25 |
| preston-dental-centre-ottawa-deepen-4 | https://www.whatclinic.com/dentists/canada/ontario/ottawa/preston-d… | WhatClinic, read 2026-10-02: clinic profile "Preston Dental Center", 343 Preston Street, Suite 110, Ottawa, K1S 1N4 (the clinic's address), with the clinic's own content: a description of the practice, staff entries with biographies (among them Dr Jennifer Bayne), photos and opening hours; no ServiceScore and no patient reviews yet | 2026-10-02 |
Change History
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-05 | Reputation check 2026-10-05 on the clinic's Google listing (16 reviews read): nothing settled; owner replies to reviews left unassessed. |
| 2026-10-02 | Other review platforms checked on 2026-10-02: WhatClinic profile at the clinic's address. |
| 2026-09-29 | Corrected 2026-09-29: clinic responds to reviews now unverified: only 8 reviews were checked for owner replies; review recency within 3 months (newest review dated 2026-09-15). |
| 2026-09-10 | Re-checked on 2026-09-10: the identification question on "Dr. Sassi" was re-tested against the Ontario register, and the single Ontario record under that surname was read in full in a real browser. It still publishes no practice address, and an address search of the register for 343 Preston Street still returns only the two other dentists on this card, so the record still cannot be tied to this practice. The gate decision of 2026-09-09 stands: no registration number is attributed to this dentist and nothing from that individual record is reported on this card. The licence entry remains "not found in the public register (checked 2026-09-07)". |
| 2026-09-10 | Checked by hand in a browser on 2026-09-10: TripAdvisor carries no listing; the Yellow Pages listing answers a CloudFront 403 to a real browser too, so onOtherPlatforms stays null; hasXray moves null to true after the clinic site, previously inaccessible, was read in a browser and found to state that its own x-ray equipment is chosen to minimise patient dose. |
| 2026-09-09 | Editorial-gate decision, option (b). The RCDSO registration number previously printed against "Dr. Sassi" is withdrawn to licenseNotFound: the identification rested only on the surname being unique in Ontario, with no address corroboration on either side, and the register record carries a published 2017 regulatory outcome. Publishing the number while withholding what the same record says would be the least defensible option; attaching a regulatory finding to a person on an uncorroborated surname match would be worse. The dentist stays in the roster under the name the clinic publishes, and the register record is not cited about the individual. |
| 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 (previously unknown — the automated map method never returned it), the histogram itself (80/0/0/0/7 = 87, weighted mean 4.678), review recency, the owner-reply state, the complaint reading and the manipulation reading from the eight most-relevant reviews, the lead owner photograph and the full published opening week. Fields this pass did not measure are untouched. |
| 2026-09-07 | Adversarial verification (no browser): all four mandatory sweeps run on the card; every cited URL re-fetched for liveness; the Google rating and coordinates re-read independently from the live place record and confirmed; the licensing block re-run against the province statutory register; TripAdvisor probed directly and found unreadable to an automated client. On this card, the Ontario register record for the practice was opened and cited directly: it settles cone-beam CT as a checked negative and the sedation level as a checked negative, and it adds a Type A sedation facility permit to the summary. The Sassi identification was re-run and its caveat, including what the register publishes on that record, was written down. The clinic licence citation now names the Ontario regulator. |
| 2026-09-07 | Initial data collection (no browser): clinic site read page by page for services, named staff, contacts, hours and fees; the live Google place record read through the automated map endpoint for rating, category and pin coordinates; all three named dentists matched in the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario public register, two of them by the suite address and phone printed on the record; a name query used for indexing quality and independent listings; the four canonical visibility queries taken from the AI-visibility pass, with the Ottawa, Illinois contamination of one of them recorded. Premises photography, review count, recency and the complaint and manipulation readings are left null and queued for a manual browser check. |
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.