Melrose Dental Studio
According to our open methodology, this clinic scored 51.7/100 for transparency, reputation, service accessibility, and digital visibility.
Overall rank: #3 of 18 ranked clinics · Last checked: 7 September 2026
Positions by Rating Profile
- Overall Transparency & Trust#351.7/100
- Best for Expats#447.3/100
- Best for Dental Implants#345/100
- Best for Emergency Dental Carenot ranked
- Best Price Transparency#336.6/100
- Best English-speaking Clinics#451/100
- Best for Families / Children#353.4/100
- 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) — Not verified No sedation/GA info found on own website (melrosedental.co.za).
Summary
Family and cosmetic dental studio in Birnam headed by Dr. Edwin Alberts. Services include implants, orthodontics, ceramic crowns/veneers, digital radiographs, whitening, oral hygiene and pediatric dentistry. Prices not published.
Strengths
- Information Transparency: 18 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)
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.
Price Transparency
Whether patients can estimate costs before visiting. Published price ranges count; exact prices are not required.
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) Star histogram read live on 2026-09-07 from the place page: 126 five-star, 0 four-star, 1 three-star, 2 two-star, 3 one-star. The buckets sum to 132, matching the 132 in the place-page header exactly, and the weighted mean 4.848 reproduces the published 4.8. [gmp1] | 5/6 |
| ◐ | Google review volume Read live on 2026-09-07 from the place-page header; the star histogram sums to the same figure. The card previously held 132, read on 2026-08-25 — the listing has not moved since. [gmp1] | 2/3 |
| ✓ | Review recency The newest review visible is 2 months old, which proves the within-3-months bucket and no better; the Newest sort does not open to automation in Maps, so the true newest review may be more recent than this. Sample: the 3 reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order. [gmp1] | 3/3 |
| ✗ | Clinic responds to reviews No owner reply appears under any of the three reviews Google renders, although all three are five-star and two of them are only two months old. On a three-review sample this is «no reply under any review Google chose to show», not a demonstration that the practice never replies. Sample: the 3 reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order. [gmp1] | 0/2 |
| ✓ | No recurring complaints No repeated complaint theme appears in the visible sample: all three reviews are five-star and none is critical. The unread negative tail is 3 one-star and 2 two-star ratings out of 132 — 3.8 per cent of the base. Sample: the 3 reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order. [gmp1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | No suspicious review patterns The 126/0/1/2/3 spread carries a real one-, two- and three-star tail, the three visible reviewers hold 42 (a Local Guide with 108 photos), 7 and 2 reviews of their own, their dates span two to four months, and the treatments differ — long-term general care, an emergency after a hockey injury, and a family case. Sample: the 3 reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order. [gmp1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Active Facebook presence [s1] | 1/1 |
| ? | TripAdvisor presence | 0/0.5 |
| ✓ | Other review platforms [s1] | 0.5/0.5 |
Medical Infrastructure
The range of publicly documented equipment and services. This measures documented availability, not clinical quality.
Communication & Service
How easy it is to contact the clinic, get answers, and book - especially for international patients.
AI & Search Visibility
Whether the clinic is discoverable when patients search - including via AI assistants. Checked with fixed queries: "best dentist Johannesburg", "English speaking dentist Johannesburg", "dental implants Johannesburg", "emergency dentist Johannesburg", "Johannesburg dental clinic for expats".
| ? | Mentioned for: best dentist Johannesburg | 0/1 |
| ? | Mentioned for: English speaking dentist Johannesburg | 0/1 |
| ? | Mentioned for: dental implants Johannesburg | 0/1 |
| ? | Mentioned for: emergency dentist Johannesburg | 0/1 |
| ? | Mentioned for: Johannesburg dental clinic for expats | 0/1 |
| ? | Structured data on website | 0/1.5 |
| ✓ | Google indexing quality own domain melrosedental.co.za takes the top result plus three more pages — Services, Contact Us, About Us (4 of 12) — ahead of Facebook, Instagram, WhatClinic, LinkedIn and a directory listing (SearXNG opnxng.com 2026-09-07) [giq1] | 2/2 |
| ? | Dedicated service pages | 0/1.5 |
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. Edwin Alberts [s1] [melrose-dental-studio-doclic] | General and family dentistry | DP 0105252 (HPCSA iRegister – Dentist Register, Active) |
Red Flags
No red flags identified in the public sources we reviewed.
Data We Could Not Verify
- Information Transparency: Real clinic photos
- Reputation & Reviews: TripAdvisor presence
- Medical Infrastructure: CBCT (3D imaging)
- Medical Infrastructure: Oral surgery
- Medical Infrastructure: Emergency care
- Medical Infrastructure: Works with international patients
- Communication & Service: WhatsApp / LINE available
- Communication & Service: Response speed
- Communication & Service: Pre-visit consultation possible
- Communication & Service: Convenient opening hours
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: best dentist Johannesburg
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: English speaking dentist Johannesburg
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: dental implants Johannesburg
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: emergency dentist Johannesburg
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: Johannesburg dental clinic for expats
- AI & Search Visibility: Structured data on website
- AI & Search Visibility: Dedicated service pages
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.melrosedental.co.za/ |
|---|---|
| Phone | 011 440 7836 |
| https://www.facebook.com/melrosedentalstudio/ | |
| Google Maps | Map listing |
| Address | Medical Suites, Level 1, Blu Bird Shopping Centre, Cnr Atholl Oaklands Rd and Park Rd, Birnam, Johannesburg, 2196 |
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.topreviews.co.za/best-dentists-johannesburg/ | address, phone, Google rating 4.9/5 | 2026-07-14 |
| s2 | https://www.facebook.com/melrosedentalstudio/ | Facebook page, dentist name, services | 2026-07-14 |
| melrose-dental-studio-refresh | https://www.google.com/maps/place/Melrose+Dental+Studio-+Dr+Edwin+A… | most recent review shown as posted '4 months ago' (viewed 2026-08-25) | 2026-08-25 |
| melrose-dental-studio-doclic | https://hpcsaonline.custhelp.com/app/i_reg_form | Surname='Alberts' (Wildcard), Register=DENTIST returned: ALBERTS, EDWIN NICO, DP 0105252, Pretoria 0157, ACTIVE (accessed 2026-08-25). A second record, ALBERTS WILHELM KRUGER DP 0113832 (Stellenbosch), is a different practitioner. | 2026-08-25 |
| gmp1 | https://www.google.com/maps/place/Melrose+Dental+Studio-+Dr+Edwin+A… | The clinic’s Google Maps place page — the one this card already records as contacts.googleMapsUrl — opened and read live in a real browser on 2026-09-07: star rating, review-count header, full star histogram read from the accessibility labels, review dates, review content and owner replies. The listing opens as «Melrose Dental Studio- Dr Edwin Alberts» and publishes melrosedental.co.za and +27 11 440 7836. Provenance: owner-managed — no «Claim this business» prompt, and the listing publishes a Services section; no owner reply appears in the visible review sample. | 2026-09-07 |
| giq1 | search:"Melrose Dental Studio" Johannesburg | own domain melrosedental.co.za takes the top result plus three more pages — Services, Contact Us, About Us (4 of 12) — ahead of Facebook, Instagram, WhatClinic, LinkedIn and a directory listing | 2026-09-07 |
Change History
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-09-07 | aiVisibility.googleIndexingQuality measured for the tail via the Y3c SearXNG route: query "Melrose Dental Studio" Johannesburg on opnxng.com (2026-09-07). Written now: googleIndexingQuality null → good. own domain melrosedental.co.za takes the top result plus three more pages — Services, Contact Us, About Us (4 of 12) — ahead of Facebook, Instagram, WhatClinic, LinkedIn and a directory listing. This card enters the country directory southafrica-dental as a twin of this city site and carries no entry in data/research/*.json (johannesburg-dental has no research directory at all — this card in clinics.json is the sole record), so import-research.js never had a file to read this field from; it stayed null through the whole of until measured directly here. This was the last of the 5 remaining southafrica twin cards with a null googleIndexingQuality; now has 204/204 cards evaluated for this field. The country twin on southafrica-dental was re-synchronised from this card in the same step; the two copies are identical except for the twin’s city key. |
| 2026-09-07 | Reputation block measured live on 2026-09-07, which opened this clinic’s Google Maps place page in a real browser. The manual browser check could not reach these ten cards: they enter the country directory southafrica-dental as twins of this city site, carry no entry in data/research/*.json, and import-research.js therefore left them untouched, so their respondsToReviews, recurringComplaints and suspiciousReviewPatterns had never been assessed at all. Written now: googleRating 4.8 → 4.8; googleReviewCount 132 → 132 (histogram 126/0/1/2/3 = 132, weighted mean 4.848); reviewRecency "within_year" → within_3_months; respondsToReviews null → false; recurringComplaints null → false; suspiciousReviewPatterns null → false. The histogram sums to the place-page header count exactly and its weighted mean reproduces the published rating to one decimal. Fields this pass did not measure are untouched. The country twin on southafrica-dental was re-synchronised from this card in the same step; the two copies are identical except for the twin’s city key. |
| 2026-08-25 | License verification 2026-08-25 against HPCSA iRegister (Dentist Register, open access): found active registration DP 0105252 for Dr. Edwin Alberts. |
| 2026-08-25 | Re-verification 2026-08-25: confirmed website, address, phone unchanged and clinic open; Google rating changed from 4.9 to 4.8 (132 reviews, latest review ~4 months ago). |
A question or a correction?
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