What we verify
Issuers of record, joined on a hard identifier.
Nothing here is inferred by a model, scraped from a review site, or typed in by hand.
The two kinds of fact
- State-verified
- Facts that come from the board that issued them: whether a licence is current, when it was issued, and which sedation, anaesthesia and oral surgery permits sit on it. A board permit is the only clinical capability on this site that anyone has actually verified.
- Self-declared
- Facts the dentist filed about themselves with the federal provider registry: their practice address, phone, credential and specialty. We label these as declared everywhere they appear, and we never promote one to a verified fact.
Every record shows which of the two each fact is. A record built only from declarations says so plainly.
How a licence is tied to a person
A licence is attached to a dentist only when a hard identifier matches and the names agree. A shared surname is never enough on its own: relatives practise together, and two dentists in one city can share a name.
When an identifier matches but a name does not, or when two records claim one licence, we show the conflict rather than pick a winner. A licence we cannot tie to a person with confidence is not shown as verified, and we would rather say unknown than be confidently wrong about someone's credentials.
What we withhold
Many dentists register a home address with their board, and sole practitioners often file one with the federal registry too. We do not publish a street that looks residential, one a board holds as an address of record, or one belonging to a mobile clinic. Every build is checked for this and fails outright if a withheld address would be published.
This is enforced in the build, not by review. A rule that depends on someone remembering is not a rule.
What "endodontist" means here
Most states, California included, do not license dental specialties at all. The federal registry lets a dentist declare a specialty for themselves, and that declaration is what a specialty listing on this site reflects. It is not proof of an accredited residency, and it is not board certification.
We do not publish board certification, because no source of it can be lawfully compiled: the specialty boards permit verification one dentist at a time and nothing more. Anyone claiming a complete list of board-certified specialists either bought it from a source that forbids the use or inferred it.
What we will not claim
- We do not rank dentists. There is no admissible measure of clinical quality, so we publish no score, grade or "best of" list. The record scorecard measures how well documented a record is, never how good a dentist is.
- We do not publish patient reviews.
- Current is not clean. A current licence means renewed. It does not mean free of discipline or probation: verify with the issuing board before you rely on it.
- A registry entry is not proof of practice. Providers update their federal record rarely, so an address can be years stale.
- Missing is not absent. A dentist we cannot show a licence for may be licensed in a state that publishes no bulk file. Unknown means unknown.
Corrections
Corrections belong at the source, because that is where we will read them again: the issuing board for licence facts, the federal registry for addresses and declared specialty. Tell us as well and we will re-check the record.