How Himedi Vets Clinics in Korea — Dental Clinic: Minish Dental Hospital

Minish Dental Hospital

 

 

In Korea, "Minish" has become a more familiar term to many consumers than "veneer." The clinic has treated a long list of 500 celebrities, but that is not why Himedi sends customers there. We visited Minish Dental Hospital on Friday, April 17, 2026, partly to invite the team to our upcoming overseas info session, and partly to revisit a clinic that has long stood at the top of our shortlist for restorative dentistry in Korea.

 

 

Medical Quality & Safety

Dr. Kang Jeong-ho, the founder and chief director, defines Minish as a method for protecting natural teeth. The aesthetic gain follows from that — it is not the starting point. To support this, Minish uses materials engineered to match the physical properties of natural enamel as closely as possible — sourced from VITA, the German company widely regarded as the global standard in dental ceramics. The result is among the most expensive veneer treatments in Korea.

This stands in clear contrast to most cosmetic dental clinics. In Gangnam, the veneer market is intensely competitive, and many clinics lead with aesthetics and price. When aesthetics are prioritized too far above tooth preservation, clinics tend to over-reduce natural enamel — and once removed, that enamel cannot be replicated. Over my nine years guiding international patients through Korean medical care, I have watched several cycles of dental treatment play out, including what shortcut work looks like for both patient and clinic three to five years later.

 

 

18 years of experience — this is what quality and stability look like.

 

 

The Minish medical team. Dr. Kang Jeong-ho, founder and chief director, stands at the center.

 

 

Minish has accumulated more than 200,000 cases over 18 years. VITA recognizes this as a top global achievement, and companies including L'Oréal have visited to study the methodology. The early years could not have been easy — material costs are high, machining adds labor cost — and yet the philosophy was held consistently. When we meet leading clinics in other specialties, plastic surgery and ophthalmology, Minish is the case they themselves cite as the industry's strongest example.

Minish continues to push further in the same direction. Beyond importing material from VITA, the company acquired a separate materials firm to invest in R&D. At their Cheongdam headquarters, the sixth floor houses the robotics center and the fifth floor is the in-house dental lab. Some readers will recognize this pattern: Himedi favors clinics that, once they reach scale, bring core capabilities in-house and keep investing in R&D.

A second reason Himedi prefers Minish is the one-day system. An international customer can be seen around 10 AM, spend the afternoon freely, and return around 4–5 PM the same day to complete the treatment. Very few clinics in Korea can deliver premium veneer work — at this level of quality — within a single day.

 

 

Minish robot and cubic block

 

 

Minish tips — thin ceramic restorations custom-shaped for each tooth to preserve natural enamel.

 

 

 

 

Customer Experience

 

"I've been to about ten dentists in my life. Minish was the best. The flow of service is excellent — it removes the discomfort I usually associate with going to the dentist." — Chung Yong-jin, Chairman, Shinsegae Group

 

 

Chairman Chung is one of the most prominent figures in Korea's hospitality industry. Shinsegae Group is the holding company behind Josun Hotels & Resorts — including Josun Palace in Gangnam, a hotel many Himedi customers already know, and Westin Busan, our recently recommended top hotel in Busan.

Minish occupies an entire fourteen-floor building. When American customers visit a large Korean hospital for the first time without Himedi support, the first friction point is usually navigation — they are not sure where to go, or what to do first. At Minish, that problem is solved by design. The entire building belongs to the clinic, and the space is structured around the natural sequence of a visit: a welcome lounge on the ground floor, intake on the second, and a patient lounge on the fourteenth. There is no surplus area to get lost in. For a category most people associate with antiseptic smell and discomfort, the experience is closer to ease.

 

Chairman Chung Yong-jin (Shinsegae Group) with Dr. Kang Jeong-ho, founder and chief director of Minish.

 

 

The welcome lounge on the ground floor

 

 

The patient lounge on the 14th floor

 

 

On-the-Ground View

In recent years, several aesthetic dental clinics have begun competing aggressively with Minish. Himedi's view is that displacing a clinic with a eighteen-year track record will be genuinely difficult.

Material cost and lab machining cost are the two largest expense lines in this category. For eighteen years, Minish chose not to chase short-term margin. They committed to VITA's material and to high-precision in-house machining. The case volume that followed has produced economies of scale: Minish is now one of VITA's largest cubic-block users globally, which spreads the cost of advanced equipment and skilled lab technicians across far more cases than any new entrant can match. For Himedi, this is what makes Minish a clinic we can refer with confidence — not the celebrity list, but the structural reasons the quality has held for fifteen years and is likely to keep holding.

 

 

Book Through Himedi

If you are considering veneers or restorative dental care in Korea and want guidance based on Himedi's vetting framework, please contact Himedi.