What it looks like
You’ve worked hard on your Google ranking. Now some patients skip the search results entirely and ask ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode or Perplexity to recommend a dentist. You have no idea what those tools say about you.
What’s behind it
This is no longer a fringe habit. In a Pew Research Center survey of 3,488 U.S. adults, published in August 2026, 34% said they use AI chatbots for at least one health or medical reason. The tools also disagree with each other.
In October 2026 we checked a multi-practice dental group across three AI tools, asking each one four new-patient questions such as “Who is the best family dentist in [town]?” Of the 8 group practices those questions covered, ChatGPT named 2, Google AI Mode named 3 and Perplexity named 2. One practice came first in Google AI Mode and wasn’t mentioned at all by ChatGPT. In one town, no tool named any of the group’s practices.
What we found on the group’s websites was mostly ordinary. One practice still lived at an old web address. One homepage listed three different phone numbers, one of them a fax. A practice list linked to a retired domain. Some sites had no way to book online. AI tools read the same signals patients do, and mixed signals make a practice harder to recommend.
What to do
Start by checking, before you buy anything.
- Ask ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Perplexity what your patients would ask: the best dentist, the best family dentist, an emergency dentist in your town. Write down who gets named.
- Make your practice name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear, on your website, your Google Business Profile and every directory.
- Keep one current web address and redirect the old ones to it.
- Earn reviews steadily. In a survey of 600 U.S. adults by Dandy and Isurus Market Research, 67% of people choosing a new dentist used online reviews, and 81% of those used Google.
- Check again every quarter. AI answers change from person to person and day to day, so watch the trend rather than any single answer.
Be wary of anyone who guarantees you’ll be “recommended by ChatGPT.” Nobody controls those answers. What you can control is giving the tools clear, consistent facts about your practice.
- When I ask three AI tools for the best dentist in our town, are we named? Who is?
- Are our name, address and phone number the same on every site that lists us?
- Can a new patient book online from our homepage in under a minute?
- Who checks this, and how often?