The Local AI Visibility Index · By industry
State of AI Visibility: Dentists
Every practice Google Maps returned for 5 searches in 30 US markets, 1225 in total. In each market we asked 5 AI answer engines the same 10 patient questions and recorded who got named.
- Practices
- 1225
- Markets
- 30
- Searches
- 5
- Questions
- 10 per market
- Engines
- 5
- Measured
- July 2026
83.2%
of well-reviewed dentists, at least 4.5 stars on 50 or more Google reviews, were named by no AI answer engine. That is 691 of the 831 well-reviewed practices across 30 markets.
Finding 01
Being well reviewed did not get most dentists named
83.2% of well-reviewed dentists are never named by an AI answer engine. Measured across 1,225 dentists in 30 markets: of the 831 with at least 4.5 stars and 50 Google reviews, 691 were named in none of the AI answers about their own category.
| Well-reviewed practices measured | 831 |
| Named by at least one engine | 140 |
| Named by none | 691 |
Google reviews do not decide whether AI answer engines name a business. Measured across 1,225 dentists in 30 markets: neither the number of reviews nor the star rating tracked with getting named — both came out close enough to zero to mean nothing (review count +0.109, star rating -0.017, on a scale where 1.0 would be a perfect match).
Finding 02
Which engines name dentists at all
Perplexity named the most: 315 of the 1225 practices measured, 25.7%. Claude named the fewest, 135.
| Engine | Practices named | Share of 1225 |
|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | 315 | 25.7% |
| Gemini | 296 | 24.2% |
| Google AI Overview | 255 | 20.8% |
| ChatGPT | 150 | 12.2% |
| Claude | 135 | 11% |
Being named by one engine is not being named by the others. The closest any two engines came to naming the same practices was 51.8% (Gemini & Google AI Overview).
| Engine pair | Agreed on |
|---|---|
| Gemini & Google AI Overview | 51.8% |
| Perplexity & Google AI Overview | 50.4% |
| Gemini & Perplexity | 47.2% |
| Claude & Google AI Overview | 39.3% |
| ChatGPT & Claude | 34.4% |
| Claude & Gemini | 34.3% |
| ChatGPT & Google AI Overview | 32.8% |
| ChatGPT & Gemini | 32.3% |
| Claude & Perplexity | 32.0% |
| ChatGPT & Perplexity | 31.7% |
Finding 03
The dentists the engines name most
DENTAL ARTISTRY Implants - Crowns - Veneers ( Westside ) in Bend, OR came up in 74% of the 50 answers collected in its market, the highest share of any practice measured. The 10 most-named practices are listed below by name.
Each share is of the 50 answers collected in that practice’s own market. Practices no engine named are counted in the figures above and are not listed anywhere by name.
| Practice | Market | Share of answers |
|---|---|---|
| DENTAL ARTISTRY Implants - Crowns - Veneers ( Westside ) · one organization, 2 listings | Bend, OR | 74% |
| Associated Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons - Dental Implants in Peoria · one organization, 3 listings | Peoria, IL | 73% |
| Aria Dental Implant Center | Phoenix, AZ | 69% |
| ACE Dental of Killeen | Killeen, TX | 69% |
| The Wagner Centre Implants & Periodontics · one organization, 2 listings | Chambersburg, PA | 65% |
| Small Bites Pediatric Dentistry | Pine Bluff, AR | 62% |
| Advanced Dentistry & Dental Implant Center · one organization, 2 listings | Mansfield, OH | 60% |
| Wausau Oral Surgery and Dental Implant Center · one organization, 2 listings | Wausau, WI | 59% |
| Philadelphia Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery | Philadelphia, PA | 56% |
| Edward J. Ambis Center for Dental Medicine · one organization, 2 listings | Ithaca, NY | 53% |
The 30 markets measured, and how far apart they are
The share of dentists no engine named ranged from 40% in Jackson, TN to 98.3% in North Port, FL. A practice’s own market is the figure that applies to it, so each market is reported on its own numbers and linked where its page is published.
| Market | Searched as | Practices | Never named |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix, AZ | full mouth dental implant specialist | 89 | 88.8% |
| San Francisco, CA | implant dentist | 87 | 95.4% |
| Portland, OR | dentist | 83 | 91.6% |
| Fort Collins, CO | implant dentist | 81 | 87.7% |
| San Jose, CA | pediatric dentist | 69 | 87% |
| Philadelphia, PA | full mouth dental implant specialist | 68 | 89.7% |
| El Paso, TX | dentist | 67 | 88.1% |
| Killeen, TX | dentist | 66 | 84.8% |
| North Port, FL | pediatric dentist | 59 | 98.3% |
| Twin Falls, ID | dentist | 55 | 74.5% |
| New York, NY | full-arch dental implants | 54 | 88.9% |
| Bend, OR | full mouth dental implant specialist | 51 | 84.3% |
| Savannah, GA | full mouth dental implant specialist | 48 | 79.2% |
| Blacksburg, VA | dentist | 42 | 81% |
| Medford, OR | implant dentist | 42 | 83.3% |
| Bay City, MI | dentist | 31 | 64.5% |
| Scranton, PA | implant dentist | 31 | 77.4% |
| St. Cloud, MN | pediatric dentist | 28 | 78.6% |
| Battle Creek, MI | pediatric dentist | 23 | 73.9% |
| Mansfield, OH | full mouth dental implant specialist | 22 | 63.6% |
| Peoria, IL | full mouth dental implant specialist | 22 | 77.3% |
| Kansas City, MO | full-arch dental implants | 20 | 70% |
| Wausau, WI | implant dentist | 20 | 65% |
| Ithaca, NY | implant dentist | 17 | 58.8% |
| Longview, WA | pediatric dentist | 17 | 82.4% |
| Yakima, WA | full-arch dental implants | 11 | 72.7% |
| Lawton, OK | full-arch dental implants | 8 | 50% |
| Pine Bluff, AR | pediatric dentist | 6 | 50% |
| Jackson, TN | full-arch dental implants | 5 | 40% |
| Chambersburg, PA | full-arch dental implants | 3 | 66.7% |
What a practice owner should take from this
83.2% of the practices with at least 4.5 stars and 50 reviews came up in none of the answers. Reviews are what a patient checks; across these markets they were not what decided who the engines named.
The engines do not agree with each other. Perplexity named 315 practices and Claude named 135, and the practices one engine names are mostly not the ones another engine names.
In the average local market, three businesses take 77.5% of everything AI answer engines say. Measured across 1,225 dentists in 30 markets: the three most-named businesses in each market got 77.5% of all the mentions, and everyone else split what was left.
The share no engine named ranged from 40% to 98.3% between markets. The number that applies to a practice is its own market’s, and its own answers are what it can change.
How we measured it
In each market we pulled every practice Google Maps returns for the searches below, then asked 5 AI answer engines the same 10 patient questions and recorded which ones each engine named. The questions were held identical across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overview, and a practice with more than one listing is counted once per market.
- Searches
- "dentist" (344 practices, 6 markets); "implant dentist" (278 practices, 6 markets); "pediatric dentist" (202 practices, 6 markets); "full mouth dental implant specialist" (300 practices, 6 markets); "full-arch dental implants" (101 practices, 6 markets).
- Sample
- 1225 practices across 30 markets: Battle Creek, MI; Bay City, MI; Bend, OR; Blacksburg, VA; Chambersburg, PA; El Paso, TX; Fort Collins, CO; Ithaca, NY; Jackson, TN; Kansas City, MO; Killeen, TX; Lawton, OK; Longview, WA; Mansfield, OH; Medford, OR; New York, NY; North Port, FL; Peoria, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Pine Bluff, AR; Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; San Jose, CA; Savannah, GA; Scranton, PA; St. Cloud, MN; Twin Falls, ID; Wausau, WI; Yakima, WA. A practice returned by two of the searches in the same market is counted once. 364 listings that share the websites of 159 organizations are counted as those organizations, because AI engines cite an organization's site rather than any individual listing.
- Well-reviewed
- A practice with a Google rating of at least 4.5 on at least 50 reviews. 831 of the 1225 qualify. A practice Google shows no rating or review count for is left out of that cut rather than counted on either side of it.
- Collection
- 10 patient questions per market, held identical across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overview. 50 answers per market, July 2026.
- Visibility
- Share of a market's answers naming or citing a practice, weighted by the reach of the engine that named it.
- What we will and will not publish
- A by-industry number only goes up when it covers at least 3 markets and 150 practices, with a usable reading for at least half of them. Where markets disagree, the range is published beside the combined figure.
- Names
- The practices listed by name are the ones the engines named; that is the engines' own output. No practice is named as one the engines left out.
- Scope
- Dentists, 30 US markets. Answer engines change over time; these figures describe July 2026 and are recomputed quarterly.