I Asked ChatGPT To Find A Dentist, Here's What Happened

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What's up! Kyle, back again.

This morning, I did something that probably should terrify every dentist reading this.

I opened ChatGPT Search and typed: "I need a dentist in Phoenix, Arizona. Who should I choose?"

Here's exactly what happened...

ChatGPT's Response Was... Scary Good

Instead of just saying "search Google," ChatGPT gave me a detailed breakdown.

✅ It Recommended Specific Practices By Name - Biltmore Dental Center, Arizona Biltmore Dentistry, and Smile Dental Clinics. I chose Phoenix because we currently have no clients in this market, completely fresh.

✅ It Pulled Real Patient Reviews - Even mentioning specific doctors and even their "gentle bedside manner" as a sell point.

✅ It Suggested Filtering Criteria - By location, insurance acceptance, and specialty services.

✅ It Asked Follow-Up Questions - "Do you need emergency care or routine cleaning?" and "What's your insurance?" were two of the questions it asked.

But here's the kicker!

The Practices It Recommended All Had One Thing In Common

Every single dentist ChatGPT mentioned had the below.

🔥 Strong online review presence across multiple platforms.

🔥 Detailed service descriptions on their websites, easily navigated and indexed.

🔥 Clear specialties listed like implants, cosmetics, emergency care and more.

🔥 Very clear web mapping, including internal links and CTA’s.

The practices ChatGPT ignored? The ones with hectic websites, minimal reviews, or unclear messaging and positioning.

Translation: AI is already deciding which dentists get recommended. And most practices aren't even in the running. This gap will only widen over the next year. Full stop.

What This Means For Your Practice

When a potential patient asks AI for dentist recommendations, you're either:

1. Getting recommended, because you have the digital footprint AI trusts.

2. Getting ignored, because AI can't find enough quality data about you.

There's no middle ground. There is no gray area.

The patients who would've found you through Google search? They're now asking ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI assistants instead. This trend is growing, and growing, and growing.

And if you're not optimized for AI recommendations, you're going to be invisible.

Here's What You Need To Do Right Now

✅ Audit Your Online Presence - Do you have consistent reviews across multiple presence, high quality scores and a backlink acquisition strategy?

✅ Optimize Your Website Content - Are your services clearly described with real patient outcomes? Is your content readable and properly linked, with CTAs? Use the Ahrefs Health Score marker, if needed.

✅ Lock In Your Paid Campaigns - These aren’t going anywhere. On the contrary, they are getting more visibility within Google’s new experience. Dentists are flocking to this strategy for good reason. Lock this in.

✅ Create Content That Answers Questions - "Best dentist for implants," "emergency dental care," etc. We are using either FAQ landings or procedure-specific landings to do this. If they are paid ad-path landings, make sure they can be crawled by Google!

The practices adapting to this shift won't just survive, they'll dominate their local market while competitors wonder where their new patients went.

The AI revolution is not coming to dentistry.

It's already here.

-- Kyle

🤫 PS: Do you want me to give your online presence a once over, for free? Hit reply and ask.