AI names a dentist almost every time, but it names very few. Claude with live web search named at least one practice in 46 of our 50 dental questions (92%), with 3.6 per answer when it named any: the shortest lists of the 10 industries in our US study, where the average was 5.2. Price questions were the thinnest, at 2.1 names.
The answers were built from directories and from practices' own location pages. Zocdoc was the most cited site, 37 times in 11 answers, and about one source in six (17.6%) was a spam-style page on a site with nothing to do with dentistry. Dentistry was also the most concentrated industry we measured: the five names that came up most took 15.2% of mentions. Even so, 91% of the 137 practices named appeared in only one answer.
What we asked
50 questions written the way US patients ask them. The 40 English questions were set in New York and Miami (11 each) and San Diego and Las Vegas (9 each): 11 price, 11 specific, 10 compare, 4 trust and 4 urgent. The 10 Spanish questions were set in Philadelphia and Nashville (3 each) and Seattle and Chicago (2 each), tagged "mixed". Six of them, word for word:
| Question | Language | Intent |
|---|---|---|
| What is the best dentist in New York? | English | compare |
| Where can I get affordable dental implants in Las Vegas? | English | price |
| Emergency dentist open now in San Diego? | English | urgent |
| Dentist in Las Vegas that takes Delta Dental and is well reviewed? | English | trust |
| Dentista que hable español en Nashville con buenas reseñas (a Spanish-speaking dentist in Nashville with good reviews) | Spanish | mixed |
| ¿Cuánto cuesta un blanqueamiento dental en Nashville? (how much is teeth whitening in Nashville?) | Spanish | mixed |
How often AI named a dentist
Claude named at least one practice in 92% of dental answers, a little under the study average of 93.8%, and hedged on 4 answers (8%) by naming no one.
| Question type | Questions | Named anyone | Practices per answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compare ("best", "top rated") | 10 | 90% | 5.1 |
| Specific (Invisalign, root canal, scared child) | 11 | 100% | 3.8 |
| Trust (takes Delta Dental, well reviewed) | 4 | 100% | 3.8 |
| Urgent (emergency, open now) | 4 | 100% | 2.8 |
| Price (whitening, implants, cleaning) | 11 | 91% | 2.1 |
| Spanish (all types) | 10 | 80% | 3.6 |
Price is where the answers ran dry. Across the five teeth whitening questions, Claude named three businesses in total, and the only one named for Miami was a spa, not a dental practice. The New York whitening answer gave a price range, then said "the results don't name a dentist that offers good value". Implant questions went the other way: one practice with prices on its own pages was named in all of them.
The four hedges were two whitening price questions (New York, and Nashville in Spanish) and two "best dentist" questions (San Diego, and Philadelphia in Spanish), where the search found old magazine lists, sponsored content or filler pages. About one name in seven (14.6%) was an individual dentist, often taken from a directory profile; counting practices only, answers named 3.0.
Where the answers came from
Claude cited 461 sources for the 50 dental answers, 9.2 per answer, from 165 websites, sorted into the same nine types as the main study.
| Type of source | Dentists (461) | All 10 industries (4,587) |
|---|---|---|
| Practices' own websites and other sites | 36.2% | 29.0% |
| Directories, marketplaces and "best of" list sites | 27.5% | 37.3% |
| Off-topic hosts (spam-style pages on unrelated sites) | 17.6% | 15.9% |
| Review platforms | 8.0% | 3.2% |
| News and media | 7.6% | 11.0% |
| Press releases | 2.2% | 1.2% |
| Social media and forums | 0.9% | 1.6% |
| Government sites and Wikipedia | 0.0% | 1.0% |
Practice websites carried more weight than in most industries (36.2% against 29.0%), and so did review platforms: 8.0%, second only to automotive. Directories still showed up in 36 of the 50 answers. The sites cited most:
| Site | Citations | Answers | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| zocdoc.com | 37 | 11 | Booking directory: insurance, ratings, languages |
| affordabledentures.com | 32 | 6 | A dental group's own site, through a page for each office |
| absolutedental.com | 23 | 6 | A Las Vegas dental group's own site, cited only for Las Vegas |
| doctor.webmd.com | 12 | 7 | WebMD's doctor directory |
| ivanovortho.com and smile-fx.com | 9 each | 3 and 2 | Two Miami practices' own sites (orthodontist and Invisalign questions) |
| care.healthline.com | 8 | 4 | Healthline's doctor directory |
The spam layer was heavy: 81 sources from 44 unrelated websites, in 32 answers, and most of the sources in 5 of them. Described without naming the sites, which are often victims: a university forum in the Philippines carrying "Dentist NYC: Choosing the Best Dental Care", a photography tutorial site with "best dentist in San Diego" pages, and an SEO tool's keyword reports, cited 11 times. In New York, 35% of dental sources were pages like these.
Review sites were talked about more than read. 11 dental answers told patients to check Yelp; none cited a Yelp page. 15 pointed to Google reviews or Maps; 5 cited a Google business page. In at least 30 answers Claude warned its sources were marketing, sponsored or low quality.
The dentists named most often
The 50 answers named 137 different practices and dentists in 164 mentions, and 91.2% were named only once. These were named most often in our answers:
| Practice, as named | Answers (of 50) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Aspen Dental | 7 | Miami (3), Las Vegas (1), Nashville and Chicago in Spanish (3) |
| Absolute Dental | 7 | Las Vegas only: 7 of the 9 Las Vegas answers |
| Affordable Dentures & Implants | 6 | All 6 "affordable implants" questions, in four English and two Spanish cities |
| The Super Dentists | 3 | San Diego (pediatric, orthodontist, whitening) |
| Sachar Dental | 2 | New York |
The top five took 15.2% of dental mentions, the highest share of the 10 industries (restaurants: 3.1%). The sources show why. Absolute Dental's own site was cited 23 times, all for Las Vegas. Affordable Dentures & Implants was cited 32 times through its office pages, and its Las Vegas page put a starting implant price in plain view. Aspen Dental, a national chain, was cited through its own office pages in Miami, Nashville and Chicago. The habit they share: one page per office and per treatment, with the facts patients ask about.
Not a ranking. Counts from one assistant on one day, 21 October 2026, not our ranking or an endorsement. A practice missing here may be excellent, and the lists change from day to day.
City by city
Each English city had 9 or 11 dental questions and each Spanish city 2 or 3, so these are notes, not rankings.
| City | Questions | Named anyone | Per answer | Off-topic sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 11 | 91% | 3.9 | 35.0% |
| Miami | 11 | 100% | 3.6 | 9.7% |
| Las Vegas | 9 | 100% | 3.4 | 7.2% |
| San Diego | 9 | 89% | 3.1 | 25.6% |
- New York: the worst spam layer. The "best dentist" answer said its results were "mostly promotional pages and award announcements".
- Las Vegas: one local group, Absolute Dental, was named in 7 of 9 answers; in the emergency answer, 6 of the 10 sources were its own pages.
- San Diego: the "best dentist" answer hedged. Its sources were a 2014 magazine list and spam pages with template text like "[Clinic Name 1]".
What the Spanish questions showed
| English (40) | Spanish (10) | |
|---|---|---|
| Answers naming at least one practice | 95% | 80% |
| Practices per answer, when any | 3.6 | 3.6 |
| Hedged | 5% | 20% |
| Sources with a "best" or "top" style title | 16.8% | 8.6% |
All 10 Spanish questions got Spanish answers, but only 12 of their 93 sources (12.9%) were Spanish pages, about half the share across all Spanish answers in the study (23.8%). Only 4 of the 10 cited any Spanish page, mostly cost guides and medical travel sites rather than US practices. "Spanish-speaking dentist in Nashville" was answered from the language field on directory profiles (DentalPlans, the ADA's Find-a-Dentist, Vitals) and one practice's "Se Habla Español" ads. The Nashville whitening question drifted abroad: Claude said its results were from Spain, Chile and Turkey, quoted euro and peso prices, and named no one.
Three real answers
Where can I get affordable dental implants in Las Vegas?
The search turned up one main option: Affordable Dentures & Implants, which has a Las Vegas office. Its Las Vegas dentures page lists dental implants (each) starting at $1385, and the page notes that charges may increase depending on the treatment required.
These results come almost entirely from this one practice's own website, so the pricing and guarantee claims are marketing language rather than independent verification.
Dentist in Miami that takes Delta Dental and is well reviewed?
Ricardo Espinosa, 15724 SW 72nd St, Miami (33193): Zocdoc lists him as in-network with Delta Dental and accepting new patients, with a 4.96 rating from 23 reviews.
The ratings come from Zocdoc listings and may be out of date.
Dentista que hable español en Nashville con buenas reseñas
No encontré reseñas ni calificaciones en los resultados, así que no puedo confirmar cuáles tienen buena reputación.
What a dental practice should do
- Complete your Zocdoc, WebMD and Healthline profiles. They were the directories cited most, and answers quoted what they show: insurance, new patients, ratings, languages. A blank field is a fact the answer cannot use.
- Check your listing in each insurer's directory. The Delta Dental questions were answered from Delta Dental's finder and health plan provider lists. Wrong there means wrong in the answer.
- Publish one page per treatment and office. "Dental implants in Las Vegas, Nevada", with the address, a starting price, the plans you accept and what the price includes. The practice that did this was named in all 6 implant questions.
- Put prices on the page. Whitening, a cleaning without insurance, an implant: a "from" price or a typical range. The search mostly found cost guides and deal sites, not practice pages with numbers.
- Write hours and your emergency policy as plain text. Emergency answers said they "couldn't confirm" who was open, then used pages that stated same-day appointments and a phone number. Match the hours on your Google Business Profile.
- If you speak Spanish, say so in text and write Spanish pages. Set the language field on Zocdoc, the ADA directory, DentalPlans and Vitals, and publish a Spanish page per main treatment with the city and state.
- Name your dentists and link them to the practice, so a mention of the person also counts for the office.
- Measure the same questions monthly on ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, with dated screenshots, and keep Google and Yelp reviews healthy: the answer sends patients there next.
What we'd do for you, and what we don't promise
We do this work for US practices, remotely from Dubai, with traditional SEO included and ChatGPT and Gemini (Google AI) tracked on every plan. It starts with a free AI check: 10 real patient questions and the practices AI names instead of you. The AI Visibility Audit (30 questions, 4 AI tools, 3 competitors, screenshots and a 90-day plan) is USD 549. Monthly plans are USD 1,249 (Foundation), USD 2,349 (Growth) and USD 4,399 (Authority), month to month, with no lock-in and no setup fee. Details at adjoltz.com/us.
In the first 30 days of any plan, if AI does not name you for at least 3 commercial questions on the list you approved, or you are unhappy for any other reason, we refund 100% of what you paid, in cash, within 7 working days (guarantee rules). We don't promise a top spot on any assistant, rankings, paid places on "best of" lists, patient numbers, or a US office. We do not have one.
Method and limits. 50 dental questions from our 500-question US AI visibility study 2026, each sent once, word for word, to Claude with Anthropic's live web search tool on 21 October 2026, between 21:31 and 23:12 UTC. Source types were coded by us with hand-checked lists, so the off-topic share is a floor, and simple name matching may make the "named once" share slightly high. One assistant, one day, one run: Pew Research Center found 44% of US adults use ChatGPT and 6% use Claude. We did not check that every named practice is licensed or open. Every question and its numbers: study data (CSV).