When a patient asks ChatGPT for a dentist, who does it name?
AI assistants now answer 'who should I go to' questions directly. Here's what makes a practice show up in that answer, and what doesn't.
A growing share of new-patient searches for dentists no longer start on Google’s results page. They start as a question: “best pediatric dentist near me that takes Delta”, typed into ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Overview. The assistant replies with two or three names. If yours isn’t one of them, you were never in the running.
This is not a new channel to buy. It’s the same local search signals you already care about, read by a different reader.
What the assistants actually look at
From the citations we see in the answers, the pattern is consistent:
- Your Google Business Profile. Categories, services, hours, photos, and above all recent reviews with specific language (“gentle with my 4-year-old”, “got me in same day for a crown”).
- A website that states plainly what you do and for whom. A page per service, in the words patients use, not the words the lab uses.
- Third-party mentions. Local directories, the hospital network’s provider list, a local news feature. Assistants weigh being named elsewhere heavily.
- Consistency. Same name, address and phone everywhere. Mismatches lower confidence, and a low-confidence business gets left out.
What doesn’t help
Stuffing “AI” into your own site, publishing ten thin pages a week, or buying a tool that promises “AI search ranking”. The assistants are summarising what the web already says about you. The work is to make the web say something clear, specific and recent.
A 30-minute check
Ask three assistants the question your ideal patient would ask. Write down who they name and why (they usually tell you). Then compare your profile and site against those practices. The gaps are your plan.