How do patients find a dentist now? Dental SEO for AI search
By typing the whole problem into an AI assistant such as Google AI Mode or ChatGPT: the tooth, the day, the district. The AI builds a shortlist from sites that state a service, opening hours, a district and a way to book, in plain text. A site that keeps those facts behind a phone call or inside an image is left out, however well it ranks.
Ms Lee's crown came off on a Saturday
Ms Lee's crown came off at breakfast on a Saturday. The tooth was sharp against her tongue and her cousin's wedding dinner was that evening. She did not search for "dentist near me". She opened Google AI Mode and wrote out what had happened:
My crown came off, it's Saturday, I'm in Wan Chai, can someone fix it today, what will it cost, and please answer on WhatsApp.
Google AI Mode took her six demands at face value, rang nobody, and put forward the practices whose sites had already said, in plain words, that they could meet them. She booked from what it showed.
Somewhere in Wan Chai that morning, a practice was open, had a free chair and fixes crowns. If its site never said so, Ms Lee never heard of it, and nobody dialled its number. Is that your practice? Are the surgeries nearby already being chosen on mornings like this?
Not long ago two words would have done it, and she would have scrolled the results and phoned whoever answered first. Google reports that in the US an AI Mode question is triple the length of an old-style search, while planning queries, the ones naming a day and a place, grew 80% faster than AI Mode overall 1. We scanned 27 dental sites in Hong Kong and Singapore to see how many would make Ms Lee's list.
13 of 26 dental sites never declare the practice
First, the AI must know it is looking at a dental practice. Of 26 scored dental sites, 13 declare the practice as a business in markup (check EN1) and 13 do not. Markup is the hidden label in the page code that tells a machine "this is a dental practice, here". Where it is present, the median AI score was 81; where it is absent, 61.
Take the Saturday sentence apart, clause by clause
Each clause of that sentence asks your site for one plain fact. The table pairs each clause with the check in our rubric that reads it.
| Part of the question | What the site must state | How we read it |
|---|---|---|
| "my crown came off" | The problem named as a service: a page or heading for emergency dentist, crown repair | R2: headings served without JavaScript |
| "it is Saturday" | Opening hours by day, in text and in markup | Read as text; markup not scored yet |
| "I am in Wan Chai" | The district, in the address of the business node | EN1: a business declared in markup |
| "can someone fix it today" | Emergency wording, and a phone or WhatsApp line to quote | EE4: more than one contact route |
| "what will it cost" | A price or a range, on the page | Read as text only |
| The AI itself | The citation crawlers allowed by name in robots.txt | AI2: citation crawlers allowed |
None of this is a special dialect. It is what your front desk says on the phone, written down.
Saturday is written down; prices rarely are
We read the text of 24 reachable sites, 16 in Singapore and 8 in Hong Kong. 17 state Saturday, often as Mon - Sat. Hours sit in markup on only 7, a price on 2. Ask what a scale and polish costs, and the AI has little to quote.
The contact clause is the easy one: WhatsApp on 17 of 24 sites, a booking route on 18. On the contact check (EE4), 10 sites pass with two or more routes, 12 warn with one, and 5 fail with none. Every site allowed the citation crawlers (AI2). The median AI score was 72 in Singapore, 66 in Hong Kong.
How we counted, and what the markup looked like
On 13 September 2026 we scanned 27 dental practice sites: 20 in Singapore from a healthcare sector list, of which 17 answered, and 10 in Hong Kong chosen by hand. Every site was scanned once and its text read once. Saturday was re-read on 13 October 2026 by a written rule; the first read found 11. The median Search score was 70 and the median AI score 69. A Dentist type appears on 8 of the 27 sites and a LocalBusiness on 2, while 14 declare only a WebSite node, which says nothing about the practice.
A dental practice checklist for this month
- Declare the practice. One Dentist or LocalBusiness block with the legal name, the address including its district, the phone and the identity links (EN1, EE2).
- Write the hours by day. On the contact page in text, Saturday and Sunday included, then repeated in that block.
- Name the problems as services. Emergency dentist, crown repair and the other things people type, a page or heading each, served without JavaScript (R2) under a single H1 (O3).
- Give patients two ways in. A phone link and a WhatsApp or booking link on every page (EE4).
- Show who and how much. A page per dentist with credentials (EE1), and a from-price for the common treatments.
"Dentist near me" still works, a little less every year
A practice that sits high for "dentist near me" will still hear the phone. The trouble is the trend: US data show 68% of Google searches finishing with no click in the first months of 2026, where 49% did in 2019 3. The patient with the broken crown reads an answer, and it names whoever wrote down Saturday, Wan Chai and a price.
Teaching a site to answer Ms Lee, not merely to rank, is the work we do for dental practices. It starts with a free scan of your own site.
Questions people ask
Does Google AI Mode use my Google Business Profile instead of my website?
Probably both, though we cannot measure the profile from the outside. AI Mode sits inside Google Search, which holds business listings, while ChatGPT and other AI assistants read the open web through a search index. Your website is the one source every AI assistant can reach.
Do I need special markup for AI?
No. Google's guide says structured data is not required for its generative AI features, and that you need not write in a special way for them 2. The block we ask for is the ordinary business markup that has existed for years. The real work is stating the facts.
Is a WhatsApp link enough as a contact route?
It counts as one route. The contact check (EE4) passes with two or more that an AI can find: a phone link, WhatsApp, a booking page or an email address. Most sites in our batch already had WhatsApp, so a phone link beside it is the easy second route.
Should a dental practice publish prices?
A from-price for the common treatments is a sensible start. Only 2 of the 24 sites we read state any price, yet cost is part of the question people ask. A range is honest, and it spares the AI from answering "not stated" next to a competitor who did.
Will this get my clinic cited by ChatGPT?
Nobody can promise a citation, and we do not. The checks show whether an AI assistant can read the facts it needs to answer a patient. In our batch, practices that declared their business in markup scored a median of 81 on the AI axis against 61: readiness, not a ranking.
Next: How do diners choose a restaurant now? Restaurant SEO for AI search
Sources
- Google, How AI Mode is changing and expanding the way people search, 19 May 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, 10 July 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- SparkToro, In 2026, less than one third of Google searches still send a click, 9 June 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
Our own counts come from our dental batch of 13 September 2026, 27 sites, one scan and one text read each, and a Saturday re-read of the 24 reached on 13 October 2026, scored with the published rubric. Not a market survey.