55.2% of Dentist Google Business Profiles Are Unclaimed vs a 29.2% Average

A new patient searches Google for a dentist near their office. The first listing has hundreds of reviews, opening hours and a description of the treatments offered. The next shows the same practice's name with no hours, no description and no reviews, because nobody at the practice has ever claimed it.

For a dental practice, the Google Business Profile, the free listing that shows a business's reviews, star rating, hours, phone number and website in Google Search and Maps, is where most new patients first meet the practice. An unclaimed listing cannot be edited by the practice, so it shows whatever Google pieced together and collects no reviews, while patients still find it.

Dentists leave far more of their listings unclaimed than most local businesses. 55.2% of dentist profiles are unclaimed, against a 29.2% average across 18 categories, the widest gap of any measure. The split is stark: claimed dentist profiles have a median of 61 Google reviews, unclaimed ones a median of zero.

We used two samples of US dentists, collected on September 23, 2026. The first is 708 dentist Google Business Profiles, including practice listings and individual dentists' own listings, where we recorded the number of reviews, star rating, website, opening hours, description, claim status, business categories and photos. The second is 555 dentists with at least one review, for which we collected up to 20 of their newest Google reviews, 7,132 in all, with each review's star rating, text and any owner reply. We compare every dentist figure with the average of the 18 local business categories in the same study.

A profile is unclaimed when no owner has verified it with Google, so nobody at the practice can edit the listing or reply to its reviews. A dentist "never replied" when none of its 20 newest reviews has a reply from the owner. Negative reviews are one- and two-star reviews. The median is the middle profile: half have more, half have fewer. The 18-category average is the simple average of the 18 category figures.

That is 26 points above the 29.2% average across 18 categories. Claimed dentist profiles have a median of 61 Google reviews; unclaimed ones have a median of 0. The unclaimed listings pull the whole category down: 39.4% of dentist profiles have no reviews at all, more than twice the 18.3% average, and the median dentist profile has 2 reviews.

The category splits in two. 20.2% of dentist profiles have 100 or more reviews, in line with the 20% average, and the top three Google Maps results for "dentist" carry a median of 261.5 reviews. At the other end, 69.4% of dentist profiles have fewer than 20. Well-run practices build deep review histories; the unclaimed listings beside them sit empty.

Among dentists with 20 or fewer lifetime reviews, review volume rose 2.9% over the last 12 months compared with the year before, and 12.4% received at least a third of their reviews in a single month. Ratings are in line with other businesses: 4.55 stars on average against 4.52, with 12.6% below 4 stars.

With so many listings unclaimed, dentists trail the average on most basic fields. 69.5% have no description, against 43.9%. 49.3% list no opening hours, against 28.6%. 44.2% have no website linked, against 35.1%, and the median dentist profile has 1 photo, against a median of 18 across categories. The one field where dentists lead is accessibility: 92.4% list wheelchair access, against 62%.

Missing hours cost a practice directly: a patient with a toothache wants to know who is open today, and a listing with no hours sends them to the next one. In a separate Suff Digital study of 3,160 Google Maps searches across 79 US cities, 89.2% of the top three results for "dentist" linked a website, against 85.1% of listings ranked 4 to 20, and their median of 261.5 reviews compares with 165 below them. 86.9% of top-three names include the service word, chains held 2.5% of top-three spots, and adding "near me" changed the top three in 58.2% of city searches.

57.1% of dentists never replied to any of their 20 newest reviews, against a 52.8% average and 7th highest of 18 categories. Across all recent dentist reviews, 37.5% carry an owner reply, below the 40.5% average, and dentists rank 10th of 18 on that measure. Those who reply take 3.8 days on average, with a median of 2.2 days.

Negative reviews get the fewest answers: dentists reply to 25.5% of one- and two-star reviews, against 38.8% of five-star reviews, and rank 13th of 18 on replies to negative reviews. Across all 18 categories, businesses with many reviews reply more often: 20.5% of businesses with 200 or more reviews never reply, against 81.7% of businesses with fewer than 10.

Of English-language one-star reviews of dentists, 33.1% mention price or cost and 24.2% mention rude or unprofessional staff, one of the highest rude-staff rates of any category. Unhappy patients write about the bill and about how they were treated.

Happy patients talk about people too. Of five-star dentist reviews, 27.5% use the word "recommend", 21.4% say "professional" and 21.1% say "friendly", the highest "friendly" rate of any category. Dentist reviews from the last 12 months average 35.3 words. For a practice, the people patients meet are the reason for both its best and worst reviews.

Claim every listing tied to your practice, including listings for individual dentists, and merge or correct any duplicates. An unclaimed listing collects no reviews and shows whatever Google has pieced together, and patients still find it. Then fill in the fields dentists most often leave blank: a description that names your treatments, the insurance you accept and whether you see children; opening hours, including holiday hours; and photos of your team and office.

Next, ask every patient for a review after their visit, by text with a direct link, and reply to every review, starting with the negative ones. When a complaint is about a bill, explain the charge in plain terms and offer to talk it through; when it is about staff, acknowledge it and say what you have changed. Never confirm that the reviewer is a patient or discuss treatment in a public reply.

Finally, measure your practice against the dentists in your own map results, whose top three carry hundreds of reviews. Our dental seo programs claim and complete Google Business Profiles and build review volume for dental practices.

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