The dental vertical is the largest universe we measure — 21,300 practices — and the most compressed in distribution. The independent practice with high clinical quality but limited authority infrastructure is exactly the population AI Discovery serves best, with Local AI Discovery™ as the principal lever.
Most dental purchases are local — patients choose practices within 10 miles of their home or workplace. The Geographic Index at locality resolution is the relevant denominator, not the vertical at large. Local AI Discovery™ is the engagement of choice for the majority of dental practices.
Seventy-one percent of dental practices score in bands C, D, and E — a tighter distribution than any vertical we measure. That compression means meaningful movement is achievable: a single Authority Specialist's twelve-month engagement can move a practice from band D to band B in its locality, where most dental purchase decisions actually happen.
Dental Support Organisation-affiliated practices benefit from corporate publication operations and centralised authority infrastructure. Independent practices can match this advantage through credentialled Authority Infrastructure work — the playbook is documented and the work is achievable in a 12-month engagement.
Dentists with specialty credentials (orthodontics, periodontics, endodontics, oral surgery, paediatric, cosmetic) appear in AI responses with materially higher trust framing on the queries relevant to their specialty. The Authority engagement makes these credentials machine-readable to AI systems; many practices have credentials that AI systems do not currently surface.
Insurance-network registries (Delta Dental, MetLife, Cigna, equivalents) are high-quality citation sources. Practices in major networks benefit from network-registry citations; practices outside major networks need alternative authority routes. Engagements address insurance-network presence as a structured-data and entity-resolution matter.
Most dental practices are best served by Local AI Discovery™ scoped to one or two priority localities. Larger DSO-affiliated and multi-location groups engage at Foundation tier with multi-location scope. The Practitioner Channel serves single-practitioner offices at $1,000–$3,000 per month.
Engagement Letter executed. Conflicts check at locality + specialty intersection (we do not serve two competing dental practices in the same locality with the same specialty). Locality Workshop selects priority specialty focus and named-dentist priorities.
Locality-resolved Authority audit. Insurance-network presence audit. Specialty-credential documentation review. Structured-data baseline. Practice and named-dentist entity records constructed and deployed.
Insurance-network citations established. Locality-specific content cycle begins (community publications, local press where appropriate, specialty-specific patient resources). First Monthly Engagement Report at Day-30.
Locality-Vertical Index movement of +50 to +100 points typical at Day 90 for engagements that began at band D or below. Day-90 Review with locality-vertical band placement update and recommendation on next-quarter priorities.
Google Business Profile and Google Maps remain valuable; we do not propose to replace them. AI search is a separate channel that increasingly mediates the same purchase decision: when a patient asks ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini "what's the best dentist in my area," our work shapes the answer. The cross-correlation between Google standing and AI Discovery standing is weaker than the discourse suggests; a practice with strong Google presence is no more likely than chance to be strong in AI Discovery.
Both remain important. Two considerations weigh on the engagement decision. First, even insurance-directory and referral-sourced patients increasingly cross-reference practices in AI systems before booking; the cross-reference is what we shape. Second, growth beyond referrals — a new associate dentist, a specialty expansion, a second location — typically requires AI-mediated discovery to scale faster than referrals alone permit.
The Practice Group's Local AI Discovery™ engagement starts at $1,500/month, which is appropriate for many single-practitioner practices. For very-small-budget practices, we serve through the Practitioner Channel — independent credentialled professionals working at $1,000–$3,000/month under the institution's methodology. Both options are available; the right one depends on the practice's stage and budget.
No ROI guarantee. Performance fees are prohibited by the Standards of Professional Conduct. What we offer is documented methodology, quarterly Index reporting, and engagement structured to produce measurable signal movement. Among engaged Local AI Discovery dental clients to date, the median Day-90 movement is +52 points on the locality-vertical Index. Median is not promise.
Conflicts in dental are managed at the locality + specialty intersection. We do not retain two practices competing in the same locality for the same specialty (e.g., two cosmetic-specialty practices in the same suburb). Two practices in the same locality with different specialties (e.g., a general practice and a paediatric specialist) are typically not in conflict. The position is communicated in writing before the proposal is issued.
Locality-Vertical Index movement of +50 to +100 points is typical at Day 90 for engagements that begin at band D or below. Movement is faster in dental than in many other verticals because the population is densely concentrated in mid-bands and structural-data work alone produces meaningful movement. Movement plateaus and requires authority-tier work for sustained improvement above band B.
Four to six weeks. Fixed scope: $4,500 (single-location) to $18,000 (multi-location). Locality-resolved Authority audit, named-dentist credential review, insurance-network presence, structured-data baseline, locality-vertical band placement, and a written recommendation on whether retained engagement is appropriate.
Begin the dental Audit →