Guides
Local search, explained for dental practices
Plain guides to how patients find a practice, what each part of it is worth, and which bits are worth your time. Written from the same public data the product reads.
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Google reviews
How many reviews a practice needs, how to ask for them within the rules, and how to reply, report and remove.
How to respond to negative reviews as a dental practice
A one-star review is rarely just a marketing problem. It is often an unresolved complaint, posted where you cannot discuss it, and handling it well means using your complaints process as much as your reply box.
Read the guideDo Google reviews help SEO? What it means for dental practices
Google says reviews can help your local ranking. It does not say how much, and much of the advice online goes well beyond what Google has said. Here is what is confirmed, what UK dental data shows, and where reviews fit alongside everything else that decides whether patients find you.
Read the guideHow to ask patients for Google reviews, within the rules
Most practices that struggle with reviews are not asking, or are asking in ways Google does not allow. The right way is plain, consistent and the same for every patient.
Read the guideGoogle reviews disappeared? Why it happens and what to do
Losing reviews you worked hard for is alarming, and the cause is not always obvious. Google publishes the main reasons reviews go missing or show up late. Here is how to work out which one applies to your practice and what you can do about it.
Read the guideHow to get more Google reviews: the monthly pace a practice needs
A review target is only useful if you know how many a month gets you there. Here is how to work out your pace, and how to reach it without breaking Google's rules or UK law.
Read the guideFake reviews law UK: what the DMCC Act means for dental practices
Since 6 April 2025, fake reviews, hidden incentives and cherry-picked reviews have been banned outright in the UK. Here is what the law says, how the CMA reads it, and what a dental practice needs to change.
Read the guideFake Google reviews: how dental practices spot and report them
A run of one-star reviews from people you have never seen, or a rival whose review count jumps overnight. Here is how to tell what is fake, what Google will act on, and what the law says.
Read the guideAI review responses for dental practices: drafting replies safely
AI can draft a reply to a Google review in seconds. For a dental practice the risk is not a clumsy sentence, it is a reply that confirms someone is your patient. Here is how to get the time saving without that risk.
Read the guideGoogle reviews widget for a dental practice website
Putting your Google reviews on your website is easy to do badly. The technical part takes an afternoon. The rules on showing reviews fairly, and the cost to your page speed, are what most practices miss.
Read the guideQR code for Google reviews: a guide for dental practices
Google gives every verified practice a review QR code for free. You do not need a generator, a subscription or a designer. You do need to think about where it goes and what it says.
Read the guideDentist reviews: where UK patients leave them now
The NHS website stopped taking reviews in July 2025, which leaves Google carrying more of the weight than ever. Here is where dentist reviews actually live now, and which ones deserve your practice's attention.
Read the guideGoogle review link: find yours and use it in a dental practice
Your Google review link is free, takes a minute to find and opens the review form in one tap. The care goes into where you send it and the words around it.
Read the guideHow to remove a Google review from your dental practice
You cannot delete a Google review yourself. You can report one, appeal once, and in narrow cases go down the legal route. Here is which reviews qualify and how to get them looked at.
Read the guideGoogle review cards for dental practices: do they work?
A review card is a shortcut to your Google review form, nothing more. Used as a neutral reminder it saves patients a few taps. Used at the desk with a hovering receptionist, it breaks Google's rules.
Read the guideHow to reply to Google reviews
The mechanics take two minutes. The judgement takes longer, and for a healthcare practice one wrong sentence in a public reply is a regulatory problem rather than a marketing one.
Read the guideHow to work out your practice's Google review target
The review count that holds a Google map place is set by your town, not the country. Here is how to work out yours from the practices already holding the pack, with the national figures from 1,489 places to check it against.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile and Maps
Setting up and running your free Google profile, how the map pack ranks practices, and keeping your listings correct.
Google Maps ranking factors for dentists: what actually counts
Google publishes the three things that decide who appears on the map, and it is clear that nobody can pay for a better place. Here is what each one means for a dental practice and which parts you can change.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile photos for dentists: sizes, rules, ideas
Photos are often the first thing a patient sees of your practice on Google Maps, before your reviews or your website. Here are Google's requirements, what a dental practice should show, and the consent rules that matter in a clinical setting.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile holiday hours for dental practices
A patient with toothache on Boxing Day checks Google before anything else. Here is how to make sure your profile shows the right holiday hours, and what to tell patients when you are closed.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile description for dentists: what to write
Your Google Business Profile description is 750 characters that patients read while deciding between you and the practice down the road. Here is what Google allows, what to put in it, and a template to fill in.
Read the guideNAP consistency for dental practices: a practical guide
Your practice name, address and phone number appear in dozens of places you did not write. Google reads many of them, and can change your profile based on what it finds. Here is how to get them all saying the same thing.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile insights for dentists: reading the numbers
Your Google profile is often the first thing a new patient sees, and Google tells you more about it than most practices ever look at. Here is how to read the performance report and what to do with it.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile categories for dentists
Your primary category is one of the few settings Google says directly affects local ranking. For a dental practice the choice is usually simple. The additional categories, and the specialist-sounding ones, are where practices go wrong.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile services for dentists: what to list
The services section tells Google and patients what your practice actually does. Here is how to fill it in properly, with a structure that suits a dental practice and the rules your descriptions need to follow.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile posts for dental practices
Posts are the one part of your Google profile you can change as often as you like. Here is how they work, what they are good for and the rules a dental practice has to follow when it uses them.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile verification for dental practices
Until your profile is verified, you cannot fully manage it. Here is how verification works for a dental practice, the traps that cause it to fail, and why Google sometimes asks you to do it again.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile suspended? A dental practice's fix guide
A suspended profile takes your practice off Google Maps and out of the panel patients see when they search your name. Here is what suspension means, why it happens and how to get the profile back.
Read the guideDental directory listings: which ones matter for your practice
Patients meet your practice details in more places than your website: Google, the NHS website, Apple Maps, Bing and a long tail of directories. Here is which listings matter, which can wait, and how to keep them all telling the same story.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile manager access for dental practices
Access to your Google profile tends to get messy over the years: a manager who left, an agency that set it up, a previous owner's account. Here is how the roles work and how to put the practice back in control.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile for dentists: the UK setup guide
Your Google Business Profile is the listing most new patients see before they ever reach your website. Here is how to set it up properly, within Google's rules, and keep it in the right hands.
Read the guideLocal SEO for dentists: how the map pack is actually won
Three practices get a map place for your main search term. Everyone else is below the fold. Here is what decides which three, and which parts of it you can move.
Read the guideWebsites and SEO
What SEO is, what it costs, and how to build a practice website that Google can read and patients can use.
Backlinks for dentists: how to earn links that help
Links from other websites still help a practice get found, Google says so in its own help pages. But the links that help a dental practice are local, real and usually free, and the ones sold in packages are the ones Google's spam policies describe.
Read the guideLocation pages for dental practices: when they work
A page for each nearby town is one of the most common pieces of dental SEO advice, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Done well, it reaches patients in places your practice genuinely serves. Done badly, it is exactly what Google's spam policies describe.
Read the guideDental blog: should your practice have one?
Most practice blogs are a list of news posts nobody searches for. A few are the most useful pages on the site. The difference is not how often they post. It is what they choose to write about.
Read the guideNew dental website without losing rankings: a migration checklist
A new website should bring you more patients, not fewer. Most of the risk sits in a handful of technical steps that are easy to check if you know to ask. Here is the checklist.
Read the guideHow to read an SEO report for your dental practice
SEO reports are long, full of charts and usually green. Most of what they show does not tell you whether more patients are finding your practice. Here is how to read one, which numbers matter, and what to ask when they do not add up.
Read the guideDental website checklist: what every UK practice site needs
A practice website has three jobs: meet the GDC's rules, give patients what they need to book, and give Google enough to rank it. Here is the checklist for all three, with the source for every rule.
Read the guideGoogle Analytics 4 for dental practices: what to set up and read
Most practice websites have Google Analytics installed and nobody looking at it. The default reports count visits, not patients. Here is the set-up that makes GA4 answer useful questions, and the UK privacy rules that decide what it can collect.
Read the guidePractice Radar vs Semrush for UK dental practices
Semrush is one of the most complete SEO toolkits there is, built for marketers who do the work themselves. Practice Radar is built for dental practice owners who want to know where they stand and have the changes made for them.
Read the guidePractice Radar vs Local Falcon for UK dental practices
Local Falcon is a specialist in Google Maps grid scans, with flexible grids and a low entry price. Practice Radar uses a monthly grid as one part of a full read of your dental market, and on its higher plan it makes the changes you approve.
Read the guidePractice Radar vs a dental SEO agency
An agency gives you people doing the work. Practice Radar gives you the whole picture and the routine changes made for you, at a lower cost and with you in control. Many practices are best served by one, some by both.
Read the guidePractice Radar vs BrightLocal for UK dental practices
BrightLocal is a well-priced local SEO tool for any kind of business. Practice Radar is built only for dental practices, and on its higher plan it makes the changes you approve. Which suits you depends on who will do the work.
Read the guideWebsite speed test for dental practices: what the scores mean
Speed test tools give you a score out of 100 and a page of red warnings. Most of it does not matter for a dental practice website. Here is how to test properly, which numbers Google actually uses, and the handful of fixes that usually make the difference.
Read the guideThe best SEO tools for UK dental practices in 2026
Most practices need four free tools and, at most, one paid one. Which paid one depends on who is going to do the work.
Read the guideGoogle Search Console for dentists: set-up and what to read
Search Console is the only place Google tells you, in its own numbers, which searches show your practice website and which ones lead to a click. It is free, it takes twenty minutes to set up, and many practices have never opened it.
Read the guideWhat dental SEO actually costs in the UK
Most articles about dental SEO pricing are written by people selling dental SEO. This one is written from the invoices of a practice that bought it.
Read the guideWhat is dental SEO?
A short, plain answer, without the jargon and without pretending it is more precise than it is.
Read the guideSEO for dental practices: a practical guide
Everything a practice owner needs to decide what to do about search, in the order the decisions actually arrive.
Read the guideDental SEO agency or do it yourself?
Both answers are defensible. What is not defensible is paying for one and not knowing whether it worked.
Read the guideAI search
How ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI answers pick a practice, and where AI tools help with marketing.
How to appear in ChatGPT: what AI assistants read about your practice
When a patient asks an AI assistant to recommend a dentist, the answer is built from sources you can check and influence. Here is where each assistant looks, and what a practice can do about it.
Read the guideWill ChatGPT recommend your dental practice? How to check
Patients now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI answers to suggest a dentist. None of them offers a sign-up form for practices. Here is how to check whether you are being named, what these tools can see, and what you can do about it.
Read the guideAI search optimisation for dental practices: what actually works
AI search optimisation is sold under many names. Strip away the jargon and check what the companies running the AI tools actually say, and the work for a dental practice is shorter and more familiar than the sales pitch suggests.
Read the guideAI for dental practice marketing: what to use it for, and what not
AI can take hours of drafting off your team every week. It can also put a misleading claim, a fake review or a patient's details somewhere they should never be. Here is how to get the first without the second.
Read the guideGoogle AI Overviews for dental practices: what to do about them
AI Overviews now sit above the links on many of the questions patients ask about treatment. Here is how they work, what Google says about appearing in them, and how a practice can measure them.
Read the guideGoogle AI Mode and local search: what it means for dentists
Google AI Mode has been live in the UK since July 2025. It answers local questions with a written reply, place cards and links, and the facts it uses come mostly from things your practice already controls.
Read the guidePerplexity AI, Gemini and Claude: how they pick a dental practice
Patients now ask AI assistants to suggest a dentist. Each assistant gets its local facts from different places, and the practices it names are the ones whose facts it can find and trust.
Read the guideGoogle, Microsoft and Meta ads
When paid ads are worth it, how to set a budget, and how to stop paying for clicks that never book.
Google Ads budget for a dental practice: how to work out yours
There is no right Google Ads budget for a dental practice in general. There is a right budget for yours, and you can work it out from four numbers you either already have or can get in an afternoon.
Read the guideFacebook ads for dentists: a UK guide to Meta ads
Facebook and Instagram ads can fill a consultation diary for the right treatments. They can also burn a budget on people who were never going to book. The difference is mostly in what you advertise, who you show it to and what happens after someone taps.
Read the guideNegative keywords for dental Google Ads: a practical list
Every dental ads account pays for searches that were never going to book: jobs, courses, home remedies, pets. Negative keywords are how you stop paying for them.
Read the guideCall tracking for dental practices: a practical UK guide
For most practices the phone is still where new patients start. If you cannot see which ad, listing or page made it ring, you are judging your marketing on the minority of enquiries that arrive by form.
Read the guidePerformance Max for dental practices: when to use it, and when not
Google pushes Performance Max hard. For a dental practice it can work, but only once the basics are in place, and it hides more than it shows unless you set it up carefully.
Read the guideDental landing page: turning ad clicks into bookings
You pay for the click either way. Whether it becomes a patient is mostly decided by the page it lands on, and most practices send ad traffic to the wrong one.
Read the guideMicrosoft Advertising for dentists: is Bing worth it?
Most dental practices run Google Ads and ignore Bing entirely. Sometimes that is right. Here is how to tell, and how to set it up without creating a second job.
Read the guideGoogle Ads for dentists: when it is worth it
Ads buy you the top of the page today. Whether that is a good trade depends on one number most practices never work out.
Read the guideGetting and keeping patients
Where new patients come from, how enquiries become bookings, and how to keep the patients you have.
Lapsed dental patients: how to bring them back properly
Every practice has patients who simply stopped coming. Some have moved or gone elsewhere, but many just drifted. Here is how to find them, contact them within the rules, and make returning easy.
Read the guideDental reception phone calls: turning enquiries into bookings
Most new patients still phone before they book. Marketing gets them to dial. What happens in the next ninety seconds decides whether they become a patient, and most practices never measure it.
Read the guideComposite bonding marketing for UK dental practices
Patients researching composite bonding ask about price, longevity and veneers before they ever ask about a dentist. The practices that win them answer those questions plainly, on a page that also keeps the GDC and the ASA happy.
Read the guideDental email marketing: a UK guide for practices
Email is the cheapest way to reach the people most likely to book with you: your own patients. It is also the channel where well-meaning practices most often break the rules, usually by adding one promotional line to a reminder.
Read the guideHow many new patients does a dental practice need? Work out yours
There is no national number for how many new patients a dental practice needs. There is a number for your practice, and you can work it out in an afternoon from reports your software already has.
Read the guideNervous dental patients: how to help them find and choose you
Nervous dental patients are not a niche. National survey figures suggest more than half of adults in England have at least moderate dental anxiety. Here is how to make your practice the one they feel able to contact, without promising anything you cannot deliver.
Read the guideDental marketing plan: a one-page template for your practice
Most practice marketing is a list of things somebody suggested. A plan starts from the chairs you need to fill and works backwards, and it fits on one page.
Read the guideDental recall: NICE intervals and a system that works
Recall is the quietest system in a practice and one of the most valuable. The NICE guidance behind it is more flexible than many patients assume. Here is what it says and how to build a recall system around it.
Read the guideDental appointment reminder texts: templates and the rules
A reminder text is the cheapest thing a practice can do to protect its diary. It is also where privacy slips and accidental marketing happen. Here are templates and the rules behind them.
Read the guideDental implant marketing: a practical guide for UK practices
Implant patients take their time. They read, compare, save up and ask around before they book a consultation. Marketing that respects that, with clear pages, honest prices and a straightforward first step, wins more of them than marketing that shouts.
Read the guideDental practice online booking: what to offer and how to set it up
Online booking can take pressure off the phones and catch patients who search after hours. Done carelessly it fills the diary with the wrong appointments. Here is how to get it right.
Read the guideInvisalign marketing: how to promote clear aligners properly
Clear aligner marketing sits under three sets of rules at once: the GDC's, the advertising code's, and the aligner maker's own brand guidelines. Practices that learn all three can promote aligners confidently. Practices that do not end up rewriting ads.
Read the guideThe dental patient journey: mapping it for new patients
Most practices measure the start of the journey, the enquiry, and the end, the invoice. The places new patients quietly give up sit in between. Here is how to map them.
Read the guideDental membership plan: how to grow yours
Most practices with a dental membership plan have a plan problem that is really a conversation problem. The plan is fine. Patients are simply never offered it at the moment it makes sense to them.
Read the guideDental practice manager marketing: what to own, what to hand off
In most practices marketing lands on the practice manager's desk without a budget or a job title. Here is what belongs there, what the rules are, and a routine that takes hours a month, not days.
Read the guideMarketing for dentists: what is worth doing, and what to measure
Five channels, ranked by what they realistically return for an independent practice, and the one measurement that keeps any of them honest.
Read the guideHow to get more dental patients
The cheapest new patients are the ones already on your books. Everything after that gets progressively more expensive, and most practices start at the wrong end.
Read the guideSocial media marketing for dentists: what it is good for
Social media is very good at one job in dentistry and quite poor at the one practices usually hire it for.
Read the guideNHS, CQC and running a practice
NHS contracts and UDAs, CQC inspections, the numbers worth tracking, and buying, selling or opening a practice.
How to reduce failed dental appointments: a UK practice guide
Every failed appointment is clinical time you pay for and cannot sell, and for an NHS contract it is UDAs you still have to find. The fixes are mostly unglamorous: better booking, better reminders and a clear, fair policy.
Read the guideDental practice KPIs: the numbers worth tracking in a UK practice
Most KPI lists for dental practices are written for American group owners. This one is for a UK practice: NHS contract delivery, private conversion, the diary, and the search numbers that decide where new patients come from.
Read the guideSelling a dental practice: a step-by-step UK guide
Selling a dental practice is a project that starts long before a buyer appears. The NHS contract, the CQC and your team all have their own rules and timings. Here is the order to work through them, and the details that can hold up completion.
Read the guideGoing private as a dental practice: converting from NHS in 2026
Converting an NHS dental practice to private is a contract decision, a patient decision and a marketing decision at the same time. This guide sets out the rules that apply in England in October 2026 and the order to do things in.
Read the guideCQC dental inspection: what to expect and how to prepare
A CQC dental inspection is less mysterious than it feels when the email arrives. Here is how CQC assesses a dental practice now, step by step, and a checklist you can work through long before it does.
Read the guideUDA value explained: how much is a UDA worth in 2026?
Your UDA value is the price of every NHS course of treatment your practice delivers. Here is how to work it out, where it comes from, why the practice down the road may be paid more, and what to do with the number.
Read the guideDental practice valuation: how UK practices are valued
There is no single price list for dental practices. A valuation is a judgement built on adjusted profit, the NHS contract, the premises and how secure the patient base looks to a buyer. Here is how that judgement is made, and what you can do about it before you sell.
Read the guideOpening a squat dental practice in the UK: the checklist
A squat dental practice starts with no patients, no reviews and no history. That is the hard part and the appeal. Here is the order to do things in, the registrations you cannot skip, and how to make sure patients can find you on the day you open.
Read the guideRunning a mixed dental practice: NHS and private rules for 2026
Most UK practices offer both NHS and private care. The rules on mixing the two are short but strict, and the practices that run it well treat it as a system, not a conversation in the chair.
Read the guideCQC key questions for dental practices: what inspectors look for
Every CQC assessment of a dental practice is organised around the same five questions. Here is what sits under each one for dental services, how the judgement works when there is no rating, and what CQC is changing.
Read the guideDental practice for sale: what to check before you buy
A dental practice for sale listing tells you the turnover, the surgeries and the town. It does not tell you whether the NHS contract can move to you, how the CQC registration will work, or whether patients can find the practice online. Here is what to check before you make an offer.
Read the guideThe NHS dental contract explained: how it works in 2026
How the NHS dental contract in England actually works in October 2026: who holds it, how it pays, what patients are charged, what the April and June 2026 changes did, and the rules that decide whether you keep the money at year end.
Read the guideWhat is a UDA in dentistry? Units of dental activity explained
A UDA is the unit every NHS dental contract in England is counted in. Here is what it means, how many each course of treatment earns, what changed in 2026 and why the number matters to your practice.
Read the guideDental referrals: how the NHS system works for your practice
Many people searching for dental referrals want a login, a tracker or a phone number. Behind those searches sits a process your practice runs every week. Here is how it works, where it goes wrong, and how to make it run smoothly for your team and your patients.
Read the guideAdvertising rules: GDC, ASA and CAP
What the GDC, the ASA and UK law allow a practice to say, show and send.
Specialist dentist titles in advertising: what the GDC allows
Only dentists on a GDC specialist list can call themselves specialists. The rule is short, but it reaches every page, profile, ad and bio your practice publishes, and it is easy to break by accident.
Read the guidePatient testimonials for dental practices: the UK rules
A patient's own words persuade better than anything you write about yourself. They also come with more rules than most practices realise, from advertising law, data protection and the GDC.
Read the guideGDC advertising guidance: a plain-English guide for practices
The GDC's guidance on advertising is short, dates from 2013 and still applies to every website, social post and leaflet a practice produces. Here is what it requires, item by item, with the ASA rules that sit alongside it.
Read the guideTeeth whitening law in the UK: the rules for dental practices
Tooth whitening is one of the few treatments where the product law, the professional rules and the advertising code all apply at once. Here is what each one says, and what it means for how your practice offers and markets whitening.
Read the guideDental before and after photos: the UK advertising rules
Before and after photos are persuasive content for a practice, and easy to get wrong. Here are the rules that apply, from the ASA, the GDC and data protection law, and a simple routine that keeps your gallery on the right side of all three.
Read the guideGDPR marketing for dental practices: emails, texts and consent
Most dental practices are sitting on thousands of patient email addresses and mobile numbers. What you can send to them depends on two laws and one distinction: whether the message is a service message or marketing.
Read the guideBotox advertising rules for dental practices in the UK
Many dental practices now offer facial aesthetics, and most of them have been told they cannot advertise Botox. That is true, but it is only half the rule. The other half is how much you can still say, and how.
Read the guideASA CAP Code: the rules for dental advertising in the UK
The CAP Code applies to your practice website, your social posts and your Google ads, not just to posters. Here are the rules that catch dental practices most often, and how to check an ad before it goes out.
Read the guidePrivate dental treatment price list: how to publish yours
Patients search for a private dental treatment price list before they ever phone. The GDC says they should not have to ask, and a clear fee page is one of the easiest pages on your site to get right.
Read the guideDental compliance: what your practice website must show
Most dental compliance happens behind the reception desk. Your website is the part every patient and every inspector can read without asking, and it has its own list of things it must show.
Read the guideResearch and data
Our own studies of UK dental markets, built from public data.
Independents hold most Google Maps places in England, a little under their share. Against a group, the practice with more reviews usually ranks higher.
When an independent and a group practice both appear in Google Maps' first three for a dentist search, the one with more reviews is ranked higher two times in three. The one with the better star rating comes out ahead less than half the time. We searched 700 English places and checked every practice in Google's first three against the CQC register. Independents hold 62.5% of the places we could identify, slightly below their 69% average share of the practices nearby.
Read the guide60 constituencies where fewer children see an NHS dentist, in councils where tooth decay is significantly worse than England's
MPs and local papers work by constituency. NHS dental data mostly does not. We rebuilt two Practice Radar studies for every one of England's 543 Westminster constituencies: how many of the children who live there saw an NHS dentist in the year to March 2026, the tooth decay figure for the council they sit in, and what the NHS contracts there are paid. In 60 constituencies, home to about 1.6 million children, the council's 5-year-olds have decay significantly worse than England's and fewer of the constituency's own children were seen than in England as a whole.
Read the guideAsking AI for a dentist? It mostly repeats Google
The verdict: AI has not changed who gets recommended. The practices the assistants named most were, by and large, the ones already at the top of Google Maps with the most Google reviews, though almost half their mentions still went to practices outside the top three. We asked four AI assistants, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Mode, the same two plain questions about the best dentist in 77 towns across England, 616 answers in all, and checked every practice they named against Google Maps and the CQC register. Here is who gets named, and what the named practices have in common.
Read the guideCase study: Bollington Dental Practice, new private patients up 124%
Bollington Dental Practice is the practice we co-own, and the first market Practice Radar ever measured. Since June 2026 its new private patients have more than doubled, its Google clicks have risen more than tenfold and it has gone from ninth to first in its town. Here are the figures, where each comes from, and what they do and do not prove.
Read the guideNHS dental contracts a mile apart are paid a median £3.15 a UDA apart, and one pair in three £5 or more
Every NHS general dental contract in England, read from the NHS Business Services Authority's own files: what each is paid for a unit of dental activity, how that compares with the contract down the road, and how far each is through the first three months of the 2026/27 contract year, the first under the April 2026 contract changes.
Read the guideHalf the people around the median town live in 6 of its 25 map squares: why Google Maps ranking grids can misstate a dental practice's reach
Many agencies and tools report a dental practice's Google Maps visibility as a grid of coloured squares, and count the squares. But a square of farmland and a square of terraced streets count the same. We measured how unevenly people are spread around 56 English towns, and re-counted 17 real grids by the people who live in each square. The two readings can differ by more than 20 percentage points.
Read the guideEngland will have 665,000 more over-85s and 904,000 fewer children by 2034: what it means for dental practices
More than a third of England's population growth over the last decade was people over 65. Over the next decade ONS projects it at more than four fifths. We measured who is arriving around dental practices, for every council area in England and across 56 towns, set the homes on brownfield registers against the practices already there, and turned it into what to offer and plan for.
Read the guide23 councils where children's tooth decay is significantly worse than England's and a smaller share of children see an NHS dentist
NHSBSA's 2025/26 dental statistics, published on 27 August 2026, show 7.17 million children seen by an NHS dentist in the year to March 2026, 60% of all children and the highest number in the seven years the series covers. Here is who is still missing. Set council by council against the national survey of 5-year-olds, NHS dental contact for children does not rise where decay is highest. In 23 councils, home to about 1.6 million children, decay in the 2023/24 survey is significantly worse than England's and the share of children seen in the year to March 2026 is below England's 58.9%.
Read the guideEngland's most deprived places have 29% more residents per NHS dental site than places of the same size, and a quarter fewer practices competing online
We joined a Google search of 1,130 English towns and suburbs to the government's 2025 deprivation figures and the NHS register of dental practices. The most deprived places have more residents for every NHS-registered site and fewer practices competing online for a place their size. The first search result is less often a local practice, and Google ratings are lower.
Read the guideHow many Google reviews does a dental practice need? 1,489 UK towns measured
We searched every city, town and suburb in the United Kingdom for a dentist, and measured the 6,182 practices ranking in them. The answer depends on how many practices compete in your town: 70 Google reviews holds a place on the map where five or fewer compete, 249 where twelve or more do. Five years of search data then shows what patients are asking for, when they ask, and which counties are still open.
Read the guideSee your own town.
Every guide above was written from the same public data the product reads. The free month points it at your town: every practice competing with yours, sized by the share of local search each one holds, re-checked weekly.
Run on our own practice first: ninth of the 14 practices measured in its town in May, first of 18 in September, on UK-wide search value. Page-one keywords: 6 in May, 194 in September.
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