How 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.
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If you are looking up how to remove Google reviews from your practice's profile, the honest answer comes first: a business cannot delete a review. You can report a review that breaks Google's policies, appeal once if Google refuses, and in rare cases ask Google to remove content for legal reasons. Reviews that are negative but genuine stay up, however unfair they feel.
This guide sets out which reviews Google will remove, the exact steps to report and appeal, how to handle fake and extortion reviews, and what a dental practice must not do in the process.
Can a business delete Google reviews?
No. There is no delete button for reviews on your own Business Profile. Only the person who wrote a review can delete it. Google's Maps help explains that a reviewer can edit or delete their own review from Your contributions in Google Maps, and that a review stays up until they take it down.
What you can do is flag a review. Google's help page on reporting inappropriate reviews says you can report any review, but only those that violate Google policies are eligible for removal. It adds that you should not report a review just because you disagree with it, and that Google does not get involved in conflicts between businesses and customers.
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Which Google reviews can be removed?
Google removes reviews that break its Maps user-generated content policy. The categories that come up most for dental practices are below.
| Policy area | What it covers | How it can show up for a practice |
|---|---|---|
| Fake engagement | Content not based on a real experience at the location, paid reviews, reviews posted from multiple accounts by one person | A review clearly meant for a different practice with a similar name, or a burst of one-line reviews from new accounts |
| Conflict of interest | Current or former employment, contractual relationships, competitors, family | A review from a former employee or a rival practice |
| Off-topic | General, political or social commentary or personal rants not about an experience at the place | A rant about NHS dentistry in general rather than your practice |
| Personal information | Posting someone else's personal information, including medical information, without consent | A review that discloses details about another patient |
| Harassment, hate speech, offensive content | Threats, doxxing, abuse | Abuse aimed at a named member of the team |
| Advertising and solicitation | Promotional content, links and contact details for other businesses | A review that is really an advert |
| Unclear or repetitive content | Random characters, the same content posted repeatedly | The same text appearing under several names |
What Google will not remove
A genuine one-star review about a long wait, a price, a cancelled appointment or a dentist the patient did not like is not a policy violation. Neither is a review you believe gets the facts wrong. The CMA's fake reviews guidance makes the same point from the legal side: a review is not fake just because the business it is about does not like or agree with it, as long as it reflects the reviewer's genuine experience.
How to report a Google review
This is how to remove bad reviews from Google My Business, now called Google Business Profile, when they break the rules. Google's steps are:
- Go to your Business Profile and select Read reviews.
- Next to the review, select Report.
- Choose the reason, for example Spam or Profanity.
- Select Send report.
Google says review evaluation typically takes several days. Pick the reason that matches the policy most closely. A conflict of interest reported as profanity is likely to be judged against the wrong test.
The Reviews Management Tool
Google's Reviews Management Tool is the official Google review removal tool. It lets you report reviews and check what happened to each report. Google lists three statuses:
- Decision pending: flagged but not yet evaluated.
- Report reviewed, no policy violation: evaluated and left up. You can appeal.
- Escalated, check your email for updates: your appeal is with Google and the final decision will come by email.
How to appeal a Google review decision
If Google decides a review you reported does not break its policies, you get a one-time appeal. In the Reviews Management Tool, choose the option to check reviews you reported previously, select Appeal eligible reviews, pick the review, fill in the form and submit. Google says you can select up to 10 reviews at once and will email you the result. If the review breaks the policy it is removed. If not, it stays live.
Because you get one appeal, use it well. Say which policy the review breaks, quote the part of the review that breaks it, and give any evidence that is not confidential. For a dental practice that last part matters: never send Google a patient's clinical record to prove a point.
Fake reviews and review extortion
Are fake Google reviews illegal?
Yes, in the UK. Since April 2025, fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews have been a banned practice under Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The CMA's guidance says the ban covers both positive and negative fake reviews. That is useful context when you report a suspected fake, but the route to removal from Google is still the report form.
Extortion: someone offers to remove reviews for money
Google describes a scam where a profile is hit by a sudden run of one-star and two-star reviews, followed by a demand for money to remove them. Its extortion reporting guidance is clear: do not engage or pay, do not try to resolve it yourself, gather evidence straight away and use the merchant extortion report form. Screenshots of the demands with dates, times and sender details, plus links to each suspicious review, are what Google asks for.
Contacting the reviewer
The cleanest outcome is the reviewer choosing to update or delete their own review after their concern is resolved. Google notes that customers can still change their review after reading your reply. Two rules apply.
- Never offer anything for a change or removal. Google prohibits incentives for revising or removing a negative review, and the CMA gives offering a refund or gift card to change a negative review as an example of what the law prohibits.
- Never confirm in public that the reviewer was a patient. The GDC's Standards for the Dental Team say you must keep patient information confidential, including what treatment someone is having, and must not post information or comments about patients on social networking or blogging sites. A public reply should invite the reviewer to contact the practice manager and say nothing more specific.
If the review describes a complaint, handle it through your practice complaints procedure like any other. Resolving the complaint is worth doing for its own sake, and whether the reviewer then changes the review is their choice. The CMA guidance also warns against making dispute resolution conditional on someone not leaving a negative review.
The legal route
Some reviews are not just unfair but unlawful, for example a false statement of fact that damages the practice. Google has a separate process to report content for legal reasons, and it asks you to flag the content in the product first.
In England and Wales, the Defamation Act 2013 says a statement is not defamatory unless it has caused or is likely to cause serious harm, and for a business trading for profit that means serious financial loss. That is a high bar for a single review. Take advice from a solicitor before you go down this road, and before you send any reviewer a legal letter.
How many 5-star reviews cancel a 1-star review?
Google says the review score is the average of all ratings, and that after a new review the score can take up to two weeks to update. So the answer depends on the average you want to hold. To keep an average of R after a one-star review, you need (R minus 1) divided by (5 minus R) new five-star reviews.
| Average you want to hold | Five-star reviews to balance one 1-star |
|---|---|
| 4.0 | 3 |
| 4.5 | 7 |
| 4.8 | 19 |
That arithmetic explains why practices at the top of the scale feel every bad review. It is also worth keeping in proportion. In our study of 1,489 UK places, the median practice in the local map pack was rated 4.8, and a steady flow of genuine reviews moves the average far more than any single removal.
Why was my Google review removed, and will reviews disappear in 2026?
If reviews vanish from your profile, Google's page on missing or delayed reviews lists the usual reasons. Most are removed for policy violations such as spam. New reviews can take a few days to appear while they are checked. After profiles are merged, reviews can take a few days to show. Reviews removed for policy violations are not restored.
Google also says it may temporarily disable reviews for certain profiles or categories, and it has removed reviews entirely for one category, schools for students aged 6 to 18. Nothing in Google's help suggests reviews are being removed from dental practices in general.
A large drop can also follow a policy breach by the business. Google's restrictions page says a profile found breaking the fake engagement policy can have reviews unpublished or new reviews blocked for a set period. That is one more reason never to buy reviews or offer anything for them.
Companies that promise to remove bad Google reviews
Firms offering to remove reviews have no special access. They use the same report form and appeal you do, and Google decides against the same policy. If someone promises guaranteed removal, or suggests posting positive reviews to bury a bad one, walk away. The second idea is a fake review, which is both a Google violation and a banned practice under UK law.
What to do instead of chasing removal
- Reply calmly and generally. The reply is read by future patients far more than by the reviewer. How to reply to Google reviews covers the wording and the confidentiality rule.
- Report only what breaks the policy, with the right reason chosen.
- Keep asking every patient for a review, in the same neutral way, so one bad review sits among many genuine ones. Working out your review target shows what that looks like in your town.
Watch every new review as it lands
Practice Radar's Growth plan drafts a reply to each new review in your voice and posts it only when you approve, so a bad review gets a calm, confidential answer quickly.
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.
Thirty days free. No card, and nothing starts automatically when it ends.