Dentist 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.
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Dentist reviews in the UK now live in fewer places than many practice owners assume. Google is the one patients see first, because ratings show in the map results. Facebook, Trustpilot and healthcare directories carry some. The NHS website, which used to host ratings and reviews for NHS dentists, retired that service in July 2025. Knowing where patients actually read and write reviews tells you where to spend your effort and which profiles simply need to be accurate.
The short answer
| Where | Public reviews? | What your practice should do |
|---|---|---|
| Google (Search and Maps) | Yes, with star ratings | Ask every patient the same way, reply to reviews |
| NHS website | No longer, retired July 2025 | Keep your profile accurate, review it at least every 90 days if you hold an NHS contract |
| Yes, as recommendations | Reply where relevant, keep Page details current | |
| Trustpilot and healthcare directories | Varies by site | Claim and correct your listing, reply where you can |
| Friends and Family Test | Published as data, not reviews | NHS practices must offer it and submit monthly |
| CQC feedback, complaints routes | No | Make your complaints procedure easy to find |
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Google reviews: where most dentist reviews are read
When someone searches for a dentist near them, the map results show each practice's star rating and review count before they click anything. That is why Google is where UK patients see most dentist reviews, and why it gets most of this guide's attention.
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking. So Google reviews do two jobs at once: they persuade the person reading, and they feed into whether that person sees you at all.
Our own study of 1,489 UK places on 13 September 2026 recorded the practices holding the three map places for "dentist" plus each place name. The median holder had 113 reviews and a 4.8 rating, and 72% were rated 4.6 or better. Those figures are national. The number that matters for your practice is what the practices in your own town have, and working out your review target shows how to find it.
How do I write a Google review for my dentist?
Patients sometimes ask the practice this directly. Google's Maps help gives the steps: search for the practice in Google Maps, choose Write a review, pick a star rating and, if they like, add text. They need to be signed in to a Google Account, and Google says reviews cannot be anonymous. The name on their Google profile is shown. You can explain the steps, but you must not tell them what to write, which rating to give or which clinician to mention. Google's content policy rules out all three.
The NHS website no longer takes reviews
For years, NHS dentists in England had ratings and reviews on their NHS website profiles. That has gone. NHS England's data science team notes that the Ratings and Reviews service was retired in July 2025, and old review pages on the NHS website now say the service has been decommissioned. If your practice website or patient leaflets still say "review us on the NHS website", take that line out.
Your NHS website profile still matters, because it is where patients check whether you are taking NHS patients, your opening times and your contact details. If you hold an NHS contract in England, the regulations require you to review your NHS.uk profile at least once in every 90 days and correct anything inaccurate or incomplete. Practices manage the profile through the NHS Profile Manager.
So for NHS dentist reviews specifically, patients who used to post on the NHS website are now more likely to post on Google, which raises the stakes on your Google profile further.
The Friends and Family Test
NHS dental practices in England still collect structured feedback through the Friends and Family Test. NHS England says its requirements for dental services are few: make the FFT available to patients and submit monthly response numbers. NHS England then publishes the results, including monthly dental tables.
The FFT is not a review site, and it is not a substitute for Google. It is useful in two ways. It gives every patient an anonymous route to give feedback, and its free-text comments tell you what patients notice before those things turn up in public reviews. Offer it to everyone. Do not use it as a filter that sends unhappy patients to the FFT and happy ones to Google, because that is selective soliciting of positive reviews, which Google prohibits.
Facebook, Trustpilot and directories
Facebook shows recommendations on business Pages, and Meta lets Page owners turn recommendations on or off. If yours are on, check them as you would Google reviews and reply where it helps.
Trustpilot is an open review site where some patients leave dentist reviews, particularly for private treatment. If your practice has a page there, it is worth knowing what it says.
Healthcare and local directories often carry their own ratings and show up in searches such as "best dentist reviews" or "dentist reviews near me". You do not need to chase reviews on every one. What matters is that each listing has your correct name, address, phone number and opening hours, and that you know which ones patients actually use in your area.
Directory reviews can appear on your Google profile
Google says a Business Profile may show customer reviews from other local review sites, generated automatically from information Google gathers from the web. If a review from another site shows on your profile and you have a concern about it, Google's advice is to contact the site it came from, not Google. That is one more reason to know which directories list your practice and what they say.
Spreading the ask thinly
Asking patients to review you on five platforms means most will do none. Pick one primary place for reviews, which for nearly every UK practice is Google, and ask for that consistently. Keep the rest accurate.
Where unhappy patients go instead of reviews
Not every patient with a problem writes a review. Some use formal routes, and those are worth knowing because they are the alternatives a fair practice should make visible.
- Your own complaints procedure. The GDC's guidance on advertising says a practice website must show details of the complaints procedure and who patients can contact if they are not satisfied: the relevant NHS body for NHS treatment and the Dental Complaints Service for private treatment.
- The CQC. Patients in England can give feedback on care to the Care Quality Commission, which says this feedback helps it decide when, where and what to inspect.
The CMA's fake reviews guidance is clear that a complaints process must not be used to keep reviews off public sites. Businesses publishing reviews should not try to persuade people to complain rather than review, or dissuade them from reviewing once their complaint is resolved. Both routes stay open.
How patients check a dentist is legitimate
"How to check if your dentist is legit" is one of the questions Google shows alongside dentist reviews, and it is a fair one. Reviews are only part of the answer. Patients can also:
- search the GDC online register to confirm a dentist or dental care professional is registered
- check the GDC's specialist lists if someone describes themselves as a specialist
- look up a practice's CQC inspection report in England
This is worth reflecting in your own website. Showing each clinician's GDC number and qualifications is already required by the GDC's advertising guidance for anyone mentioned on a practice website as providing care, and it answers the question before the patient has to ask it.
What this means for your practice
- Make Google your one review ask. Same wording, same point in the patient journey, every patient.
- Remove references to NHS website reviews from your site and leaflets.
- Keep your NHS profile current and diarise the 90-day review if you hold an NHS contract.
- Check Facebook, Trustpilot and the directories you appear on once a quarter for accuracy and any reviews needing a reply.
- Reply to Google reviews without confirming the reviewer was a patient. How to reply to Google reviews covers the wording.
Compare your reviews with nearby practices
Practice Radar's reviews race dashboard puts your Google review count and rating next to the practices competing with you in your town, re-checked weekly, so you know where you stand.
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.