Roshanak Kavian
Co-Founder and CEO of Indigo Mars, a Los Angeles marketing agency.
Here's something that surprises most dental practices: when a patient asks ChatGPT for a dentist, a significant share of the underlying local business data — by some estimates, around 70% — comes from Foursquare, not Google. Most practices have never claimed or updated their Foursquare listing, simply because the app itself faded from everyday use years ago. The practices that get recommended aren't the ones with the biggest ad budgets — they're the ones with consistent, complete listings across Foursquare, Yelp, and their own website, backed by genuinely specific reviews.
The Platform Most Practices Have Never Touched
Foursquare quietly remains a major backend data source for AI local recommendations, even though almost nobody uses its consumer app anymore. This is worth acting on directly: claiming and completing a Foursquare business listing — accurate name, address, phone, services, hours — is a genuinely quick, low-effort task most competing practices have simply never done, which makes it a real, accessible advantage for the practices that do.
Why Generic Five-Star Reviews Aren't Enough
A stack of five-star reviews that just say "great experience" carries less weight than a smaller number of reviews that mention something specific — a particular procedure, a specific concern that was addressed, a doctor by name. When a patient asks an AI tool specifically about Invisalign or dental implants, the system is looking for reviews and content that actually reference that specific service, not just general praise. Encouraging patients to mention what they actually had done, not just how nice everyone was, genuinely helps here.
If a Service Isn't Explicitly Listed, You Won't Appear for It
This is a concrete, specific detail worth knowing: if a service like Invisalign or implants isn't explicitly named somewhere in your practice's data — your website, your Google Business Profile, your Foursquare listing — you're unlikely to be recommended for a question specifically about that service, even if you genuinely offer it. Vague service descriptions ("comprehensive dental care") don't give an AI system anything specific to match a specific question against.
The Real Behavioral Shift Worth Knowing About
Roughly a third of people researching healthcare providers now include some AI consultation in that process, and that share is meaningfully higher for younger patients. This isn't a future consideration — it's already shaping how a real portion of prospective patients are finding a new dentist right now.
Where to Go From Here
For a real example of what this looks like in practice, see The Dental Practice AI Visibility Playbook: What Actually Drove 142% Patient Growth, and the real budget numbers behind it in How Much Should a Dental Practice Spend on Marketing?
Not sure whether your practice's listings are actually complete across the places AI systems are checking? Get in touch and we'll take a look.
