Data last verified: 10 October 2026. Figures re-checked against their primary sources under the Whito rolling re-verification programme.
Last Updated on October 10, 2026
Updated 10 October 2026. Compiled from Whito’s own published studies, each figure dated and linked to the study it came from. Refreshed with each quarterly edition of the Whito AI Visibility Index.
This page folds every dentist figure from across Whito’s published studies into one place. No figure below is restated from another statistics site. Every one comes from a Whito study, with the collection date and the source study beside it. Where a study’s figure rests on published third-party pricing, the entry says so.
Three AI engines named 67 dental practices across six UK cities, and only one answer in 18 pointed at the GDC register. Of 120 practice websites read in October 2026, 83 publish a private check-up fee, from £33 to £102. Dentists were also the hardest sector to verify of the eight Whito has checked against Companies House. The rest of this page puts a source and a date on those figures and on every other dentist number Whito holds.
The key figures
Sources: Whito original studies collected July to October 2026, and Whito’s May 2026 cost and marketing data reports. Each figure is sourced individually below.
What AI recommends when someone asks for a dentist
1. ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode named 67 dental practices across six UK cities from one identical prompt. 18 answers produced 94 mentions. 45 of the 67 practices, 67%, were named by one engine only, and five were named by all three.
Source: Whito’s dentist register study. Base: 18 answers, 3 engines x 6 cities, collected 27 September 2026.
2. Asked for the best private dentist in the same six cities a month earlier, the engines named 59 practices, and 66% appeared in one engine’s answers only. The median quoted review count behind a recommendation was 368, far higher than for solicitors (113) or accountants (37).
Source: Whito’s dentist recommendation study. Base: 84 recommendation slots, collected 14 August 2026.
3. Dentists are the least platform-dependent sector Whito has measured: a trade platform sat behind the recommendation in 1 town of 20, 5%. The engine built its dentist answers from the practices’ own websites, in every answer.
Source: The Whito AI Visibility Index, Q3 2026. Base: 20 Google AI Mode answers for dentists, collected 22 August 2026.
4. When two engines were asked for a trustworthy Manchester dentist on the same day, they named 10 practices between them and shared none. One answer ended with a paid advert for a dental tourism package in Turkey.
Source: Whito’s two-engine local recommendation study, collected 14 September 2026.
Verification: the registers behind the recommendation
5. One answer in 18 pointed at the GDC register. Of the 67 named practices, 26 (39%) were traced to an active company registration from the name given, 32 were ambiguous, five had no active match, three matched only dissolved companies, and one recommendation was an NHS dental hospital.
Source: Whito’s dentist register study, Companies House pass, 27 September 2026. Practices often trade under a name that never appears on the company register; an unmatched name is a prompt to check, not a verdict.
6. The CQC check settled what the company register could not: 49 of the 59 English-city practices matched a CQC-registered location of that name. Of the 28 practices Companies House left ambiguous, 22 matched a CQC location.
Source: the same study, CQC pass against the 30 September 2026 care directory, checked 3 October 2026.
7. Across eight sectors checked against Companies House, dentists failed most: 11 of 98 AI-named dental businesses, 11.2%, could not be verified as a real, active firm in that town.
Source: Whito’s verification study of 728 AI-recommended businesses, checked 28 August 2026.
8. Of 28 UK businesses advertising tooth whitening, 20 were not dental practices, and none of the 20 published a GDC number. The seven GDC numbers published by the dental practices all resolved to currently registered dentists.
Source: Whito’s tooth whitening register check, collected July 2026.
The quotable version
Three AI engines named 67 UK dental practices; one answer in eighteen pointed at the GDC register, and three of the names matched only dissolved companies.
Free to quote with a link. See “How to cite this page” below.
What a dental check-up costs, as published
9. 83 of 120 practice websites published a private check-up fee, from £33 to £102. 37 showed no fee. 61 of the published fees were fixed and 22 were “from” prices.
Source: Whito’s published price study. Base: 120 practice websites across 8 towns, read 3 October 2026.
10. 32 of those 83 fees came from branches of four national groups, and one group’s fee varied by branch from £65 to £102.
Source: the same study, read 3 October 2026. The study notes its dental figures show what is published where it looked, not a market rate.
What dentist marketing costs
11. UK dental practices spend anywhere from £500 to £15,000 a month on marketing, depending on size and on how much of the book is private.
Source: Whito’s dentist marketing cost report, May 2026, from published UK provider pricing and trade benchmarks.
12. Google Ads clicks run £10 to £20 for dental implant terms and £4 to £8 for “dentist near me”. SEO retainers of £800 to £3,000 a month are standard for dental practices.
Source: the same report, Q1 2026 UK auction data and published provider pricing.
Demand, reviews and websites
13. “Dentist near me” generates more than 165,000 monthly UK searches, with “emergency dentist” above 90,000.
Source: Whito’s dentist marketing data report, Google Keyword Planner ranges, Q1 2026.
14. The average rating behind an AI dentist recommendation was 4.83 stars, with 4.9 practices named per answer. Only 3 of 56 named dentist businesses sat below 4.5 stars.
Source: The Whito AI Visibility Index, Q3 2026, collected 22 August 2026.
15. 10 of 81 working dental practice homepages, 12%, turned away an automated reader that opened normally for a person.
Source: Whito’s AI browser readiness study. Base: 86 dental homepages sampled, 81 working, read 8 October 2026.
16. Across the five national dental groups scored in May 2026, the leader scored 7.7 of 10 and the weakest 4.6, and the leader was ahead on every one of the seven channels scored.
Source: Whito’s dentist marketing leaderboard, an editorial scoring of visible public activity, data collected May 2026.
Every Whito study behind this page
- We asked AI for a dentist 18 times, one answer pointed to the GDC register. 67 practices, the Companies House split and the CQC pass. September 2026.
- Which dentists does AI actually recommend? 59 practices across six cities, with screenshots. August 2026.
- Boiler service and dental check-up prices. What 120 practices publish in eight towns. October 2026.
- The tooth whitening register check. 28 businesses advertising whitening, 20 not dental practices. July 2026.
- The Whito AI Visibility Index, Q3 2026. Dentists’ 5% platform dependence and the ratings behind the answers. August 2026.
- The verification study. 728 AI-recommended businesses checked against Companies House, dentists the hardest to verify. August 2026.
- Two engines, one city, few shared names. The Manchester head-to-head, including the dental tourism advert. September 2026.
- AI browser readiness. 86 dental homepages read by an automated reader. October 2026.
- The dentist marketing leaderboard. Five national groups scored on seven channels. May 2026.
- What dentist marketing costs and dentist marketing data. Published pricing and demand compilations. May 2026.
Marketing guidance for the practice itself lives at Whito for dentists.
The dentists sector file
The datasets behind the free studies are available through Whito Data: every dental practice named by the AI engines with its Companies House and CQC verdicts, and the check-up price file, town by town with each practice’s published fee. Sector files are built to order from the collection logs.
Method and known limits
This page is a compilation, not a new collection. Every figure was published in a Whito study first, and each entry above names its study, its base and its collection date. The studies use different samples collected on different dates, so figures are not directly comparable across entries: the September register study used six cities and three engines, the August recommendation study used the same cities with a different question, and the October price study used eight towns. Where a figure comes from published third-party pricing inside a Whito report, the entry says so. Nothing here has been restated from another statistics site.
This page is refreshed when a new edition of the AI Visibility Index is published, quarterly. The next index edition is due December 2026. Corrections are noted on the page with a date, never quietly edited.
How to cite this page
Whito, “UK Dentist Statistics 2026”, whito.co.uk, updated 10 October 2026. Any figure on this page may be quoted with a link to this page or to the underlying study named beside the figure.
Common questions
How many dentists do AI engines recommend in the UK?
In Whito’s September 2026 study, ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode named 67 dental practices across six UK cities from one identical prompt. 67% were named by one engine only, and five were named by all three.
Can you trust an AI-recommended dentist?
Check before you book. Only one answer in 18 pointed at the GDC register, and only 39% of the named practices could be traced to an active registered company from the name given. A follow-up CQC check matched 49 of the 59 English-city practices, so most are real, and it was the registers that showed it. Practices often trade under a name that never appears on the company register, so an unmatched name is a prompt to check, not a verdict.
How much does a private dental check-up cost in the UK?
Of 120 practice websites Whito read in October 2026, 83 published a private check-up fee, from £33 to £102. 32 of those 83 fees came from branches of four national groups, and one group’s fee varied by branch from £65 to £102.
How much does dental marketing cost in the UK?
UK practices spend roughly £500 to £15,000 a month depending on size and model, from published provider pricing. Google Ads clicks run about £10 to £20 for implant terms and £4 to £8 for “dentist near me”, and SEO retainers of £800 to £3,000 a month are standard.
If your business is named here and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk and we will check it and correct it. If you want to respond, send us a statement and we will publish it alongside. Full detail: Corrections, right of reply and removals.
