Data last verified: 8 November 2026. Figures re-checked against their primary sources under the Whito rolling re-verification programme.
Finding
Asked to "recommend a good dentist" in six UK cities on 8 November 2026, Google AI Mode named 33 practices and only one belongs to a national dental group; asked "where can I see a dentist", four of 16 did.
Source: Whito, whito.co.uk/dentists/ai-mode-dentist-recommendations-who-owns-them. Free to quote with a link to this page.
Last Updated on November 13, 2026
Read a short summary
General summary
On 8 November 2026 Whito asked Google AI Mode eight questions about dentists in six UK cities and checked who owns every practice it named. Asked to recommend a good dentist, AI Mode named 33 practices. Only one belongs to a national dental group, and 16 are independent. Asked where to see a dentist in two of the cities, it named 16 practices and four belong to national groups. Only 6 of the 33 say on their own website that they offer NHS treatment.
Bullet points
- Google AI Mode, eight questions, six UK cities, asked on 8 November 2026.
- "Recommend a good dentist": 33 practices named. Only one belongs to a national dental group.
- 16 of the 33 are independent.
- "Where can I see a dentist" in two cities: 16 practices named, four in national groups.
- Only 6 of the 33 "good dentist" practices say on their own website that they offer NHS treatment.
Basic explainer
Many UK dental practices are owned by large groups that run hundreds of sites. Others are independent, which means the dentist or a small local firm owns them. Whito asked Google’s AI search tool to recommend dentists and checked who owns each one it named. When asked for a good dentist, it almost never named a practice owned by a big group. It also rarely pointed to NHS care.
These summaries were written with AI from this page only. The full page below is the record.
Asked: 8 November 2026. Google AI Mode, eight questions, six UK cities. Checked: who owns every practice it named, and whether it says it offers NHS care.
The big dental groups run hundreds of UK practices. You might expect AI to send people to them. When people ask for a good dentist, it almost never does.
Asked to “recommend a good dentist” in six cities, AI Mode named 33 practices. Only one belongs to a national dental group (Scott Arms Dental Practice in Birmingham, part of Portman). 16 are independent.
Asked “where can I see a dentist” in two of the cities, it named 16 practices and four belong to national groups: Portman, Dentex, Envisage and Rodericks.
And it rarely pointed to NHS care. Only 6 of the 33 “good dentist” practices say on their own website that they offer NHS treatment. In Leeds, both answers said NHS waiting lists are “highly constrained”.
Who owns the dentists AI Mode recommends
| Owner | “Recommend a good dentist” (6 cities) | “Where can I see a dentist” (2 cities) |
|---|---|---|
| Independent practice | 16 | 2 |
| Small group (2 to 4 sites) | 6 | 3 |
| Larger or regional group | 6 | 5 |
| National dental group | 1 | 4 |
| NHS dental hospital | 1 | 1 |
| Not confirmed | 3 | 1 |
| Total | 33 | 16 |
National groups found: Portman and Dentex (now one group), Envisage, Rodericks. No mydentist or Bupa Dental Care practice was named in any answer. Larger or regional groups include Yorkshire Dental Suite (nine clinics), Night and Day Emergency Dentist, Pain Free Dentistry Group and The 247 Dentist.
The same pattern as opticians
This is the quality-word switch we found with opticians: add “good” to the question and AI Mode moves away from the big groups. Ask the plain, practical question and they come back.
NHS or private
| What the practice’s own site says | Practices (“good dentist” answers) |
|---|---|
| Offers NHS treatment | 6 |
| Private only | 11 |
| Unclear | 1 |
| Not stated or site not found | 15 |
Most of the named practices presented themselves as private.
The answers, as captured
These are screenshots of the top of each Google AI Mode answer we used, taken on 8 November 2026 from one signed-in account. The first six are the “good dentist” question, the last two the “see a dentist” question. Click any image to see it full size. Answers change from day to day, so you may get a different list if you ask today.
How we checked
For each practice we looked for the owner on its own website (footer, privacy policy, terms), the regulator’s record (CQC in England, HIW in Wales, HIS in Scotland) and Companies House. Every source is in the download file. A practice owned by its own dentists through a holding company is counted as independent.
ChatGPT and Gemini, asked the same question on 12 November 2026
On 12 November 2026 we asked ChatGPT and Gemini the same question, “Recommend a good dentist in [city]”, once each in the same six cities.
Asked to “recommend a good dentist” in six UK cities on 12 November 2026, ChatGPT named 27 practices and none carried a dental group’s brand; Gemini named 44 and two did, mydentist and Bupa Dental Care.
That is the same pattern as opticians. ChatGPT behaved like AI Mode. Gemini added the big brands.
| Engine | Asked | Practices named | Known to belong to a national dental group | Group brand in the name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Mode | 8 Nov 2026 | 33 | 1 | 0 |
| ChatGPT | 12 Nov 2026 | 27 | 2 | 0 |
| Gemini | 12 Nov 2026 | 44 | 5 | 2 |
The group practices each engine named
- ChatGPT, 2 of 27: Scott Arms Dental Practice in Birmingham (Portman, from our 8 November file) and Bristol Dental Anaesthetic Clinic, which has its practice page on the Bupa Dental Care website (opened 12 November). Neither name shows the owner.
- Gemini, 5 of 44: mydentist in Leeds and Bupa Dental Care in Cardiff by brand; The Parade Specialist Dental Centre in Cardiff, which Gemini itself said is part of Bupa and Bupa’s website confirms; Scott Arms Dental Practice (Portman); and The Dentist at Liberty Place in Birmingham (Rodericks, from our 8 November file).
- Scott Arms was named by all three engines. It was the one national-group practice in the AI Mode answers too.
- These are minimum counts. We have not checked who owns the other practices named for the first time on 12 November.
Who ChatGPT and Gemini named
| City | ChatGPT | Gemini |
|---|---|---|
| Leeds | Yorkshire Dental Suite, Infinity Dental Clinic, Aesthetique Dental Care, Leeds City Dentalcare, Church View Dental Care | Clarendon Dental Spa, The Dental Architect, Aesthetique Dental Care, Langdale Dental & Aesthetics, Primley Park Dentistry, Yorkshire Dental Suite, Chelwood Dental Care, mydentist |
| Manchester | Smile Stylist, The Vallance Dental Centre, Gartside Street Dental Lounge, Portway Dental Practice | Smile Stylist, Deansgate Dental Studio, Manchester Dental Practice, Parkfield Dental, Portway Dental Practice, Ringway Dental |
| Birmingham | Oakville Dental, Teeth & Face, Scott Arms Dental Practice, Sherwood Dental Practice | The Dentist at Liberty Place, St Paul’s Square Dental Practice, Will Murphy Dentistry, Cadbury Dental Practice, Harborne Dental Practice, Oakville Dental, Hilltop Dental Practice, Scott Arms Dental Practice, Nothing But The Tooth |
| Bristol | The Bristol Dental Practice, Elgin Park Dental Practice, The Dental Surgery (Clifton), Bristol Dental Anaesthetic Clinic | The Bristol Dental Practice, Queen Square Dental Clinic, Elgin Park Dental Practice, Oakfield Dental Care, The Dental Surgery (Clifton), CK Dental |
| Glasgow | Dentistry On The Square, Shawlands Dental Care, Kalyani Dental Lounge, Dentistry @ Jordanhill, Springburn Dental Care | Kalyani Dental Lounge, St Vincent Smile, The Berkeley Clinic, Sloan Dental, Shawlands Dental Care, Dentistry On The Square, Springburn Dental Care |
| Cardiff | Park Place Dental Practice, West Grove Dental, Bamboo Cosmetic Dentistry, Pontcanna Dental Care, Cwtch Dental Care | Absolute Dental, The Parade Specialist Dental Centre, Penylan Dental Practice, Holmes Dental Care, Hywel Samuel Golate Dental, Opal Dental Practice, Bupa Dental Care, Cwtch Dental Care |
Names in bold were also named by Google AI Mode on 8 November.
All three engines named the same 9 practices: Yorkshire Dental Suite (Leeds), Aesthetique Dental Care (Leeds), Smile Stylist (Manchester), Scott Arms Dental Practice (Birmingham), The Bristol Dental Practice (Bristol), Elgin Park Dental Practice (Bristol), Dentistry On The Square (Glasgow), Kalyani Dental Lounge (Glasgow), Cwtch Dental Care (Cardiff). Across the three engines there were 72 different practices in 104 mentions.
How we ran the second engines
- One ask per city on each engine, each in a new chat, with no follow-up question. Same wording as on 8 November.
- ChatGPT: free account, temporary chat, set to ignore memory and custom instructions. Asked between 15:57 and 16:22 UK time on 12 November 2026.
- Gemini: free account, signed in, Temporary Chat, Auto mode. Asked between 16:24 and 16:39 UK time the same day. Gemini could see the account’s home area, which is not one of the six cities.
- We did not ask AI Mode again. Its figures here are the 8 November ones, so the engines were asked four days apart.
- Where two engines wrote slightly different names for what is plainly the same business, we matched them by hand.
- We did not re-run the second question, “where can I see a dentist”, on ChatGPT or Gemini.
- One answer per city is a small sample, and answers change from one ask to the next.
Every name from both engines is in one file: whito-chatgpt-gemini-second-engine-2026-11-12.csv.
What this does not prove
- Eight questions on one engine on one day is a pilot. Answers change.
- Group ownership says nothing about the quality of care.
- “Not stated” on NHS means we could not find it on the practice’s own site, not that the practice does no NHS work.
- We were signed in to one Google account, so answers may be personalised.
What to do with this
If you own an independent practice: you are winning the “good dentist” question. To keep it:
- Start: make your Google Business Profile complete, and say plainly whether you take NHS patients. AI Mode talks about NHS access in almost every answer.
- Build: say what you are best for, in plain words: nervous patients, implants, Invisalign, same-day emergencies. AI Mode sorted every city by what each practice does best.
- Then test it: ask both questions for your own town, “a good dentist” and “where can I see a dentist”, and compare who gets named.
Our AI Visibility Audit runs this for your practice and your rivals.
Download the data
All 49 answers with the practice, the owner we found, the source and the NHS status: whito-ai-mode-dentists-ownership-2026-11-08.csv. Free to reuse with a link to this page.
Cite this research
Whito Research (2026). Ask AI for a Good Dentist: Who Owns the Practices It Names. Whito. https://whito.co.uk/dentists/ai-mode-dentist-recommendations-who-owns-them/
Key finding: Asked to “recommend a good dentist” in six UK cities on 8 November 2026, Google AI Mode named 33 practices and only one belongs to a national dental group; asked “where can I see a dentist”, four of 16 did.
