How does a dental practice get more Google reviews?

Reviews confirm, they do not create

The instinct is that more reviews mean more new patients, so the profile gets treated like a lever you pull for growth. It is not that. Reviews are the last step in the decision, not the first. A patient recalls a name they already recognise, the way patients actually choose a dentist and the way families choose one, and only then do they open the reviews to confirm the name is safe. So reviews raise how often your existing recognition turns into a booked call. They rarely manufacture demand on their own. A practice with excellent reviews but no recognition in the neighbourhood still does not get found.

Recency beats the average

The number owners fixate on, the star average, is the least useful thing a reader actually uses. Someone scanning your profile reads the most recent few reviews and checks the dates. A 4.9 built two years ago reads as a practice that has gone quiet. A 4.6 with three thoughtful reviews from the last month reads as a practice people are actively choosing right now. That is why a steady trickle of recent, specific reviews beats a single big push that then goes stale, and why the review profile is never finished.

What you cannot do in Canada

Provincial dental colleges treat reviews as advertising, and offering anything of value in exchange, a discount, a draw entry, a free whitening, is not permitted and can put a licence at risk. Writing or soliciting fake reviews is out for the same reason. That sounds limiting, but it is clarifying: it removes every shortcut and leaves exactly one durable method, earning reviews from genuinely satisfied patients and making it effortless for them to leave one.

The front-desk habit that works

The mechanics are the same ones that earn referrals without discounts: ask the specific patient most likely to say yes, at the moment of genuine delight, and remove all friction. In practice, the team member who just finished with a happy patient names it in the room, and a short text or email with a direct link to the Google review page lands while the visit is still fresh. Do not blast the whole list, ask the patient who just told you they loved their visit. And ask close to the moment, since a review requested three weeks later rarely gets written.

Why this compounds with everything else

A living review profile does not stand on its own, it strengthens the recognition the rest of your local presence is building. When your name is already familiar in the neighbourhood, recent reviews are what turn that familiarity into a call. It is also a competitive signal worth reading on the practices around you, which is part of how you read the competition: the hardest practices to displace are the ones with both recognition and a recent, active review profile. And when a critical review does land, respond to it the right way, a single bad review rarely dents a name people already recognise.