Dr. Anissa Broussard Answers Dentists' 12 Most-Asked AI Search Questions
More and more people ask AI to recommend a local business, dentists included: they ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity or Google's AI and get a short list of names instead of ten links. These are 12 questions dentists ask me about it, with the straight answers I give them.
Key points
- AI engines name a few practices, not a page of links, so being on that short list matters.
- There's no special trick for Google's AI Overviews. Google says the same SEO fundamentals apply.
- Each engine reads sources differently, so check all of them, service by service.
- Specific, answer-first content from your own doctor gives engines something to quote.
- Measure monthly and judge the trend, because individual answers move.
I'm Dr. Anissa Broussard, DMD. I practiced dentistry for more than 20 years, founded Digital Floss, and wrote FOUND: How AI Chose Your Competitors, And What to Do About It Right Now. I also built our AI Visibility Assessment, which shows practices how AI engines read them.
What is AI search for dentists?
AI search is when a patient asks an AI tool like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews to recommend a dentist or explain a treatment, and gets a written answer naming a few practices instead of a list of links. For a dental practice, the goal is to be one of the practices those answers name.
Are patients really using ChatGPT to find a dentist?
More every year. BrightLocal's 2026 research found 45% of consumers use AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier. And on Google, Pew found people clicked a result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when it didn't. More patients read an answer before they ever see your website.
How do I check whether AI recommends my practice?
Ask each major engine the question your patients ask, for each service you want to grow, and write down who gets named. My guide to AI search for dentists has a 15-minute self-audit with the exact prompts.
Why does AI recommend my competitor and not me?
Usually because the engine can find more clear, specific, consistent information about your competitor. In what we see, AI engines tend to repeat what credible sources say: your website, Google Business Profile, directories, reviews, videos and posts. If yours are thin, outdated or don't match each other, the engine has less reason to name you.
Should I trust an agency that promises a spot in Google's AI Overviews?
No. Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, so there is no secret switch to sell. What an honest agency can promise is the work: helpful content, pages Google can crawl, accurate business information, and a monthly check of what the engines say.
Do Google reviews help me show up in AI answers?
They help patients trust you, and they're part of the picture. But in our October 2026 data from 62 practices, practices with the most Google reviews weren't named more often than practices with the fewest. Practices with the largest web footprint were: 44% of answers, compared with 30%. Keep reviews steady, then invest in content.
Does my website still matter if patients ask AI?
Yes, more than ever. AI engines that search the web read your website to decide what you do and where. Give every important service its own page, open each with a direct answer, keep your name, address and phone identical everywhere, and use Dentist structured data.
Does video help with AI search?
It can. AI engines read video through its title, description and captions, and BrightEdge found YouTube is the video platform AI engines cite most. Title each video with the patient question it answers, upload corrected captions and embed it on the matching page of your website.
Should I stop investing in Google now that patients ask AI?
No. Google is still a major way patients find a dentist, and Google itself now shows AI answers at the top of many searches. The work that helps you on Google, like a complete Business Profile and a clear page for every service, is the same foundation AI engines read. Keep it, then build on it.
Which AI engine matters most for a dental practice?
All of them, because they disagree. In our October 2026 tests, all four engines named the practice in only 13% of searches, and each engine named practices at a different rate. Being named in one doesn't mean you're named in the others.
How long does it take to show up in AI answers?
In our tracking, engines that search the web live can reflect changes within weeks, while answers that come from a model's built-in knowledge move more slowly. Answers also move month to month: about one in six changed between our September and October checks. Judge progress over a few months, not a few days.
Can I do AI search optimization myself?
You can start. Run the self-audit, fix your Google Business Profile and directory listings, give each service its own answer-first page, and film your doctor answering common questions. Where practices usually get stuck is doing it every month: measuring each engine, publishing new answers and keeping every source consistent. That's the part an agency should take off your plate.
If you want to go deeper, my book FOUND is a 12-chapter playbook on how AI decides which practices to recommend and what to do about it. Our AI visibility work is that book, done for you every month. And if you'd like to see what the engines say about your practice today, we'll run it live on a strategy call.
More about me, my talks and where I'm speaking next is on my speaker page.
Sources
- BrightLocal, AI trust findings, 2026: https://www.brightlocal.com/research/lcrs-ai-trust/
- Pew Research Center, "Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results" (July 22, 2025): https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/
- Google Search Central, "AI features and your website": https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
- BrightEdge, "YouTube presence in AI search": https://brightedge.com/resources/weekly-ai-search-insights/youtube-presence-ai-search
- Digital Floss AI visibility sweep, October 1, 2026: 62 dental practices in 35 states; ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity asked through their own APIs with web search on; a practice counted as named only when the answer named the practice or its doctor; engines that returned an error excluded, never counted as a miss.
About the author
Dr. Anissa Broussard, DMD practiced dentistry for more than 20 years before founding Digital Floss, a dental-only marketing agency. She is the author of FOUND: How AI Chose Your Competitors, And What to Do About It Right Now, and built Digital Floss's AI Visibility Assessment. More about Dr. Broussard
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