A Google Business Profile for a dentist is the free listing that shows a dental practice on Google Search and Maps, with its hours, phone number, booking link, photos, and reviews. Google's guidelines name dentists as individual practitioners, so a practice and each public-facing dentist in it can hold separate profiles under rules Google sets. This page sets out those rules, the categories, verification, the profile fields that matter to a practice, the review and content policies that apply to health businesses, Local Services Ads screening for dentists in the United States, and the review and photo benchmarks our audit applies to dental practices. Every Google fact comes from Google's own documentation, linked at the end.
Last reviewed September 9, 2026
Google's representation guidelines treat dentists the way they treat doctors and lawyers: as individual practitioners who may have a profile of their own. Three situations, each with Google's rule.
ScenarioSeveral public-facing dentists work at one address.
Google allows one profile per location, and where several public-facing dentists work at that location, the organization should create a Business Profile for the location, separate from any practitioner's. A practice that relocates updates the existing profile with the new address instead of creating a new one.
OutcomeOne profile for the location, separate from any dentist's own.
ScenarioA dentist patients can contact directly at the verified address during stated hours.
Google says an individual practitioner should create their own dedicated Business Profile if they operate in a public-facing role and can be contacted directly at the verified location during stated hours. The title of that profile should include only the practitioner's name, not the name of the organization. Support staff should not create profiles, and a practitioner should not hold several profiles to cover different specializations.
OutcomeA profile of their own, titled with the dentist's name only.
ScenarioThe only public-facing dentist at a location run under a brand.
If a practitioner is the only public-facing practitioner at a location and represents a branded organization, Google says it is best to share a single profile with the organization, named in the format brand or company, a colon, then the practitioner's name.
OutcomeOne shared profile, named in the format brand or company, a colon, then the dentist's name.
Google's duplicate profile rules confirm the arrangement: multiple businesses at one address can each have a profile when they are distinct businesses with different names and clearly visible differences in signage, and each is eligible for a profile. Google names "individual practitioners at a shared location" among the cases this covers. A profile Google considers a duplicate does not show on Search or Maps.
Google says not to create a new Business Profile because of a change in ownership, and that when a business has a new owner or manager but keeps the same name, the reviews remain. Google's protection guidance is to remove ex-employees' profile access when they no longer work at the business. Only owners can remove other owners and managers, and a removed person's replies to reviews, posts, and comments stay on the profile.
Google says the categories you select help connect the business with customers who search for its products or services, and that they affect local ranking. Google's guidance on choosing them follows.
A practice that treats patients at its address is a storefront business in Google's terms: it meets customers in person during business hours at a location with permanent signage. That decides which verification paths apply.
| Method | What Google says |
|---|---|
| Which methods you see | Verification methods are automatically determined by Google and cannot be changed. The options depend on business type, public information, region, or business hours, and some businesses must verify with more than one method. |
| Video recording | Google recommends this option where it is offered. For a storefront the video must show the location, the business name clearly printed on a permanent fixture such as a signboard, wall, or window, and proof of management such as access to employee-only areas. At least 30 seconds, recorded live on a mobile device, no faces of other people. |
| Live video call | Available only within the location's business hours. You show the outside signs or a street sign, your equipment or marketing materials, and proof you manage the business, such as employee-only areas. |
| Phone or text, email | A code by phone call or text message, or steps sent to the email address shown on the verification screen. Interactive voice response systems will not receive the code. |
| Postcard | Not available for all businesses. Most codes arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. Do not edit the name, address, or category while waiting, or the code will not work. |
| After you submit | Review takes up to 5 business days, and Google says it may take longer on rare occasions. Changes to business information later, including a category edit, may require re-verification. |
| Ten or more locations | A dental group whose spreadsheet has ten or more profiles from the same business can request bulk verification in Business Profile Manager. |
Eligibility comes first. Google's rules require a business to make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours, and a business showing its address should maintain permanent fixed signage of its name there. A rented mailing address that the practice does not operate from is not eligible, and an office at a co-working space qualifies only with clear signage, customers received during business hours, and the practice's own staff on site.
Nine fields, each with Google's rule and the detail that matters for a practice.
The name must reflect the business's real-world name as used consistently on the storefront, website, and stationery. Practitioner profiles may include a title or degree certification; Google's example is Dr. Not permitted: marketing taglines, service or product information, business hours, phone numbers, or a website address. Google says unnecessary information in the name could result in suspension.
A complete street address, including building, suite, and floor numbers, with a suite or mailbox number entered as Address Line 2. No keywords or URLs in address lines. If the address has no street number or Google cannot find it, pin the location on the map. The address on a profile is public.
Google asks for regular customer-facing hours, and says certain types of business should not provide hours, including those with varied schedules and those that operate only by appointment. A midday closure is set as two entries for the same day with different times. Holidays and other exceptions are Special hours; Google says a closure of seven days or less uses Special hours and a longer closure is marked Temporarily closed. More hours, for specific services, show only after regular hours are set and, Google says, should generally be a subset of them.
A phone number that connects to the individual location, under the direct control of the business, and a local number rather than a central call center wherever possible. Numbers or URLs that redirect or refer to other pages or numbers, including social media pages, are not allowed. Premium-rate numbers are not acceptable.
Google says businesses in certain categories can showcase their offerings on the profile, choosing from suggested options tailored to the business type or adding custom services, grouped into categories with descriptions and prices. Custom service names must not contain profanity, gibberish, personal information, prices, or phone numbers, or they are rejected automatically.
Health and beauty businesses can add a booking button. Sign up with a provider through Reserve with Google, or add your own link under Booking on Google Search and set one as Business preferred. A booking link must lead to a dedicated landing page for the specific location where the patient can complete the booking; social media pages, messaging links, app store links, and link shorteners are not accepted, and Google checks links daily at most and may remove any it cannot crawl. Performance data is not available for custom links, and links cannot be added through the API or a spreadsheet.
Google's accessibility attributes cover a wheelchair-accessible entrance, restroom, seating, parking, and elevator, plus assisted listening devices and hearing loops, each with Google's own test, for example an entrance at least one meter wide with no steps or a ramp. Some attributes can only be changed in certain locations, countries, or business categories, and edits usually take about 10 minutes to review but can take up to 30 days. The GBPcentral audit checks a dental practice for accessibility, parking, and payment options, a restroom, and whether it is good for children.
The description is for services offered and the mission and history of the practice. Google does not allow it to focus on promotions, prices, or sales, to contain links of any type, or to carry irrelevant or low-quality content. Google offers an AI-written suggestion in some regions and tells you to review it for accuracy before saving.
JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, 720 by 720 pixels recommended and 250 by 250 at minimum, in focus, well lit, and without significant alterations or heavy filters. Videos up to 30 seconds, 75 MB, and 720p or higher. A logo and a cover photo are set separately. Photos and videos show on Google only after the profile is verified, and every upload is reviewed against Google's content policies before it goes live.
Two more fields are worth knowing. A practice that has not opened yet can set an opening date up to one year ahead; the profile appears on Google 90 days before that date and carries a "Recently opened" tag for 90 days after it. And a verified profile can add a WhatsApp or text message chat option in the regions where Google offers it.
Google publishes one set of review rules for every trade. What matters for a dental practice is that a reply can touch medical information, and that the restricted content policy names health and medical devices and regulated pharmaceuticals.
Patients must be signed in to a Google Account to leave a review. Google says reviews are available only in certain countries or regions and for certain business categories.
The reviewer is notified and can still change their review after reading the reply.
A sudden run of one and two star reviews followed by a demand for money is an extortion scam. Google's advice is not to engage or pay, and to report it through its merchant extortion form with screenshots and review links.
Google's prohibited content policy bars personal information about others, including medical information, and its own guidance for negative reviews is to protect privacy, never share a reviewer's private information, and where a situation is complex, politely request that the reviewer contact you by phone or email to resolve it privately. For a dental practice that rule settles the shape of every reply: thank the person, address the point in general terms, and move any discussion of their treatment off the public profile. Whether a reply also satisfies the privacy law that applies to your practice is a question for your own compliance adviser, not for this page.
Google's prohibited content policy lists "Harmful content that contains deceptive or misleading health or medical information." Anything a practice publishes, in a post, a photo or video, or a reply, sits under that rule.
For products and services subject to local regulation, which Google's list says includes health and medical devices and regulated pharmaceuticals, uploaded content may not feature calls to action or offers for sale, links to a page where they can be bought, contact details for buying them, or promotional deals, coupons, or pricing. Incidental depictions are excluded.
Google's posts page says a business in a regulated industry can use posts but must not include content about the products. A post with a phone number in its description may be rejected; the Call now button uses the verified profile number instead. Posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set.
The same prohibited and restricted content policies apply to every photo and video, and Google says the business is responsible for its imagery complying with all applicable laws and regulations. Each upload is reviewed and shows as Pending, Not approved, or Live.
Google's Local Services Ads help lists Dentist among the categories the program accepts in the United States, and publishes the screening a dentist passes before an ad runs. Google describes a dentist there as "a health care provider who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of conditions associated with the teeth, gums, and mouth."
The free audit scores a dental practice against thresholds set for dental practices, not the ones set for restaurants or shops. These are the review thresholds it applies and the photo range it reports for Dental Practices.
| Reviews on the profile | Band | Review Volume score |
|---|---|---|
| None | No reviews | 0 of 100 |
| 1 to 9 | Poor | 20 of 100 |
| 10 to 39 | Average | 50 of 100 |
| 40 to 99 | Good | 75 of 100 |
| 100 or more | Excellent | 100 of 100 |
Each category is scored out of 100 and then weighted as shown; the weights sum to 100. Photos are scored on count, the same way for every trade: no photos scores 0, one or two 40, three to five 65, six to nine 85, and ten or more 100. Google's public data shows at most 10 photos per listing, so ten or more earns full marks, and the report notes that Dental Practices typically carry 5 to 10.
An audit score of 90 or higher, a rating of 4.5 or higher, and at least 40 reviews, the top of the Dental Practices average range, plus the requirements every certificate shares, which include a review within the last 180 days, a phone number on the profile, an operational business status, and a name that meets the award naming standard.
An audit score of 95 or higher, a rating of 4.7 or higher, and at least 100 reviews, the Dental Practices excellent threshold, with the same shared requirements.
Across the 44 dental practices audited with our free tool between June 9, 2026 and September 11, 2026, the median score is 85, the top 10 percent score 92 or higher, 27 scored 80 or above, and 5 scored below 60. These are practices that someone chose to audit, not a random sample of the trade.
If you run the audit on a practice, expect the hours category to score 70 of 100 with regular hours published and 85 with special hours set for holidays. The last 15 points require More hours, which Google offers for specific services such as senior hours, delivery, or takeout, so a practice with no such hours to set stops at 85. Hours carries 5 of the audit's 100 points partly for that reason.
Performance data is available only for verified profiles, and Google says only the metrics that apply to your business appear. These are the ones Google documents.
GBPcentral does not replace Google's profile, and ownership, verification, roles, and reviews stay with Google. It connects to the same account through the official Business Profile APIs and adds the work around the profile.
Nine categories, the Dental Practices review benchmark and typical photo range, and a projected score once the quick wins are done. No account needed.
Free GBP auditEvery review from every location, synced from Google, with an alert when a new one lands and sentiment tracked over time, so a new review does not wait on someone remembering to check.
Review managementScans the local results across a grid of points around the practice on a daily or weekly schedule, the ranking view Google's performance report does not give you.
Rank trackingDraft, schedule, and auto-publish updates across every location, with recurring series and one calendar that shows what is queued.
Post schedulingA daily health score for each profile and a prioritized to-do list built from rank, review, profile completeness, and engagement signals.
Profile healthOwner, Admin, Member, and Viewer roles with per-capability permissions, finer than Google's owner and manager, so each person's access matches their job.
TeamsEvery core feature is included on every plan; plans differ by volume and capacity. GBPcentral starts at $49 per month, and new customers get a 7-day free trial on Starter. See the plans, or read what GBP management involves before deciding who should do it.
Run the free audit on the practice profile, or on a competitor's, and read the score against the dental practice benchmarks on this page.
7-day free trial on Starter for new customers. Card collected at signup, not charged until the trial ends. Cancel anytime.
Straight answers on practitioner profiles, categories, verification, booking, reviews, Local Services Ads, and the benchmarks.
Google's guidelines name dentists as individual practitioners and say a practitioner should create their own dedicated Business Profile if they operate in a public-facing role and can be contacted directly at the verified location during stated hours. Where a dentist is one of several public-facing practitioners at a location, Google says the organization should create a Business Profile for the location, separate from the practitioner's, and that the title of the practitioner's profile should include only the practitioner's name and not the name of the organization. Support staff should not create their own profiles, and a practitioner should not hold multiple profiles to cover different specializations.
Google requires the name to reflect the business's real-world name as used consistently on the storefront, website, and stationery. Profiles for practitioners may include a title or degree certification, and Google gives Dr. as an example. If a dentist is the only public-facing practitioner at a location and represents a branded organization, Google says it is best to share one profile with the organization, named in the format brand or company, a colon, then the practitioner's name. Marketing taglines, service or product information, business hours, and phone numbers are not permitted in the name, and Google says including unnecessary information in the name could result in the suspension of the profile.
Google says to select a primary category that best describes the business, choose the most specific category available, and use as few categories as possible to describe the overall core business. Categories should complete the statement "This business IS a" rather than "this business HAS a", so treatments belong in the services editor rather than in the category list, and Google says you cannot create your own category. Google's Places type list groups dentist and dental_clinic under Health and Wellness, and the GBPcentral audit scores both types against its Dental Practices benchmark. Google warns that adding or editing a category might trigger a request to verify the business again.
Google determines which verification methods are offered and they cannot be changed; the options depend on business type, public information, region, and business hours. The methods Google documents are phone or text, email, a live video call, a video recording, and a postcard, and Google recommends video verification where it is available. For a storefront business the video must show the location, the business name printed on a permanent fixture such as a signboard, wall, or window, and proof of management such as access to employee-only areas. Google says verification reviews take up to five business days and may take longer on rare occasions. A dental group with ten or more locations can request bulk verification through Business Profile Manager instead.
Yes. Google's category page says health and beauty businesses can add a booking button to their profiles and update their list of services. A practice can sign up with a booking provider through Reserve with Google or add its own booking link under Booking on Google Search, and set one link as Business preferred. Google's business link policies require the link to lead to a dedicated landing page for the specific location where the customer can complete the booking, and they exclude social media sites, messaging links, app store links, and link shorteners. Google notes that performance data is not available for custom links and that local business links cannot be added through the Business Profile API or a spreadsheet upload.
Yes. Google provides a review link and a QR code under Read reviews, then Get more reviews, and suggests including it on receipts, in thank-you emails, and as a printed QR code displayed in the business. What Google prohibits is offering any incentive, such as payment, discounts, or free goods or services, in exchange for posting, changing, or removing a review, discouraging negative reviews or selectively soliciting positive ones, requiring or pressuring people to leave a review while on the premises, and asking staff to solicit a set number of reviews or reviews with specific content. A business that violates the fake engagement policy can be blocked from receiving new reviews for a period, have its existing reviews unpublished, or display a warning that fake reviews were removed. Customers must be signed in to a Google Account to leave a review.
Yes, once the profile is verified, from Read reviews on the profile. Google reviews every reply against its content policies before it is posted, usually within ten minutes and sometimes up to thirty days, and the reply is shown as the business rather than under the personal name of the person who wrote it. Google's own guidance for negative reviews is to never share a reviewer's private information, to acknowledge mistakes without taking responsibility for things outside your control, and where a situation is complex, to politely ask the reviewer to contact you by phone or email to resolve it privately. Google's content policy also prohibits personal information about others, including medical information, so a reply should never confirm or discuss a person's treatment.
Google's prohibited and restricted content policy bars harmful content that contains deceptive or misleading health or medical information, and it restricts content about products and services subject to local regulation, a list that includes health and medical devices and regulated pharmaceuticals. For those, content may not include calls to action or offers for sale, links to a page where they can be bought, contact details for buying them, or promotions such as deals, coupons, or pricing. Google's posts page says a business in a regulated industry can still use posts but must not include content about the products. A post description may not contain a phone number, and the business description may not focus on promotions, prices, or sales and may not contain links.
In the United States, yes. Google's Local Services Ads help lists Dentist among the eligible categories and describes a dentist as a health care provider who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of conditions associated with the teeth, gums, and mouth. Google's screening requirements for dentists list a provider background check and a practice background check, general liability insurance for the practice, professional liability or medical malpractice insurance for the provider, practice and provider licenses at state level where applicable by local law, and National Provider Identifier verification. Every Local Services advertiser must have a verified Google Business Profile. Google notes that booking leads are not available for health care verticals and that pre-badge ads are not available for health care verticals either.
Google publishes no review count target; its ranking page says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking. The GBPcentral audit scores a dental practice against thresholds set for dental practices, treating Google's dentist and dental clinic types the same way. Under that benchmark, fewer than 10 reviews scores as poor, at least 10 but fewer than 40 scores as average, at least 40 but fewer than 100 scores as good, and 100 or more scores as excellent. The same thresholds gate the GBPcentral certificates: Gold requires an audit score of 90 or higher, a rating of 4.5 or higher, and at least 40 reviews, and Platinum requires 95 or higher, 4.7 or higher, and at least 100 reviews. Across the 44 dental practices audited with our free tool between June 9, 2026 and September 11, 2026, the median score is 85 and the top 10 percent score 92 or higher.
Google's photo guidelines ask for JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, a recommended resolution of 720 by 720 pixels and a minimum of 250 by 250, in focus and well lit with no significant alterations or excessive filters. Photos and videos show on Google only after the profile is verified. Google's ranking tips list adding photos and videos among the actions that help a profile, and Google suggests photos of the storefront, products, and services, with an exterior photo so customers recognize the business when they visit. Google publishes no photo count target. The GBPcentral audit report notes that dental practices typically carry 5 to 10 photos, and because Google's public data shows at most ten photos per listing, the audit awards full marks for photos at ten or more and says so in the report.
Google asks businesses to provide their regular customer-facing hours of operation, and says the businesses that should not provide hours are those with varied schedules, such as showtimes or classes, and those that operate only by appointment. A practice that receives patients during set hours publishes those hours. A midday closure is set as two entries for the same day with different times, holidays and other exceptions are set as Special hours, and Google says a business closed for seven days or fewer uses Special hours while a longer closure is marked Temporarily closed. Google notes that businesses without accurate, complete information may not show up for relevant searches.
Google says not to create a new Business Profile because of a change in ownership, and that when a business has a new owner or manager but keeps the same name, the reviews remain. Google's profile protection guidance is to remove ex-employees' profile access when they no longer work at the business, and only owners can remove other owners and managers. When someone is removed, their replies to reviews, posts, and comments stay on the profile. For a practitioner's own profile, Google's duplicate profile rules say a business that relocates updates the existing profile with the new address rather than creating a new one, and that reviews transfer automatically when the name stays the same.
GBPcentral connects to a practice's Google account through Google's official Business Profile APIs and adds the work around the profile: a free audit that scores the profile across nine categories against the Dental Practices benchmark, a review inbox synced from Google with alerts and sentiment tracked over time, geo-grid rank tracking that scans the local results from points around the practice on a daily or weekly schedule, one calendar for posts across every location, and a daily health score with a prioritized action list. Ownership, verification, roles, and reviews stay with Google. Every core feature is included on every plan; GBP management software such as GBPcentral starts at $49 per month, and new customers get a 7-day free trial on the Starter plan.
