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Getting More Reviews for Dental and Medical Practices
Patients read reviews to decide whom to trust with their health, and practices are the one kind of small business that cannot answer a review with the facts of the visit, so a practice's review system needs two habits: asking every patient the same way and replying without ever confirming who was a patient.
At a glance
- A practice review system sends one short request to every patient after the visit, through the scheduling system, with no screening, and answers every review with a reply that never confirms the reviewer was a patient or mentions any detail of care.
- In a JAMA survey of 2,137 U.S. adults, 59% said online physician ratings were somewhat or very important when choosing a doctor, and among people who had looked at ratings in the past year, 35% had chosen a physician because of good ratings and 37% had avoided one because of bad ones.
- Federal regulators have settled with practices over patient information disclosed on social media and in review replies, for $10,000 in 2019, $23,000 in 2022 and $30,000 in 2023, and the Office for Civil Rights has stated that providers cannot disclose patients' protected health information when responding to negative reviews.
- For an illustrative practice with 450 patient visits a month, asking every patient with a mobile number on file adds about 230 reviews a year.
Part 1 | Patients choose clinicians by reading strangers
A new patient choosing a dentist or a family physician weighs something they cannot inspect, and online ratings stand in for the neighbor's recommendation. The JAMA survey, published in 2014, found that 65% of adults were aware of physician rating sites and 59% considered the ratings important, and newer surveys of all local businesses point the same way; in BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 U.S. adults, 68% said they use only businesses rated four stars or higher and 74% look for reviews from the last three months.
The owner's instinct is often Our patients are happy; they just don't write reviews. That is usually true, and it is exactly why the profile looks worse than the practice. A study in Management Science found that review solicitations reduce the extremity bias of unprompted reviews and make the overall picture more representative, which for a practice means the patient whose cleaning was simply pleasant finally appears beside the one who waited 40 minutes and wrote about it.
Part 2 | The reply is where practices get into trouble
A review reply feels like a private conversation that happens to be public, and that is the trap. The Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights has settled with practices that answered negative reviews with details of a patient's care, insurance or identity.
In the 2023 case, the provider's reply to one negative review disclosed the patient's mental health diagnosis and treatment, and investigators found it had disclosed three other patients' information in replies to their reviews as well. In the 2022 case, the agency cited the practice's inappropriate use of social media to respond to patient reviews, and its director stated plainly that providers cannot disclose protected health information when responding to negative online reviews. A safe reply, therefore, does not confirm that the reviewer was a patient, does not mention a date, a treatment or an insurance plan, and moves any real conversation offline.
The reply to praise
"Thank you for taking the time to share this. Our whole team works to make every visit comfortable, and kind words like these mean a lot to us."
The reply to criticism
"We take every concern seriously. Privacy rules keep us from discussing anyone's care online, so please call our [practice manager or office manager] at [phone] and we'll listen."
Neither reply says "your visit," "your crown" or "we're sorry you waited," because each of those confirms the reviewer was seen.
Part 3 | The request, sent the same way to everyone
Google's review policy forbids selectively soliciting positive reviews and offering incentives for them, and the Federal Trade Commission's consumer review rule, in effect since October 21, 2024, allows general requests to all customers while banning incentives conditioned on a positive review. In a practice, the cleanest way to meet both is to let the scheduling software send one request to every patient with a mobile number on file, the same afternoon, with no front-desk judgment in between.
The request, sent by text after the visit
"Thank you for choosing [practice name] today. If you have a minute, a review helps other people in [town] find a practice they can trust: [review link]. If anything about today wasn't right, please call us at [phone]."
The request avoids naming the procedure, the provider or the reason for the visit, so it reads the same whether the patient came for a cleaning or a root canal. How review requests fit your notice of privacy practices and your texting consent is a question for your compliance advisor.
| Patient visits per month (Assumption) | 450 |
|---|---|
| Share with a mobile number and texting consent (Assumption) | 85% |
| Requests sent per month (Calculated (450 × 85%)) | about 383 |
| Share who write a review (Assumption) | 5% |
| New reviews per month (Calculated (382.5 × 5%)) | about 19 |
| New reviews per year (Calculated (19.1 × 12)) | about 230 |
| Reviews in any three-month window (Calculated (19.1 × 3)) | about 57 |
| Rating today, on 85 reviews (Assumption) | 4.3 |
| Average of new reviews (Assumption) | 4.7 |
| Rating after one year (Calculated ((4.3 × 85 + 4.7 × 229.5) ÷ 314.5)) | about 4.6 |
Illustrative example; replace every assumption with your own numbers.
How you compare
- Count and rating: 47% of consumers in the BrightLocal survey said they would not use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 68% use only businesses at four stars or higher.
- Recency: count reviews from the last 90 days against the 74% of consumers who look for reviews from the last three months.
- Replies: read your last 20 replies and flag any that mention a visit, a treatment, a date or the word "patient."
Questions to ask this week
Who writes our review replies? If it is whoever has a free minute, give them the two templates above and a rule against any detail of care.
Do any old replies confirm a patient? Read back through the last two years and edit any reply that does.
Who decides which patients get the request? Move the decision out of the front desk and into the scheduling software.
Does the request name the treatment? Strip it down to the practice name, a thank-you and the link.
General information, not legal, medical or compliance advice; talk to a licensed professional about your situation.
The next step is to read every review reply on your profile this week, fix any that confirm a patient and switch the request to send automatically after every visit.
About this research: This article draws on a JAMA survey of 2,137 U.S. adults on physician rating sites (2014, used as a foundational source because no newer national survey with a stated method was found), BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 U.S. adults (run by a local search software company), a Management Science study of review solicitation, HHS Office for Civil Rights resolution agreements and press releases, Google's review policy and the FTC's consumer review rule. The worked example is illustrative.
Sources
- Hanauer, D. A., Zheng, K., Singer, D. C., Gebremariam, A. and Davis, M. M. Public Awareness, Perception, and Use of Online Physician Rating Sites. JAMA 311(7), 2014. 2,137 U.S. adults.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS Office for Civil Rights Reaches Agreement With Health Care Provider in New Jersey That Disclosed Patients' Protected Health Information in Response to Negative Online Reviews. June 2023. Manasa Health Center.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS Civil Rights Office Enters Settlement With Dental Practice Over Disclosures of Patients' Protected Health Information. December 2022. New Vision Dental.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Resolution agreement: Elite Dental Associates. October 2019.
- BrightLocal. Local Consumer Review Survey 2026. 2026. Panel of 1,002 U.S. adults.
- Karaman, H. Online Review Solicitations Reduce Extremity Bias in Online Review Distributions and Increase Their Representativeness. Management Science 67(7), 2021.
- Google. Prohibited and restricted content: Maps user-generated content policy. Google Maps Help.
- Federal Trade Commission. Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: Questions and Answers. 2024.
Related reading: How to Respond to a Bad Review, With Templates · Customer Data Privacy Basics for Small Service Businesses · How to Get More Reviews Without Begging, Based on What Makes Customers Write Them · The Experience Library: Dental Practice Edition · The Front Door Checklist for Dental Practices
Work with osNOVA on reviews for your practice
We help dental and medical practices set up a review request that reaches every patient the same way, write reply templates that protect patient privacy and connect reviews to the visit experience that earns them, starting from what you want more of, whether that is more new patients, a profile with recent, specific praise or a front desk that no longer has to decide whom to ask.
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