How to Check a Doctor's or Dentist's Reviews Before You Book

#How do you check a doctor's or dentist's reviews before booking?

Read the one- and two-star reviews first, look for a cluster of five-star reviews posted within days of each other, and check whether the glowing reviews describe anything specific about the visit. A practice with hundreds of reviews that all say some version of "amazing staff, highly recommend" with no names, dates, or procedures mentioned is the clearest sign the rating doesn't reflect real patient experiences. Run the listing through a free forensic checker before you book, since a 4.9-star average can hide a manipulated review record just as easily as a genuine one.

#Why does this matter more for a doctor or dentist than a restaurant?

A bad restaurant pick costs you one dinner. A bad medical or dental pick can cost you money, pain, or a procedure that has to be redone, and switching providers is slower and more disruptive than picking a different place for lunch. Patients also rely on reviews more heavily here precisely because there's so little else to go on: you can't sample a cleaning or a consultation the way you can sample a menu.

That reliance is exactly what research on healthcare reviews has started to document. A 2026 study from Simon Fraser University's Beedie School of Business analyzed 35,000 clinician reviews spanning family medicine, dentistry, and dermatology and found that roughly 24% were fraudulent.¹ The fake reviews weren't crude, either: in a 5,000-review sample, the fabricated ones were longer, more clinical, and rated as more trustworthy by readers than the genuine reviews they were mixed in with, because they invented specific symptoms and treatment details that real patients are often too private to share. A suspiciously detailed five-star review deserves the same scrutiny as a content-free one.

#What should you check before you book?

• Read the one- and two-star reviews before the five-star ones. They're harder to fake convincingly and more often name an actual appointment, procedure, or billing problem.
• Scan the review timeline for a date cluster. A run of five-star reviews posted within a day or two of each other, especially after a quiet stretch, is the easiest pattern to catch by eye.
• Check whether the praise names anything specific. "Dr. [name] explained the procedure clearly and the wait was short" describes a visit; "Best doctor ever, highly recommend" could describe nothing at all.
• Open a few reviewer profiles. One account with no photo and no other reviews proves nothing by itself; several such accounts posting the same week does.
• Weigh review volume against how long the practice has existed. A newer practice with thousands of reviews already, or a sudden jump in review count, is worth a second look.
• Have the analyzer read the full history for you. Enter the practice's Google Maps link on our home page and it checks burst timing, thin accounts, and duplicate wording across every review at once, not just the ones you skim.

#What does a manipulated pattern actually look like in a real practice?

Northeastern Gastroenterology Associates, a gastroenterology and surgery practice in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, scores 75/100 (Likely Manipulated) as of this analysis. Of the 1,000 reviews examined, 566 were flagged, against a Google rating of 4.9 built on 1,142 reviews. Its report documents the same signal combination that shows up across most Likely Manipulated listings: burst days where five-star volume spikes well above the practice's normal pace, reviewer accounts with little to no history beyond the one review, and wording that repeats closely across separate reviews.

A dental practice can show the same shape. Dentakay Dental Clinic Nish İstanbul, a cosmetic dentistry clinic serving international patients, scores 48/100 (Suspicious), with 469 of 1,000 reviews examined flagged against a 4.9-star average built on nearly 6,700 reviews. Clinics built around medical tourism marketing tend to run heavier review campaigns than a neighborhood practice, since a strong Google rating is often the deciding factor for a patient booking treatment from another country before ever setting foot in the office.

#Does a lower review count mean a practice is more trustworthy?

A high review count doesn't settle the question by itself. Assuming a practice with thousands of five-star reviews must be genuine simply because the number is large is its own mistake. Prime Dental in Wrocław, Poland scores 33/100 (Clean), with only 60 of 244 reviews flagged, showing that plenty of practices earn a strong rating the ordinary way: real patients, spread out over time, describing real visits. The score isn't measuring how good the care is. It's measuring whether the review record looks like it came from patients or from a campaign, and both a well-run small practice and a well-run large one can pass that check.

#What if the practice you're checking hasn't been analyzed yet?

Plenty of listings, especially smaller or newer practices, won't have a report simply because nobody has run one. That's normal, not a red flag. Submitting the Google Maps link yourself queues a fresh analysis, which typically finishes in a few minutes and returns the same burst timeline, reviewer-activity breakdown, and duplicate-text check shown in the examples above, at no cost and without creating an account.

#What do you do if the reviews look manipulated?

Don't book, or don't cancel, based on the star average alone once you've seen a manipulated pattern. Check for recent one- and two-star reviews that might describe the same specific problem, and if the practice looks genuinely concerning, other patients' negative reviews will usually confirm it independently. Our guide to reporting a fake Google review covers the reporting flow if you want Google to take the listing down; buying or soliciting fake reviews is also a direct violation of the FTC's Consumer Review Rule, which carries civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation.² Either way, a second opinion and a phone call to ask direct questions about the procedure protect you more than re-reading the same five-star reviews a third time.

#Frequently asked questions

#Can a doctor's or dentist's Google reviews be completely fake?

Yes. A 2026 university study found roughly 24% of the clinician reviews it analyzed across family medicine, dentistry, and dermatology were fraudulent, and the fabricated ones often read as more credible than genuine patient reviews because they included invented clinical detail.

#Is it illegal for a medical or dental practice to buy reviews?

Yes. The FTC's Consumer Review Rule bans paying for reviews, undisclosed reviews from staff or family, and burying negative feedback with a flood of manufactured positive reviews, in any industry including healthcare.

#Why would a legitimate practice have fake reviews at all?

Sometimes a marketing vendor or a well-meaning staff member runs a review campaign without the provider's full awareness, and sometimes it's a deliberate choice to outrank competitors. Either way, the review record itself doesn't tell you whether the provider knew; it only tells you whether the reviews were solicited or fabricated.

#What's the fastest way to check a practice's reviews myself?

Sort by most recent and scan for a cluster of five-star reviews posted within a day or two of each other, then check whether they say anything specific. That single pattern is visible in under a minute without any tool, though a forensic checker catches thinner patterns across the full history.

#Does international medical or dental tourism make fake reviews more common?

The incentive is stronger there. A clinic marketing to patients booking treatment from abroad depends on its star rating far more than a local practice does, since most of those patients have no other way to vet it before traveling, which makes a strong review record worth more to fake.