What AI Search Means for Dentists in North Hertfordshire

Right, let me tell you about something that's already happening to your dental practice whether you're paying attention or not.

You know when someone in Hitchin gets toothache at half seven on a Tuesday evening? They're not Googling "dentist near me" anymore. Well, some are. But increasingly they're asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, or even just talking to their phone: "I've got this sharp pain in my back molar, which emergency dentist in Hitchin should I go to?"

And here's the thing that should worry you. The AI gives them an answer. One answer usually. Maybe two. Not ten blue links to scroll through.

If your practice isn't in that answer, you've just lost a patient to someone who is.

What's actually changed (and it happened fast)

I had a dental practice owner from Letchworth in my office three months ago. Lovely bloke, been running his practice for twenty years. He was confused because his Google traffic had dropped about 30% since January, but his competitors seemed fine. Some were actually growing.

Turns out half his new patients historically came from people searching specific questions. "How much does teeth whitening cost in Letchworth?" That sort of thing. Those searches are increasingly happening inside AI tools now instead of Google. And those AI tools were recommending his competitors, not him.

Why? Because his website was built for Google in 2019. Which might as well be 1997 in AI terms.

The shift isn't coming. It's here. Google itself is now an AI search engine with their Search Generative Experience rolling out. Bing's had AI search for over a year. And millions of people are just skipping search engines entirely, asking ChatGPT instead.

How AI decides which dentist to recommend

Here's where most dentists (and frankly most marketing consultants who should know better) get it wrong.

They think AI search works like old Google. Stuff some keywords in, get some backlinks, job done.

It doesn't work like that at all.

When an AI is asked "which dentist should I use in Stevenage for Invisalign?", it's looking for a few specific things:

• Clear, direct answers to common questions on your website
• Structured information it can actually parse (not just pretty text in images)
• Evidence you know what you're talking about (depth, specificity, not generic fluff)
• Consistent information across multiple places (your site, directories, reviews)
• Recent, updated content (AI tools favour current information heavily)

I've seen practices ranking brilliantly on Google page one still getting completely ignored by AI search. Because their content reads like it was written by a committee to not offend anyone or say anything specific.

"We provide quality dental care to families." Great. So does every other bloody practice in Hertfordshire.

Compare that to: "We're one of three practices in North Hertfordshire with a Planmeca ProMax 3D scanner, which means we can plan implants in a single visit instead of three."

Guess which one the AI recommends?

The FAQ page nearly everyone gets wrong

I see this constantly. Practices have an FAQ page. They think they've ticked the box.

Then you actually read it and it's questions like "Do you accept new patients?" and "Where can I park?"

Those are questions, sure. But they're not the questions people are asking AI tools when they're trying to decide which dentist to book.

They're asking things like:

• "What's the real recovery time for dental implants?"
• "How do I know if I need a root canal or just a filling?"
• "Why do some dentists charge £500 for teeth whitening and others charge £200?"
• "Can I get Invisalign on the NHS in North Hertfordshire?"

See the difference? These are research questions. Decision-making questions. The questions people ask before they know which practice to call.

And if your website answers these properly (detailed, specific, honest), the AI tools find that content. Parse it. Remember it. Recommend you.

I had a practice in Baldock add a properly detailed FAQ section about nervous patients last month. Not generic "we understand anxiety" waffle. Actual specific information about sedation options, what each costs, how they work, who they're suitable for, what the experience feels like.

Within three weeks they started getting calls from people specifically mentioning they'd read about the conscious sedation option. One patient literally said "ChatGPT suggested I call you because you explain the sedation process clearly."

That's AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) working.

Your Google Business Profile matters more now, not less

Counterintuitive maybe. But AI tools are pulling heavily from Google's knowledge graph and structured data sources.

Your Google Business Profile is one of the most structured data sources about your practice that exists.

If it's incomplete, inconsistent, or hasn't been touched since 2022, you're handicapping yourself before you start.

I mean properly complete:

• Services listed individually (not just "dental services")
• Questions answered in the Q&A section
• Photos from the last three months, not three years ago
• Posts about specific treatments and what they involve
• Consistent opening hours that match your website exactly

Boring admin stuff. But this boring admin stuff is what feeds the AI knowledge about your practice.

The content you actually need

Look, I'm not saying you need to become a content creator. You're a dentist. You've got actual patients to see.

But you do need some key pieces of content that answer the real questions people are asking. Not blog posts about "5 Tips for Healthy Teeth" that no one reads.

Content like:

• Treatment guides for your main services that actually explain what's involved, step by step
• Honest pricing information (ranges if not exact, with explanation of what affects cost)
• Before and after case studies with real detail about the process
• Information about your specific equipment and why it matters for patients
• Clear explanation of what emergency situations you can handle

This doesn't need to be Shakespeare. It needs to be accurate, specific, and genuinely helpful.

A practice in Royston I work with added a detailed guide about what to do if you crack a tooth. Covered different scenarios, what's urgent versus what can wait, what they'd do in each case, roughly what it costs.

That one page gets recommended by Perplexing AI almost every time someone in North Hertfordshire asks about cracked tooth emergencies. They've had eleven new patients from it in two months.

One page. Properly done.

What happens if you ignore this

Here's the thing. You can ignore AI search if you want. Your practice won't disappear overnight.

But in twelve months when a third of your new patient enquiries have quietly evaporated and you can't figure out why, this is why.

Your competitors who sorted this out are getting the patients who are asking AI tools for recommendations. You're getting whoever's left searching the old way. That pool gets smaller every month.

And unlike Google SEO where you could sometimes coast for years on old work, AI search changes fast. The practices feeding these systems current, detailed, structured information are the ones getting recommended.

What to actually do about it

Start with the low-hanging fruit. Get your existing information sorted properly:

• Make sure your Google Business Profile is completely filled out and current
• Add a proper FAQ section answering actual patient research questions
• Write detailed treatment pages for your main services
• Add pricing information (even if it's ranges)
• Make sure all your information is consistent everywhere

Then think about content that helps people make decisions. Treatment comparisons. Honest explanations of what different problems actually require. Case studies with real detail.

You don't need to do this all at once. One good piece of content a month for six months beats twenty rushed pages that don't actually answer anything properly.

And if you're sat there thinking "hell, I don't have time for this and I wouldn't know where to start anyway", that's fair. That's exactly why we built Hert Bots the way we did.

We work with service businesses across North Hertfordshire getting this stuff right. Not just theory, actual implementation that gets practices showing up when people ask AI tools for recommendations.

If you want to talk about what this looks like specifically for your practice, book a call and we'll walk through it. Or if you want to understand more about how AEO works for North Hertfordshire businesses, I've written a detailed guide on AEO in North Hertfordshire that goes deeper on the local angle.

Either way, don't leave this for another six months. Your competitors aren't waiting.