Barrie Dentist Reviews – How to Use Dental Reviews

In this digital age, you can find reviews for just about any product or service. Most people don’t buy an orange without consulting online reviews let alone choose a new dental clinic to visit.

Online patient reviews for dental clinics are a great tool to help people cut through the marketing and murkiness to know which dentist might be the best fit for them. It becomes even more important if you are making the choice for your child or if you have specific oral health needs.

With respect to online reviews, it’s hard to know if the site you’re visiting is trustworthy or if a scathing or positive review is based on merit. Even if you aren’t internet savvy, you should still consider reviews as noteworthy insight.

To help, we’ll let you know what sites are a good place for you to find reviews of local dental clinics. We’ll also convey what to look for in a review so you can gauge its relevance and usefulness. Lastly, we’ll examine why you should consider Georgian Dental® if you are looking for a new clinic in Barrie.

Trustworthy Websites

The internet is filled with hundreds of review sites to help people decide on who should be their next dentist. Here are some of the more well-known sites that you should peruse:

Google is a database of small businesses and is a popular place for patients to share their experiences. Google is a good choice because it allows you to locate dentists in your area and then read the reviews and access other pertinent business information (hours of operation, services, etc.). It should be your first stop.

Yelp – In many ways, Yelp is the internet’s primary review site. While it’s known more for restaurants, it is a useful directory to find local dentists and a perfect review aggregator.

Facebook functions as a business listing and it is a popular network for patients to post a review. It serves another purpose as you can ask your Facebook friends who live in your area to recommend a dentist or, if they’re already a patient, for their opinion on a specific clinic.

RateMDs is a forum that lets you find local dentists and contains over 2.6 million patient reviews. It ranks dentists based on the number of reviews, which can be an effective way to start your search.

Opencare provides incentives to users to try a new dentist. Their platform also lets you find dentists and learn what their patients think of them. Their database is more limited than the other ones but it’s worth a look if you want to cast a wide net.

While there are a lot of other sites, you want to be extremely careful. Many lack credibility and some even fabricate reviews to give the impression that they are more trustworthy and popular than they are. It’s a good idea to treat some review sites with a healthy amount of skepticism.

What to Look for

Authenticity is key so finding a site where you trust the veracity and accuracy of the reviews is a good first step. The next one should be understanding what to look for as you comb through the reviews. The last thing you want to do is get swayed by a review that was written for the wrong reason or is misleading.

Here are some things to look for to make sure you are looking for the right things in a review:

Number of reviews is a good place to start. You want to form a consensus around a clinic’s key attributes like services offered, customer service and patient experience. Only a few reviews might not provide true insight into a clinic. This isn’t to say that a dentist should have hundreds of reviews, but a couple dozen can give you an idea of what patients think of the place and what you can expect.

A couple negative reviews shouldn’t be ignored but they shouldn’t be the deciding factor. A patient’s experience with a dentist could go sour based on many variables. Keep in mind it’s impossible to keep everyone happy. All clinics will have the odd negative review – which in many cases is due to people being unreasonable more than it being the fault of the clinic.

So, take negative reviews in the overall context of the clinic’s reviews to form an opinion.

The date of a review is important to note. If a review is years old, the dentist might have changed or even improved. If you notice that reviews go from negative to positive, or vice versa, then you can surmise that the dentist is heading in a certain direction with respect to their clinical operation. Mixed reviews for a new dentist or clinic are not out of the ordinary so consider them but look for hints as to what might have changed.

Keep an eye out for new or infrequent posters. Unfortunately, the internet is filled with people just looking to vent or harm a business (or could even be from a competitor – yes it happens). It’s not to say this is common but it would be naïve to think it doesn’t exist. Look for clues to see if a profile is fake and do your best to determine if a post was written with merit or simply to stir the pot. If you aren’t convinced one way or another, then dismiss it entirely and move on to the next review.

If posts are too similar,then you should consider the possibility that they might be written by the same person trying to flood a dentist with positive reviews to buoy them or negatives ones to sink them. The internet is a bit of the wild west meaning users can do what they want if not called out. It’s on you to put on your Sherlock Holmes’ deerstalker and deduce what’s legitimate.

Don’t necessarily write off a dentist who doesn’t have a ton of reviews. Getting reviews requires patients to take the initiative to share their experience. Some dentists incentivize this process but others merely provide the best care they can in the hope that word will spread through the community.

How a dentist responds to a review can be very telling. This is a glimpse into their customer service approach and personality. A dentist acting defensive could be a red flag whereas one who is engaging with the poster can be a good sign. Keep in mind that a dentist could have a defense to a review so it best not to immediately take sides. Instead, see if the dentist is reaching out in a professional manner and looking to work with the poster to find a solution to their complaint. This is more a personality test than anything else.

While reviews are important, an even better measuring stick should be how you feel about the dentist after meeting with them. If you’re considering a new clinic, pay them a visit and come equipped with questions. This is your chance to get an idea of whether they’re the dentist for you.

Georgian Dental® Google Reviews

We’re always happy when our patients post an honest review of their experience at our clinic. It helps us understand what we did right and if there is anything about our patient experience that can be improved. We also want to confirm that everyone who walked through our door received the care they needed.

We invite any prospective patient to see what our patients think of our clinic, services and staff. Additionally, we hope current patients feel compelled to let us know what they thought of their last visit and overall experience by clicking the “Leave Review” button below.