As we head into 2026, businesses' online reputations have evolved from secondary trust signals to primary decision-makers. Today’s patients now form definitive opinions long before their first appointment, relying heavily on local search signals and public sentiment. The rise of AI-driven search and ChatGPT has only accelerated this shift. These tools now synthesise reviews into instant recommendations, comparisons and summaries, meaning dental practices’ online trust signals don’t just influence patient journey: they define it.

This is especially true in high-trust sectors such as dentistry, where credibility, consistency and first-hand accounts are crucial. With so many of our clients being dental practices, we see first-hand just how much online sentiment correlates with chair occupancy.

This is why we created the Greater Manchester Dentist Index, a comprehensive audit of all dental practices in the 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester, revealing how reputation impacts visibility, demand and long-term growth for dental practices across the region.

Greater Manchester Dentist Index: Key Statistics of 2026

When it comes to patient satisfaction, dentists in Trafford and Bury have the highest average ratings of all Greater Manchester boroughs.
Practices in Oldham and Manchester City Centre receive the lowest average ratings on average.
92% of the highest-rated dental practices in Greater Manchester are private.
While two thirds of the lowest-rated dentists in the area are NHS-funded.
88% of consumers read Google reviews to determine the quality of a local business before engaging with it.
Nearly three quarters (74%) say positive Google reviews increase their trust in a business.
73% of people only pay attention to recent reviews.

Our analysis examined over 81,000 Google Business Profile reviews from 380 Greater Manchester dental practices. Ratings were adjusted using a Bayesian Weighted Rating model to balance review quantity and quality, giving a fair comparison between smaller and larger practices. Full methodology details are provided at the end of this report.

Top Rated Dentists in Greater Manchester

Do the city centre’s ultra-modern dental clinics lead the way when it comes to patient reviews? Or is it the smaller, family-run practices that consistently earn the most positive feedback? Our analysis revealed that:

The best rated dentist in Greater Manchester is Ringway Dental - Cosmetic and Implant Dentistry in Stockport, which has an average rating of 5-stars from 1,460 reviews–more than any other dentist in the county.

Another practice in Stockport (Cheadle Hulme Dental and Cosmetics) followed in close second place, with an overall review rating of 5-stars from 1,296 people.

Manchester City Centre’s Smile Stylist Dental Clinic also featured in the top 5, along with Tameside’s Radiant Dental and Trafford’s Timperley Village Dental Practice.

Boroughs with the Best Rated Dental Practices

While Stockport may be home to the two highest rated clinics, Trafford leads the way when it comes to averages:

Nearly a third of Trafford’s dental practices (30.2%) rank in Greater Manchester’s top 50, making it the borough with the highest proportion of top-rated clinics.

Bury follows in second place, with just over a quarter of its practices (26.3%) appearing in the top 50.

Salford comes next, where 1 in 5 dental practices is featured in the region’s highest-rated clinics.

While Rochdale is the only Greater Manchester borough that doesn’t have a single dental practice in the top 50 list.

The table below shows the share of each Greater Manchester borough’s dental practices featured in the region’s top 50 highest-rated clinics:

Boroughs with the Worst-Rated Dental Practices

Unfortunately, not every dental practice in Greater Manchester achieves top marks. Some clinics received average review scores as low as 1.7 and 2.2 stars from hundreds of patient reviews. And when it comes to Boroughs, our analysis found that:

Oldham dentists have the lowest ratings on average, with over a fifth of practices appearing in the region’s bottom 50.

Manchester City Centre and Salford also have some of the lowest average ratings in the region, with nearly 1 in 6 of their clinics rating in the bottom 50.

Do Private or NHS Dentists Get Higher Reviews?

Google Business Profile reviews in Greater Manchester show a clear trend: private dental practices typically get the highest ratings, while NHS clinics are more often found in the lower-ranked listings.

Of the 50 top-rated practices in the region, 49 are fully or predominantly private, with just one (Partington Dental in Trafford), positioning itself as available to NHS patients.

By contrast, when it comes to the 50 lowest-rated practices, two-thirds have NHS funding models, with just the remaining third being private clinics.

Which Greater Manchester Dentists Are in Highest Demand?

Surely it’s just the biggest and most popular clinics that get the most reviews, right? Well, it turns out, maybe not. Here are the 10 most-searched clinics in Greater Manchester, alongside their average monthly search volumes and the number of reviews they have.

As you can see from the graph above, high search volumes don’t always correlate with high review counts. For instance, Salford Dental Practice is searched 600 times per month, but only has 35 reviews, while Deansgate Dental Studio has the same search volume, but an impressive 784 reviews (4.9 stars overall).

This tells us that while search demand reflects awareness or curiosity, reviews are what turn interest into trust and ultimately influence which practices patients feel confident choosing.

Please note: some keywords, like “Manchester Dental Practice”, may be used by people looking for any dentist in the city rather than a specific clinic — so actual patient demand might differ.

How Reviews Give ‘Underdog’ Dentists a Competitive Edge

So can smaller dental practices in Manchester really compete with the big names online? Our analysis suggests they can - especially when they harness the power of reviews. While search volumes can indicate general demand for a practice, they don’t always tell the full story about reputation and patient trust.

Search volume tells us how frequently people are looking for a specific dentist, but it doesn’t tell us what influences their choice once they’ve found one. To understand that, we must look at broader consumer behaviour around reviews. According to a recent study conducted by review management software platform Wiser Review:

88% of consumers read Google reviews to determine the quality of a local business before engaging with it. This means the vast majority of potential patients will actively check reviews before getting in touch.
Nearly three quarters (74%) say positive Google reviews increase their trust in a business.
73% of people only pay attention to recent reviews, highlighting the importance of consistency when it comes to patient feedback.

These industry‑wide findings explain why reviews matter far more than search volume alone: when prospective patients are researching dentistry options, they’re not just looking — they’re evaluating credibility through other patients’ experiences.

The Importance of Online Reviews for Dentists

So why are online reviews so important in the dentistry space?

Having worked with many dental practices over the years, digital marketing expert and Perpetual10 director, Peter Hall says:

“Online reviews for dental practices matter now more than ever, particularly when they come from public, easily accessible sources such as Google Business Profiles. Ratings and patient feedback on platforms like these are scanned by Google and even AI tools like ChatGPT, which can increase the chances of dentists with positive sentiments ranking higher or being recommended online.

“More importantly, reviews give patients reassurance in a sector where trust is critical. In many cases, by the time someone picks up the phone or fills in a contact form, the reviews have already done much of the work for them.”

Looking for help improving your dental practice’s online presence?

We can help. At Perpetual10, we have over 20 years experience in delivering impactful digital marketing campaigns that increase awareness, leads and revenue. We’re proud to have worked with some of Manchester’s leading dental practices, performing industry standard dental SEO, PPC and social media marketing. Get in touch today for a free, no obligation audit or additional information about our services.

Methodology

Please find a full methodology for our research below. To request the raw data, please contact peter@perpetual10.co.uk

Data collection

Our dental practice Google Business Profile research was carried out in October 2025, with all search volume data collected in January 2026.

The GBPs included were all Greater Manchester dentist and dental practices that have a website on their listing, are open (not permanently closed) and have more than 30 reviews. This came to a total of 380 practices.

Calculations

In order to form our regional rankings for all dentists in Greater Manchester, we used a Bayesian Weighted Rating model. This allowed us to balance star ratings and review volume, avoiding skewed results from small sample sizes, rewarding consistent, high‑volume performance rather than outlier scores. The calculation we used for this was as follows:

WR=v+mv×R+v+mm×C

R = the average rating for the clinic
v = the number of reviews for the clinic
m = the minimum review threshold (200, which was the average number of reviews per listing)
C = the mean rating across all clinics (4.63)

NHS vs private categorisation

If the dental practice primarily promotes and list their private services, doesn’t mention NHS treatments on their website, or states explicitly that they’re not currently accepting NHS patients, they were categorised as having a private primary funding model.

Search volumes

To find the accurate search volume for each dental practice, we used the following criteria:

If the practice had a name that was also used by other dental clinics, or if they had multiple locations, we added the name of the city, town or area it was in (whichever had the highest volume). For example, rather than using ‘MyDentist’ we used ‘MyDentist crown point’.

We used the tool Ahrefs to collect the search volumes for each practice, with all volumes being correct as of January 2026.

The Best and Worst Rated Dental Practices in Greater Manchester