# The Best Dentist in Town — full site text Current as of 22 September 2026. ## What this is We search high and low for the best dentist in town, so you don't have to. Every listed practice is checked by a person: licence and education verified with the state dental board, regulatory and infection-control standing confirmed, a five-star review count weighed against the practice's own town, and care philosophy tested by an unannounced call and a real treatment plan. ## Home We search high and low for the best dentist in town, so you don't have to. Every practice listed is checked by a person — licence and education verified with the state board, compliance standing confirmed, reviews read the way a patient would read them, and the office called unannounced. ### The three promises - We do the looking. Reviews read the way a patient would read them, the licence checked with the state board, and a call to the front desk from an ordinary number. - A person, not a score. Nothing here is scraped or ranked automatically. - Checked again. We go back every six months. ### Why this exists A dentist I had seen twice told me I needed four crowns. He said it on his way out of the room, and the treatment coordinator had the plan printed before I'd finished putting my shoes back on. When I asked whether any of it was urgent, the answer was that they could get me in Thursday. I went somewhere else. The second dentist put the same x-rays on the screen, pointed at one tooth, and said the other three were fine to watch. That was three years ago. They are still fine. The difference between those two offices was not skill. It was posture — whether a practice sees a mouth as a problem to solve or a quota to fill. You cannot tell which one you're in from a website, a billboard, or a five-star average. You find out from the chair, which is the worst possible place to find out. So this site does the finding out first. We look for dentists whose reflex is let's watch it, who put the whole plan in writing before anything gets drilled, and who will hand over your x-rays for a second opinion without making you feel like a traitor. Then we publish what we learned on one page you can read before you book. So we do the looking, and we keep doing it. Not once and not from a spreadsheet — a person reads the reviews, checks the licence with the state board, rings the office, and goes back six months later to find out whether any of it still holds. ### The six checks #### Care philosophy (weighted heaviest) Whether the practice's default is to treat or to watch. We look for a written plan handed to the patient before work begins, conservative thresholds on early decay, and second opinions treated as normal rather than insulting. Ends the review: Staff paid a commission on treatment sold, or work started on a plan the patient never saw in writing. #### Reputation (verified by phone) A practice has to hold a five-star review count that's competitive for its own town — a rural practice measured against its town, not a metro one. Then we read the reviews the way a patient would, looking for the complaint that shows up again and again, and call the office unannounced as a prospective patient. Ends the review: Review patterns that look purchased, or a front desk that deflects every question about how treatment gets decided. #### Experience (five years, same door) Years in practice matter less than continuity. We want the same dentist at the same address long enough to have seen their own work age, and to be accountable for it. Ends the review: Ownership churn that hands patients a different dentist every year. #### Education and standing (checked with the board) Licence, school and standing verified directly with the state board, alongside the practice's compliance record on infection control, radiation safety and patient privacy. Continuing education is weighed against the procedures they actually perform rather than against practice marketing. Ends the review: Paid memberships displayed as if they were honours or specialties. #### Access (pass or fail) Location is about reach, not prestige. Hours someone with a job can use, a step-free way in, parking or a bus that stops nearby, and a real answer for existing patients in pain. Ends the review: No route to being seen for pain within 48 hours. #### Services (breadth against honesty) We want a practice that handles the everyday work well and knows exactly where its own edge is. A general dentist who sends a difficult extraction to a surgeon scores higher than one who keeps it because the visit is billable. Ends the review: Whitening, veneers or full-mouth plans pitched to someone who came in for a cleaning. ## How we choose How The Best Dentist in Town decides: five verified inputs, a reviewer who calls the practice unannounced, and a re-check every six months. Why the scoring stays private, and what the award is not. ### Where it started This site started as a spreadsheet. One of us had moved towns, needed a dentist, and found that the only thing separating four practices was how much each had spent on its website. So we started asking the questions a patient cannot easily ask: who owns this practice, is anyone paid a bonus on treatment sold, what happens if I want a second opinion. The answers varied more than we expected, and the variation had almost nothing to do with price or polish. We are not dentists. That is deliberate — we ask as patients ask, and we publish what we are told alongside what we independently verified. ### Frequently asked #### How many dentists do you list in a town? As many as clear the checks, which is usually a small number and sometimes only one. A town showing no listing means we're still looking there, not that nobody good practises in it. #### Why isn't my town on the list? Because we haven't got to it yet, or haven't finished. Searching a town properly takes weeks, and we'd rather say so than pad the register. Tell us where to look next and we'll put it in the queue. #### Is the review count judged against a national number? No. It has to be competitive within the practice's own town. A rural practice is measured against its town, not against a metro market. #### Who makes the decision? A person. Every application is read by a reviewer who verifies the credentials, calls the practice unannounced as a prospective patient, and signs the note explaining the outcome. #### How often is a listing re-checked? Every six months, including compliance standing and anything patients have written to us in the meantime. Practices do come off. #### Can a patient nominate a dentist? Yes, and most reviews begin that way. Nominations from patients are read first. #### Is the award a judgement of clinical outcome? No. It is an assessment of credentials, standing, reputation and care philosophy. It is not a clinical opinion, not a guarantee of any result, and not medical advice. ## The register 27 towns searched to date. A town with no listing means the search there is still in progress. - Asheville, NC — still looking - Bend, OR — still looking - Bozeman, MT — still looking - Burlington, VT — still looking - Chattanooga, TN — still looking - Duluth, MN — still looking - Eugene, OR — still looking - Flagstaff, AZ — still looking - Fort Collins, CO — still looking - Frederick, MD — still looking - Ithaca, NY — still looking - Kalamazoo, MI — still looking - Lawrence, KS — still looking - Missoula, MT — still looking - Morgantown, WV — still looking - Nashua, NH — still looking - New Paltz, NY — still looking - Petaluma, CA — still looking - Portsmouth, NH — still looking - Rock Hill, SC — still looking - Santa Fe, NM — still looking - Sarasota, FL — still looking - Sheboygan, WI — still looking - St. Augustine, FL — still looking - test, KY — still looking - Traverse City, MI — still looking - Wilmington, NC — still looking ## Listings No practices are listed yet. ## Apply Practices apply with a nine-section application, described at https://thebestdentistintown.com/dentist-application. Patients nominate a dentist with a short form at https://thebestdentistintown.com/apply. ## Contact - Patients: https://thebestdentistintown.com/apply - Practices: https://thebestdentistintown.com/dentist-application