Dentist reviews: what to do about fake or competitor reviews
Guide · Updated October 31, 2026
Sometimes a dentist reads a one-star review and is fairly sure the person was never a patient. It may be a mistaken review meant for another office, a competitor, or someone with a grudge.
This guide covers how to approach dentist reviews that seem fake: what signals to look for, what to document, how reporting generally works, and how to reply without disclosing anything about real patients.
Signals that a review may not be genuine
None of these proves a review is fake, but several together are worth documenting:
- Details that do not match your office, such as services you do not offer or a location you do not have.
- A burst of low ratings in a short period with little or no text.
- Reviewer profiles with many reviews of competing practices, or reviews that recommend a specific competitor.
- Wording that closely matches reviews posted on other practices' profiles.
- A connection you can identify, such as a former employee, which platforms often treat as a conflict of interest.
Check your own records privately before deciding. If the name could be a real patient, treat the review as genuine and reply with the standard privacy-safe approach.
What to document before asking for removal
Platforms, publishers and search engines review requests based on what you can show them. A short, organized file makes a request easier to evaluate and makes an appeal possible later.
- The exact page address (URL) of the content, plus the direct link to the individual review or post if the platform provides one.
- Dated screenshots that show the full text, the author's display name and the address bar.
- A copy of the text saved separately, in case it is edited later.
- The specific rule or policy you believe it breaks, in one or two sentences.
- Any facts you can support with documents, kept private unless a process actually requires them.
- The date of each request, the form or channel used, and any case or ticket number you receive.
Keep this log even if the first request succeeds. Content sometimes reappears on another page or site, and a record of earlier decisions saves time.
How flagging a Google review generally works
Google reviews are governed by Google's prohibited and restricted content policies for user-contributed content. Those policies cover categories such as fake engagement and spam, off-topic content, conflicts of interest, harassment, hate speech, personal information and illegal content. A review that is harsh, unfair or one-sided does not break the policy just because it is negative.
- Open the review from your Google Business Profile, or find it in Google Maps or Search while signed in as an owner or manager.
- Choose the report option and select the reason that matches the specific policy the review appears to break.
- Record the date you reported it. Google provides a reviews management tool where profile owners can check the status of reported reviews.
- If the report is declined, the tool generally allows an appeal. Add any new, specific information rather than repeating the same request.
Google makes the final decision. Nobody outside Google can guarantee that a review will be taken down, so be cautious of anyone who promises that.
Replying without creating a privacy problem
Healthcare providers that are covered by HIPAA have to treat review replies like any other disclosure. Confirming that someone is a patient, or mentioning their visit, condition or treatment, can itself be a disclosure of protected health information, even if the patient already posted those details.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights has taken enforcement action in cases involving providers' replies to online reviews. A safe reply speaks about practice policy in general and invites the person to contact the office directly.
- Do not confirm or deny that the reviewer is or was a patient.
- Do not mention dates, procedures, diagnoses, billing or insurance details.
- Use the same short, general reply pattern for every negative review so staff are not improvising.
- Have one trained person approve every reply before it is posted.
Your privacy officer or a healthcare attorney is the right person to confirm your practice's policy.
The federal rules on reviews in plain terms
In 2024 the Federal Trade Commission finalized a rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, which took effect in October 2024. In general terms it targets:
- Fake reviews, including reviews from people who do not exist or who did not have the experience described.
- Buying positive or negative reviews, or offering rewards that are conditioned on what the review says.
- Reviews by company insiders or their relatives that do not clearly disclose the connection, in certain circumstances.
- Using unfounded legal threats, intimidation or false accusations to suppress reviews.
- Misrepresenting that a website that displays reviews is independent when the business controls it.
Separately, the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016 generally makes it unlawful to use form contracts that bar customers from posting honest reviews. If your intake paperwork contains a non-disparagement clause, have a lawyer look at it.
This is a summary, not legal advice. For questions about how these rules apply to your business, consult a licensed attorney.
Legal note: this guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws and platform policies change and vary by state. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.
Getting help
Many of these steps you can take yourself. If you would like someone to look at your situation with you and suggest a plan, you can book a paid consultation. This is a paid consultation: price confirmed when scheduling. No payment is taken on this site. We do not guarantee that any review, article, listing or search result will be removed.