The two dental trades someone searching in Simi Valley, CA is shown look nothing alike on volume. The median dentist we read carries 273 Google reviews, and the three most-reviewed carry 567, 524 and 503. Among the 20 orthodontists we read, the median carries 53.5 reviews, and the three most-reviewed carry 567, 295 and 266. The median rating is 4.9 in both trades, so the star figure alone does little to set the typical dentist apart from the typical orthodontist we read.
Replies are where the named practices differ. Among the dentists we could measure, Royal Family Dental answered 10 of its 10 most recent reviews. First Street Dental Group and Orthodontics answered 4 of its last 10, and Simi Valley Family Dental Office also answered 4 of 10. Measured over their whole history, those three listings carry 422, 567 and 503 reviews respectively. We can't see how the other dentists we read handled their recent reviews.
Among the orthodontists we could measure, Western Dental & Orthodontics answered 10 of its last 10. Orthodontics in Woodland Hills answered 8 of 10, and Comfy Dental Group and Orthodontics 6 of 10. Their listings carry 266, 101 and 99 reviews in total. As with the dentists, these are the only orthodontists whose replies we can name; nothing here says how the rest of the 20 we read handled theirs.
In both trades, at least one practice we could see was answering. The benchmark measured here is 67%: the share of recent reviews a typical measured business answered, across 41 businesses. That figure is measured across all trades together, not dental practices alone, and it is the closest comparison this page offers for a practice checking its own reply habit.
What to do about it
Open your listing and count how many of your last 10 reviews carry a reply from you. The reply figures above were counted exactly that way. Royal Family Dental and Western Dental & Orthodontics each answered 10 of 10, and the benchmark measured here is 67%, so you can place your own count against both.
If your count is low, start with the next review that arrives and answer it, then keep answering each one after it. Keep replies short and in your own voice: thank the reviewer, and for a complaint, invite them to contact the office directly. Never confirm in a reply that the reviewer is a patient or mention any treatment, even when they did. The reply is the one piece of that exchange that is yours to write.
Dentists
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Family Dental | 10 of 10 | 422 | 5 |
| 2 | First Street Dental Group and Orthodontics | 4 of 10 | 567 | 4.7 |
| 3 | Simi Valley Family Dental Office | 4 of 10 | 503 | 4.9 |
Orthodontists
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Western Dental & Orthodontics | 10 of 10 | 266 | 3.6 |
| 2 | Orthodontics in Woodland Hills | 8 of 10 | 101 | 5 |
| 3 | Comfy Dental Group and Orthodontics | 6 of 10 | 99 | 4.1 |