One listing among the 20 orthodontists we read carries 2,128 Google reviews. The other two of the three most-reviewed in that group hold 912 and 771. The median across the 20 is 112, which is what a median does — half of what we read sits below it. The business holding the 2,128 is Camp Smile Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics, and it answered 10 of its most recent 10 reviews.
Among the 20 dentists we read, the three biggest files hold 1,474, 911 and 771 reviews, against a median of 192 for the group. The three dentists answering the most of their recent reviews are Lake Minnetonka Dental, Smile Design Dentistry and Tailwind Pediatric Dentistry. Lake Minnetonka Dental, with 771 reviews, answered 10 of its last 10. Smile Design Dentistry, with 727, answered 9 of 10. Tailwind Pediatric Dentistry, with 346, answered 8 of 10. Those are the ones we can report a reply count for; the rest of the twenty we read are not described here.
On the orthodontics side, Camp Smile Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics answered 10 of its last 10, Lake Minnetonka Dental answered 10 of its last 10, and Shoreline Dentistry of Wayzata, with 299 reviews, answered 10 of its last 10. Lake Minnetonka Dental appears in both lists, which is the reason to count distinct businesses rather than add two groups together. The median rating is 4.9 across the 20 dentists we read and 4.8 across the 20 orthodontists; a median is one figure for a whole set and does not tell you which listing is which.
Among the 50 businesses we measured for someone searching in Wayzata, the typical one had answered 81% of its recent reviews. That set is a catchment — what a searcher here is shown, not a register of what sits inside the city limits — and it comes out of 440 businesses we read across every trade around Wayzata. Two different windows are in play above: the reply counts are drawn from each business's most recent reviews, while 1,474, 192 and 112 are whole-listing Google review counts.
What to do about it
The reply counts here come from each business's most recent reviews, not from the whole file. That matters if your listing sits anywhere near the 192 median for the dentists we read, or near the 1,474 at the top of that group. Getting current does not mean writing something under every review ever left. It means starting at the newest and working back, then not letting it slide again — catching up once and keeping up are two different jobs.
The other thing worth doing is answering the good ones, not just the ones that need an answer. A reply is where a practice speaks in its own words, and that is the part a reader can actually weigh up. Ratings are not what this page is ordered by: the median is 4.9 across the 20 dentists we read and 4.8 across the 20 orthodontists, and a median is one number for a whole set. Write the replies yourself, in the words you would use in person, and drop the template.
Dentists
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lake Minnetonka Dental | 10 of 10 | 771 | 4.8 |
| 2 | Smile Design Dentistry | 9 of 10 | 727 | 4.9 |
| 3 | Tailwind Pediatric Dentistry | 8 of 10 | 346 | 4.9 |
Orthodontists
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Camp Smile Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics | 10 of 10 | 2128 | 4.8 |
| 2 | Lake Minnetonka Dental | 10 of 10 | 771 | 4.8 |
| 3 | Shoreline Dentistry of Wayzata | 10 of 10 | 299 | 4.7 |