AI Visibility Report

Who Google's AI Recommends for Dentists in Vancouver

A citation study of Google AI Overviews across seven Metro Vancouver sub-markets and three patient questions — implant cost, Invisalign cost, and which dentists accept the Canadian Dental Care Plan — measuring which practices AI-generated answers name and cite.

21 patient-intent queries. 226 citations captured. 70 Metro Vancouver practices named — and in four of the seven sub-markets, Google declined to generate an answer at all for the highest-intent question of the three.

21 queries7 sub-marketsGoogle AI OverviewsAugust 2, 2026

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The finding in one sentence

Google refused to generate an answer at all for the Canadian Dental Care Plan question in four of seven sub-markets. Where it did answer, 70 Metro Vancouver practices share the citations and 70% of them appear exactly once.

Metro Vancouver practices cited
70 Metro Vancouver practices cited
Citations to local practices
53% Citations to local practices
Citations to practices outside the region
8% Citations to practices outside the region
Queries returning an AI Overview
17/21 Queries returning an AI Overview

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What did this study measure?

We ran 21 patient-intent dental queries through Google across seven Metro Vancouver sub-markets and recorded every source cited by the AI Overview each one returned — including the four queries where no AI Overview was returned at all.

  • 17 of 21 queries returned an AI Overview; all four exceptions were the Canadian Dental Care Plan question, in Burnaby, Surrey, North Vancouver and Coquitlam
  • 226 citations captured, de-duplicated so a practice cited twice in one answer counts once
  • 53% pointed at local practice websites, 30% at Google listings, 10% at third parties and 8% at practices outside the region
  • 70 distinct Metro Vancouver practices were named across the seven sub-markets
  • Abbotsford counted as outside the region and named explicitly rather than folded into either group
  • Single point in time — captured August 2, 2026, and generated answers vary between runs

This measures Google AI Overviews only. It does not measure ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Copilot, which use different retrieval systems and require separate tracking.

Four Findings

Google will not answer the CDCP question in most of Metro Vancouver. Only 3 of 7 sub-markets returned an AI Overview for “which dentists accept the Canadian Dental Care Plan” — Burnaby, Surrey, North Vancouver and Coquitlam returned none at all. In Calgary the same question returned an AI Overview in all seven. Where Vancouver did answer, no listing and no out-of-region practice was cited: it went 67% to local practices and the rest to a private information site.

Vancouver defends its own market better than any city we have measured. Only 8% of citations go to practices outside Metro Vancouver, against 10% in Calgary and 13% in Ottawa. The intruders are real but few: London and Toronto, Ontario; Abbotsford; Montreal; and orthodontic groups in Massachusetts and California.

The listing lever is a suburban lever. Vancouver, Richmond and North Vancouver returned zero Google Business Profile citations between them. Surrey, Coquitlam and Langley returned 62. The same investment in a Google Business Profile is worth nothing in the core and a great deal across the Fraser.

No practice owns more than one question. Not one of the 70 cited practices appears across all three patient questions, and 49 of them (70%) appear exactly once. The top ten hold 40% of local citations and the most-cited practice in the region has just 10.

The Three Patient questions

One Market on Paper, Three Markets in Practice

Each question is answered from a different kind of page, and each has a different competitor taking the gap. The CDCP question is the outlier — not because local practices lose it, but because Google mostly declines to answer it.

Share of citations going to a Metro Vancouver practice's own website

CDCP coverage

67%
Queries
3
Citations
24
Most cited
smilevancouver.ca (1), aquabluedental.com (1), altadental.ca (1)

Answered in only three of seven sub-markets. Where it was answered, no listing and no out-of-region practice was cited at all — the remaining third went to a private information site that is not the government.

Invisalign cost

54%
Queries
7
Citations
83
Most cited
parksidedentalgroup.ca (5), radiantsmilesvancouver.ca (4), hemlockdentalclinic.com (4)

30% of this question goes to Google listings and 10% to practices outside the region, including two American orthodontic groups.

Implant cost

49%
Queries
7
Citations
119
Most cited
appledentalimplantcentre.com (6), willowdentalcarevancouver.com (6), parksidedentalgroup.ca (5)

The most-cited question and the most contested: 36% of it is Google listings, which is where the suburban sub-markets do their damage.

Based on 226 citations across 17 AI Overviews, captured August 2, 2026. The four queries that returned no AI Overview contribute no citations and are reported in the sub-market table below.

Practices From Outside the Region

10 Practices, 17 Citations, 8% of the Market

Every domain below was opened individually and its published street address recorded. None has a location in Metro Vancouver. redhousedental.ca is the one to look at twice: it is in Richmond Hill, Ontario — not Richmond, British Columbia — and it was cited in a Metro Vancouver Invisalign answer. The two cities share a name and nothing else; a patient following that citation would be booking 3,300 km away.

Practice domain Verified location Citations Sub-markets Cited for
appletreedental.caLondon, ON44Implant cost
downtowndentistry.comToronto, ON33Invisalign cost
medoradental.comAbbotsford, BC — Fraser Valley, outside Metro Vancouver33Implant cost
class1ortho.comNewton, Massachusetts (USA)11Invisalign cost
cliniquedentairecartier.comMontréal, QC11Implant cost
redhousedental.caRichmond Hill, ON — not Richmond, BC11Invisalign cost
renovadental.caStouffville, ON11Invisalign cost
shoreline-dentistry.caOakville, ON11Invisalign cost
smilecrafters.caAncaster / Hamilton / Toronto, ON11Implant cost
wowsmiles.comMonterey, California (USA)11Invisalign cost

This is the smallest out-of-region share of any market in the series. Vancouver's problem is not intrusion; it is that most of the field is cited once and then never again.

The Citation Leaderboard

Every Metro Vancouver Practice Cited, Ranked

All 70 practices cited across the 21 queries analysed, ranked by how many generated answers cited the practice's own website. The most-cited practice in the entire region holds 10 of 119 local citations, and not one practice answers all three questions.

Showing all 70 cited practices

All 70 practices cited in Google AI Overviews across the queries measured, ranked by citation count.
# Practice domain Citations Sub-mkts Questions won Missing questions
1 parksidedentalgroup.ca
10
6 Implant cost, Invisalign costCDCP coverage
2 hemlockdentalclinic.com
7
5 Implant cost, Invisalign costCDCP coverage
3 appledentalimplantcentre.com
6
6 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
4 willowdentalcarevancouver.com
6
6 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
5 radiantsmilesvancouver.ca
4
4 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
6 thegrovedentistry.ca
4
3 Implant cost, Invisalign costCDCP coverage
7 bluebirddentalbc.ca
3
3 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
8 robsonsquaredental.com
3
3 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
9 vdsclinic.com
3
3 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
10 burnabydentalmetrotown.ca
2
2 Implant cost, Invisalign costCDCP coverage
11 gloworthodontics.ca
2
2 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
12 latimerdentalimplant.com
2
2 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
13 walnutgrovesmiles.ca
2
2 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
14 diamonddentalcentre.ca
2
1 Implant cost, Invisalign costCDCP coverage
15 glendentalcentre.com
2
1 Implant cost, Invisalign costCDCP coverage
16 ironwooddental.com
2
1 Implant cost, Invisalign costCDCP coverage
17 ismiledent.ca
2
1 Implant cost, Invisalign costCDCP coverage
18 northburnabydental.com
2
1 Implant cost, Invisalign costCDCP coverage
19 sabaroaddental.com
2
1 CDCP coverage, Invisalign costImplant cost
20 townshipdental.ca
2
1 CDCP coverage, Implant costInvisalign cost
21 willowbrookdentalclinic.com
2
1 CDCP coverage, Implant costInvisalign cost
22 aarkdentistcoquitlamcentre.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
23 altadental.ca
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
24 aquabluedental.com
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
25 athenadental.ca
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
26 atlantisdental.ca
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
27 bracesvancouver.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
28 burnabycitydentist.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
29 burnabygentledental.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
30 charmdentalcare.ca
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
31 cleardental.ca
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
32 cloverdaledentalbc.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
33 coastdentalcoquitlam.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
34 dentistlangley.com
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
35 drkaltiodental.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
36 elgindental.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
37 guildforddental.ca
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
38 inspiredental.ca
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
39 justsmiles.ca
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
40 kensingtonsquaredental.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
41 langleybracesandorthodontics.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
42 langleyorthodontics.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
43 mapledentallangley.ca
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
44 minorudental.ca
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
45 morgancreekdentalclinic.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
46 nordelsmiles.ca
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
47 norrisdental.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
48 northlangleydental.com
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
49 northvancouverdentalimplants.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
50 oradentalcare.ca
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
51 orthologie.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
52 pierdentalcentre.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
53 pocodental.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
54 richmonddentalcentre.com
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
55 riverroaddentalbc.com
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
56 sagedental.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
57 semiahmoodental.ca
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
58 seymourdentalcentre.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
59 smilevancouver.ca
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
60 smilewelldental.ca
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
61 southridgedental.ca
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
62 stadium-dental.com
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
63 surreyplacedental.com
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage
64 thedentallounge.ca
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
65 thesurreydentist.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
66 theurbandentist.ca
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
67 tomleedental.com
1
1 CDCP coverageImplant cost, Invisalign cost
68 vitacaredental.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
69 vivaortho.com
1
1 Invisalign costImplant cost, CDCP coverage
70 westhilldental.ca
1
1 Implant costInvisalign cost, CDCP coverage

Bar length is scaled to the highest citation count in the study. Repeat citations of the same domain within a single answer are counted once. Two domains belonging to the Smile Well Dental group were merged. Captured August 2, 2026.

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Sub-Market Detail

Read the Listing Column Twice

Vancouver, Richmond and North Vancouver returned zero listing citations between them; Surrey, Coquitlam and Langley returned 62. The AI Overview column is the other one to read: four of the seven sub-markets are missing an answer to the Canadian Dental Care Plan question entirely.

Sub-market AI Overviews Local citations Out of region Listing citations Distinct practices
Vancouver3/3142014
Burnaby2/3163613
Richmond3/3232020
Surrey2/31932017
North Vancouver2/39209
Coquitlam2/31632213
Langley3/32222018

Sub-market labels follow Google's own location targeting rather than municipal boundaries.

Google Listing Panels

68 Businesses Named Through a Google Listing

68 citations (30%) point to a Google Business Profile panel rather than a website. Every one of them was cited exactly once — Google is not returning to the same listings, it is filling the panel from whatever is nearby. Almost none of these businesses has a cited website anywhere in this study.

Business named in the answer Listing citations
Dentists At Metrotown1
Burnaby Dental & Implant Centre1
IMPrESS Perio Implant Center| Certified Specialists1
Surrey Place Dental Group1
City Centre Dentistry1
Nordel Crossing Dental Centre1
EXUDE Dental Centre1
Surrey Central Dental Clinic1
Central City Surrey Dentist1
City Centre Dental Clinic1
Guildford Town Centre Dental1
Opal Dental1
Canary Dental1
Guildford Village Dental1
Impact Dental Centre1
Tapestry Dental1
Surrey Denture Clinic1
Smiles at Fleetwood Surrey1
Gateway Dental Centre1
Strive Dental Surrey1
Genesis Dental1
Grand Dental1
Sunstone Dental Clinic1
Apple Dental Implant Centre - Coquitlam1
BC Perio (Coquitlam)1
Greenline Dental Centre1
Lafarge Dental Coquitlam1
Glen Dental Centre Coquitlam1
Coquitlam Centre Dental Clinic1
AARK Dentist Coquitlam Centre1
Coquitlam City Dentist1
Dr. Song Dental1
Tri-City Dental Centre1
Sunrise Dental Clinic - Coquitlam Dentist1
Glen Park Dental1
Coquitlam General & Sedation Dentistry1
Altitude Dental1
Coast Dental Coquitlam - Dentist Coquitlam1
Oasis Dental Studio1
Lincoln Dental Center Coquitlam BC1
Coquitlam BC Dental1
Oxford Family Dental1
Pinetree Dental Centre1
North Burnaby Orthodontics1
Burnaby Dentist and Orthodontist1
First Impression Orthodontics1
Aran Orthodontics1
myORTHODONTIST Coquitlam1
Glow Orthodontics Langley1
Willowbrook Dental Clinic1
Fraser Valley Orthodontics1
Willow Dental Care Langley1
Aura Orthodontics - Langley1
Langley Orthodontics1
Pure Orthodontics - Langley1
Maple Dental Clinic1
Amazing Smile Dental Langley1
Cronin Ortho1
Walnut Grove Orthodontist1
Cornerstone Dental Centre1
Langley Village Dental1
iSmile Dental1
Smile Well Dental1
Langley Dental Care Clinic1
Douglas Park Dental1
Township Dental Centre Langley1
Astra Dental Centre1
Langley Dental Group1

Listing citations carry no publisher domain and are counted separately from website citations throughout this study.

Where Else the Citations Go

The Third Parties, Including One That Is Not the Government

22 citations (10%) went to something that is not a dental practice. canadiangovernmentdentalplan.ca is not a government site — its own contact page states it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Government of Canada, and the postal address it publishes appears to be an unedited placeholder. It is being cited as a source on the Canadian Dental Care Plan question.

Source What it is Citations
reddit.comCommunity forum4
bcmedicalaccess.caPrivate healthcare-navigation directory4
realdentalcosts.comCost aggregator3
hellodent.comDirectory3
canadiangovernmentdentalplan.caPrivate CDCP information site (not government)3
sunlife.caInsurer (CDCP administrator)2
instagram.comSocial platform1
straightsmilecentres.comBranded clinic network / directory1
opencare.comBooking directory1

Same Method, Three Cities

Vancouver Against Calgary and Ottawa

All three studies ran the same instrument against the same three patient questions across seven sub-markets. Vancouver defends its own market best and answers fewest questions.

Metro Local practices cited Local share Out-of-region share Listing share AI Overviews
Vancouver7053%8%30%17/21
Calgary7953%10%26%20/21
Ottawa5248%13%31%19/21

Method

Proof, Not Promises

  1. STEP 01

    Ran 21 patient-intent queries through Google with city-level location targeting across seven Metro Vancouver sub-markets: Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, North Vancouver, Coquitlam and Langley.

  2. STEP 02

    Tested each sub-market with the same three questions — implant cost, Invisalign cost and Canadian Dental Care Plan participation, so every area was asked identical questions.

  3. STEP 03

    Captured the complete search result page for each query, including the AI Overview block, its generated text, and every source it cited.

  4. STEP 04

    De-duplicated citations per answer, so a practice cited twice within a single AI Overview counts once.

  5. STEP 05

    Opened every practice domain whose name did not already contain an unambiguous Metro Vancouver place name and read its published street address from its own contact page; practices with a verified address outside the region are reported separately and that location is named.

  6. STEP 06

    Counted Google Business Profile panels separately as listing citations, and merged booking and group subdomains belonging to a practice already in the dataset into that practice.

  7. STEP 07

    Crawled on August 2, 2026 without personalisation, and recorded the crawl window so any figure can be re-checked against the day it was captured.

Limitations

This is a single-point-in-time snapshot. AI Overviews are generated fresh per query and vary between runs, so exact citation lists will differ if re-run; trends require repeated sampling. Practice identification is by website domain, and where a group operates several sites each is counted separately unless the study states a merge.

Four of the 21 queries returned no AI Overview and contribute no citations; all four were the Canadian Dental Care Plan question, in Burnaby, Surrey, North Vancouver and Coquitlam. The absence of an AI Overview on a given day does not mean one will never appear. Only three patient questions were tested; cleanings, emergency care and cosmetic dentistry may behave differently. Sub-market labels follow Google's own location targeting rather than municipal boundaries.

AI Overviews reach the largest audience of any AI answer surface — no login, no app, shown to anyone searching Google — so this is the widest-reach measurement available. It is not the whole picture, and a business performing well here may perform differently elsewhere. Every figure comes from search results captured on the date stated and can be independently checked by running the same queries yourself.

Where Your Practice Sits

This report shows the market. It does not show your position in it — whether you are cited at all, on which questions, and whether Google is quoting your website or only your listing. That analysis is specific to your practice, and we produce it individually.

Vancouver is a well-defended market with a wide-open gap in the middle of it. Local practices hold 53% of citations and out-of-region practices barely register — but no practice answers more than one question, 49 of 70 are cited exactly once, and in four of seven sub-markets the highest-intent question of the three returns no AI answer at all. Google generates an AI Overview when it has enough usable source material and suppresses it when it does not; in those four sub-markets it currently has none.

The practice that publishes a clear, local page confirming it accepts the plan is not competing for a slot in an existing answer; it is supplying the material for an answer that does not yet exist. The work that follows is a fixed-price engagement: the AI Visibility Accelerator. Thirteen weeks, a published price, and three separate measurements against these same queries after publication.

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The full study as a PDF — leaderboard, the three questions, sources, method and limitations.

Questions About This Report

See Which Practices Appear When Your Patients Ask

We will run the same method against your practice: which AI answers name you, which name your competitors instead, and the specific pages that would change it. No cost, no obligation.

Or read the AI Visibility Accelerator, the fixed-price programme built on this research, or how we approach dental SEO generally. All Vancouver research from Enginely.ai.

This report is provided for information. Practice and business names appear because they were cited in publicly generated search results on the date stated; inclusion or absence is not an assessment of clinical skill, care quality or standing. Nothing here is dental or medical advice, and nothing here describes Canadian Dental Care Plan eligibility — check that with the Government of Canada. Practice locations were read from each practice’s own published website on August 2, 2026 and may change. Figures describe what Google’s systems returned on August 2, 2026 and may change.

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