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How do Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode change dental searches?
About 89% of healthcare searches now show an AI Overview first. The question is no longer where you rank but whether the answer names you.
In December 2025, 89% of healthcare keywords in a BrightEdge sample showed a Google AI Overview, up from 59% two years earlier. AI Mode goes further: a conversation instead of a results page. For a dentist this means the patient often reads a written answer before seeing any link.
The answer is assembled from pages Google already indexes and trusts. Practitioner pages with clear facts, structured data and consistent hours are the ones it can draw on; pages that only carry marketing copy give it nothing to quote.
Being named in the Overview is measurable. Quarphin asks Google's two AI surfaces the questions patients ask in each district every week, and records who is named. That is how a doctor learns whether the answer includes them, and how it changes.
What this does not mean: that traditional search is gone. Google still lists results; but for health questions most people now stop at the answer.
Related questions
Do I need to do something different for AI Mode versus AI Overviews?
No. Both draw on the same index and the same structured facts. Make the page readable once.
Is this only a US phenomenon?
AI Overviews run in Taiwan as well, in Traditional Chinese. Quarphin measures both Google surfaces across the six municipalities.