Emergency Dentists: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend emergency dentists. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since July 2026.

By Mark Huntley, J.D.Growth Strategist & AI Discovery Analyst

6 minutes read

Get my free AI Company Index Download sample PDF

On this page

01Benchmark Summary
02Current Benchmark at a Glance
03Research Scope and Qualification
04Current Brand Standings
05How to Read the Standings
06Recommendation Coverage Movement
07Largest Decline: Gentle Dental
08Largest Decline: Western Dental
09Category Leader: Aspen Dental
10Recommendation Placement Snapshot
11Buyer-Intent Distribution
12Historical Measurement Record

Benchmark Summary

Aspen Dental led the Emergency Dentists benchmark in September 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 29.6%, a 15.3-point lead over second-place Emergency Dental Care USA at 14.3%. Since the July 2026 baseline, two brands have posted significant coverage declines: Gentle Dental, falling to 10.7% in September 2026 from 21.8% in July 2026, and Western Dental, falling to 6.9% in September 2026 from 12.6% in July 2026. No brand recorded a significant coverage increase over the same span.

September 2026 was a stable month on its own: no brand recorded a significant month-over-month change in valid recommendation coverage. Aspen Dental and Western Dental each extended two-month declines that began at the July 2026 baseline, while Gentle Dental's coverage ticked up slightly from its August 2026 low without reversing its overall decline since baseline. Category leadership remains unchanged, with Aspen Dental holding first place in each of the three tracked months. The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in September 2026 and produced 216 qualified observations after qualification.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026

Aspen Dental29.6%
Emergency Dental Care USA14.3%
Comfort Dental13.9%
Gentle Dental10.7%
Western Dental6.9%
Smile Generation3.2%
Great Expressions Dental Centers2.3%
1-800-Dentist0.9%
Sage Dental0.9%
Dental3650.5%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	261	216	Down 45
Tracked brands	10	10	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	45.2%	32.4%	Down 12.8 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	34.5%	46.3%	Up 11.8 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	Aspen Dental	Aspen Dental	No change

Movement in August 2026 showed continuing category compression: qualified observations fell to 229, recommendation-shaped answer share declined to 32.3%, and valid recommendation shortlist share rose to 39.3%. Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Emergency Dentists

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection.

Want the full Authority Index

The paid deep-dive adds competitor threat profiles, the gap matrix, citation failure map, platform-by-platform recovery roadmap, and client-specific economic modeling.

Request free AI Company Index

Research stage	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	What it represents
Source prompt-surface observations	784	800	Total prompts across AI surfaces
Unique questions	503	537	Distinct question phrasings
Brand / competitor mentions	784	800	Prompts naming a brand or competitor
Relevant observations	558	552	On-topic responses
Irrelevant observations	226	248	Off-topic responses
Qualified benchmark observations	261	216	Public denominator

AI Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

Sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
Aspen Dental	77.8%	29.6%	18.1%	7.9%	0.4
Emergency Dental Care USA	19.0%	14.3%	11.6%	6.0%	0.9
Comfort Dental	18.1%	13.9%	6.9%	3.7%	0.8
Gentle Dental	17.6%	10.7%	4.6%	1.4%	0.7
Western Dental	13.4%	6.9%	4.6%	1.8%	0.6
Smile Generation	13.0%	3.2%	2.3%	1.8%	0.4
Great Expressions Dental Centers	5.1%	2.3%	1.4%	0.5%	0.6
Sage Dental	2.8%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.5
1-800-Dentist	5.1%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.5
Dental365	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand receives a recommendation that meets benchmark criteria.
Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top three recommended positions.
Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
Net sentiment: positive minus negative mentions divided by total mentions, ranging from -1 to 1. Net sentiment describes benchmark framing of AI responses, not customer sentiment.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Brand	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement since baseline
1-800-Dentist	0.8%	0.9%	Up 0.1 points
Aspen Dental	36.0%	29.6%	Down 6.4 points
Comfort Dental	13.8%	13.9%	Up 0.1 points
Dental365	0.8%	0.5%	Down 0.3 points
Emergency Dental Care USA	20.3%	14.3%	Down 6.0 points
Gentle Dental	21.8%	10.7%	Down 11.1 points
Great Expressions Dental Centers	0.4%	2.3%	Up 1.9 points
Sage Dental	1.5%	0.9%	Down 0.6 points
Smile Generation	3.8%	3.2%	Down 0.6 points
Western Dental	12.6%	6.9%	Down 5.7 points

Gentle Dental's movement from August 2026 to September 2026 was upward, rising to 10.7% from 9.6%, while Western Dental continued declining to 6.9% from 8.7% in August 2026, a decline in each of the two months since July 2026.

Largest Decline: Gentle Dental

Gentle Dental's valid recommendation coverage fell to 10.7% in September 2026 from 21.8% in July 2026, a decline of 11.1 points that exceeded normal month-to-month variation. The single largest monthly move came between July and August, when coverage fell 12.2 points. Presence rate also declined to 17.6% in September 2026 from 30.3% in July 2026, a movement beyond normal variation. Top-three placement fell to 4.6% in September 2026 from 14.2% in July 2026, while rank-one placement declined to 1.4% from 3.1%. Gentle Dental's September 2026 coverage of 10.7% represents a modest recovery from its August 2026 low of 9.6%.

Want the full Authority Index

The paid deep-dive adds competitor threat profiles, the gap matrix, citation failure map, platform-by-platform recovery roadmap, and client-specific economic modeling.

Request free AI Company Index

Largest Decline: Western Dental

Western Dental's valid recommendation coverage fell to 6.9% in September 2026 from 12.6% in July 2026, a decline of 5.7 points that exceeded normal month-to-month variation. The brand declined in each of the two months since July 2026. Presence rate fell to 13.4% in September 2026 from 22.6% in July 2026, a movement beyond normal variation. Top-three placement declined to 4.6% in September 2026 from 8.4% in July 2026, while rank-one placement rose slightly to 1.8% from 1.1%.

Category Leader: Aspen Dental

Aspen Dental remained the coverage leader at 29.6% in September 2026, down from 36.0% in July 2026. Its lead persists, but first-choice strength is eroding faster than overall coverage. The decline was within normal variation overall, though its top-three rate fell to 18.1% in September 2026 from 28.3% in July 2026, a movement beyond normal variation, and its rank-one rate fell to 7.9% from 16.5%, also beyond normal variation. Presence rate of 77.8% in September 2026, down from 84.7% in July 2026, remained the highest in the benchmark. The 15.3-point lead over Emergency Dental Care USA in September 2026 compares with a 15.7-point gap between the same two brands in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, placement patterns show meaningful differences.

Brand	Sep 2026 top-three rate	Sep 2026 rank-one rate	Jul 2026 top-three rate	Jul 2026 rank-one rate
Aspen Dental	18.1%	7.9%	28.3%	16.5%
Emergency Dental Care USA	11.6%	6.0%	16.9%	6.5%
Comfort Dental	6.9%	3.7%	10.7%	3.8%

Aspen Dental's rank-one rate fell to 7.9% in September 2026 from 16.5% in July 2026, while its coverage declined less steeply. Comfort Dental's rank-one rate held essentially steady at 3.7% in September 2026 against 3.8% in July 2026, tracking its overall coverage, which also held roughly steady at 13.9% against 13.8% in July 2026. Two brands now rank first more often than their coverage might suggest: Western Dental converts 1.8% rank-one against 6.9% coverage, and Smile Generation converts 1.8% rank-one against 3.2% coverage. Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All 216 qualified observations in September 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class, consistent with July 2026 when all 261 qualified observations also fell into that class.

Buyer-intent class	Jul 2026	Sep 2026
Brand Recommendation	261	216
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	261	216

The current public series measures brand-recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing and value or multi-brand comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Largest coverage movement
Jul 2026	261	Aspen Dental	36.0%	Baseline month (no prior period)
Aug 2026	229	Aspen Dental	34.1%	Gentle Dental down 12.2 points
Sep 2026	216	Aspen Dental	29.6%	Gentle Dental down 11.1 points

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure: market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone. A significant movement recorded by a brand does not, by itself, explain why the change occurred.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks which brands appear and are recommended across a fixed set of AI-driven discovery surfaces. This industry benchmark shows category-level standings for 10 dental service brands across an evolving three-month series.

Get a Company-Level Authority Index

The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.

Get my free AI Company Index

Want the full Authority Index

The paid deep-dive adds competitor threat profiles, the gap matrix, citation failure map, platform-by-platform recovery roadmap, and client-specific economic modeling.

Request free AI Company Index