We put the questions a Sydney patient actually asks to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, and recorded which of 212 clinics each engine names. Only 16 consistently appear - the rest are invisible in the channel patients increasingly start with.
When a Sydney patient asks AI for a cosmetic dental clinic, the same handful of names come back - The Paddington Dental Surgery, Pitt Street Dental Centre, Smile Concepts, Dental Lounge, Smile by Design. The other 196 clinics, including most with strong reputations and busy practices, rarely surface at all. 64% of the cohort is effectively invisible in AI search.
Real, unedited answers from the study - the same handful of names recur, question after question.
Visibility = share of AI answers naming the clinic. The full ranking of all 212 clinics, with each one's band, is available on request.
| # | Cosmetic Dental | Score | Visibility | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Paddington Dental Surgery | 70.8 | 55% | Active |
| 2 | Pitt Street Dental Centre | 66.5 | 55% | Active |
| 3 | Smile Concepts | 65.9 | 55% | Active |
| 4 | Dental Lounge | 64.5 | 50% | Active |
| 5 | Smile by Design | 62.9 | 50% | Active |
| 6 | TLC Dental | 56.1 | 50% | Emerging |
| 7 | Dr. Michael Tam | 55.3 | 45% | Active |
| 8 | Dental Clinic @ World Tower | 53.9 | 45% | Emerging |
| 9 | Vogue Dental Studios | 53.8 | 45% | Emerging |
| 10 | Macquarie Street Dental | 53.3 | 45% | Emerging |
| + 202 more clinics ranked, with each one's visibility and band. Get the full leaderboard & where you rank → | ||||
The top 5 are named in 50-55% of answers. By rank 10, visibility is already down to 45% - and 202 clinics sit below this table.
These directories, regulators and platforms surfaced in AI answers. They are not competing for the patient - they are the third-party sources AI re-reads. Getting listed and well-reviewed on them moves your own visibility.
| Source | Type | Engines |
|---|---|---|
| bestdentist.com.au | Directory | 2 |
| bestinau.com.au | Review platform | 2 |
| health.nsw.gov.au | Regulator | 1 |
| nsw.gov.au | Regulator | 1 |
| threebestrated.com | Directory | 1 |
| + more sources cited across the cohort. Get the full source list → | ||
When ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity answer a patient's question, the response is assembled from six technical inputs. No single marketing discipline covers them all - which is why 64% of clinics rarely surface.
We cover all six layers - the audit, the fixes, and the ongoing visibility - so AI starts recommending you. One programme, every engine.
28 Labs measures how brands get recommended across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. We've analysed 11,000+ AI answers covering 100+ brands across 15 markets - a uniquely deep view of what AI actually recommends, and why.
The Paddington Dental Surgery, Pitt Street Dental Centre, Smile Concepts, Dental Lounge, Smile by Design are the most consistently named across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. Only 16 of 212 clinics appear regularly.
Just 16 of 212 clinics consistently appear; 64% rarely surface at all.
The most-cited sources are bestdentist.com.au, bestinau.com.au, health.nsw.gov.au - the directories, regulators and platforms AI re-reads to build its answers.
Asked across the four engines, AI most often names The Paddington Dental Surgery, Pitt Street Dental Centre, Smile Concepts. The full ranking, and where each clinic sits, is on this page.
Each clinic is scored on whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity name it across the questions patients ask, May 2026. Citations reflect the retrieval / web layer; some recommendations draw on training data with no visible citation.
This page shows the public top 10. Get the full ranking of all 212 Sydney clinics, exactly where you sit across all four engines, and the specific moves to climb.
Press & data requests: [email protected]
How we did it. Patient questions x 4 engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity), 212 Sydney clinics scored on whether each engine names them. "Visibility" = share of answers naming the clinic. Citations reflect the retrieval / web layer; some recommendations draw on training data with no visible citation. Data captured May 2026.