How Dentagraphics Verifies Dental Practice Data
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How Dentagraphics verifies dental practice data
Dentagraphics' competition data covers 118,330 active dental practices across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, each one verified by hand by a member of our US-based research team, not just matched from a directory or a scraped listing. 97% were rechecked within the last 12 months, and 36,988 were rechecked in the last 90 days alone.
Software helps us spot changes. A human looks at every one.
Figures as of September 28, 2026, from the Dentagraphics practice database.
Why competition data needs a human check
The first question in any dental location decision is how many practices are already nearby. The answer is only as good as the list behind it, and automated lists get three things wrong, all of them in ways that matter to a dentist:
- Closed practices that still show up. Online listings and old business records linger long after an office closes or merges. Counting them makes a market look more crowded than it is.
- Duplicates. One practice can appear several times under a doctor's name, a group name, and a former name. Each duplicate inflates the competitor count.
- Non-dental or non-clinical listings. Dental labs, billing companies, corporate offices and supply vendors often sit in the same categories as practices.
A market that looks saturated because of stale or duplicated records can steer a dentist away from a good opportunity. A market that looks open because new offices are missing can do the opposite. Human verification exists to catch both.
What "verified" means at Dentagraphics
A practice counts as verified when a researcher on our team has checked it by hand and confirmed it is a real, operating dental practice at that address. Each record carries the date it was last verified.
Verification is not a one-time event. Two things keep the data current:
- Annual reverification. Every verified practice is rechecked by hand once a year.
- Continuous change detection. Between annual checks, a maintenance system watches every practice for signs that something changed and sends it back to a researcher when it does:
- the practice is marked closed on Google
- the practice website changes
- the phone number stops working
- a change of ownership is detected
Software only raises the flag. A person on our research team looks at every flagged practice and decides what changed. Nothing is marked open, closed or under new ownership by an algorithm alone.
Practices confirmed closed are marked inactive and drop out of competition counts.
| Measure | Count |
|---|---|
| Active US dental practices, verified by hand | 118,330 |
| Verified practices rechecked in the last 12 months | 115,252 (97%) |
| Verified practices rechecked in the last 90 days | 36,988 |
How the verified data is used
- Demographics On Demand and Practice Finder (membership): competition counts around any address, area, county or state, alongside population, income, age and growth data.
- Custom reports (Area Analysis and Single-Site Study): every report includes human-verified competition data for the study area, reviewed with one of our demographers on a complimentary 30-minute call.
Where the rest of the data comes from
Dentagraphics' demographic data is built on the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, the federal government's most comprehensive source of population, income, age, education and household statistics. Those figures are cross-referenced against multiple commercial data sources to confirm their accuracy and currency before they reach a report.
Competition data comes from Dentagraphics' own practice database, maintained by our research team. Census data is authoritative on who lives in an area. It does not measure how many dental offices already serve those residents, and that is the gap our practice database exists to fill.
Why this matters for a decision
Dentagraphics has no financial stake in any location and does not broker practices, so we have no reason to make a market look better or worse than it is. Since 2014 we have supported more than 5,000 dental projects: startups, acquisitions, relocations and second locations.
Frequently asked questions
How many dental practices does Dentagraphics track? 118,330 active practices in the United States as of September 2026, each verified by hand by our research team.
How current is the verification? Every verified practice is rechecked by hand once a year, and 97% were rechecked within the past 12 months. Between checks, closures on Google, website changes, broken phone numbers and ownership changes send the practice back to a researcher. Software flags the change; a person makes the call.
Where does Dentagraphics' demographic data come from? From the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, cross-referenced against multiple commercial data sources for accuracy and currency.
Who does the verification? A full-time, US-based Dentagraphics research team, by hand.
Does Dentagraphics count closed practices as competitors? No. Practices confirmed closed are marked inactive and excluded from competition counts.
Can I see the data before paying? Yes. The free Dentagraphics membership includes national, state and county overviews of demographics and competition for any specialty.