Who Charleston customers find first for dentists
We checked every dentist business that shows up on Google Maps across the Charleston area, then looked at Google page one and asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity who they recommend. Here is who customers actually see.
| Area covered | Tri-county Charleston: 49 map checkpoints from Summerville and Goose Creek to Mount Pleasant, James Island and Johns Island |
| Captured | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Prepared by | the CORE CONNECT Team, Mount Pleasant |
The leaderboard
Scored out of 100 on what a customer actually sees. The method is explained at the bottom of the page.
| # | Business | Score | Map of 40 | Page one of 20 | AI answers of 30 | Reviews of 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charleston Center for Cosmetic and Restorative Dentistry Charleston | 65.3 | 30.5 | 5.3 | 20 ChatGPT Perplexity | 9.5 5.0★ · 709 |
| 2 | Peninsula Cosmetic & Family Dentistry Charleston | 65.0 | 38.3 | 6.7 | 10 ChatGPT | 10 4.9★ · 1,266 |
| 3 | River Landing Dentistry 6 locations | 50.5 | 30.5 | 0.0 | 10 Gemini | 10 5.0★ · 1,869 |
| 4 | Family Dental Health 7 locations | 50.0 | 40.0 | 0.0 | 0 — | 10 5.0★ · 1,882 |
| 5 | Mt. Pleasant Modern Dentistry Mount Pleasant | 48.9 | 40.0 | 0.0 | 0 — | 8.9 5.0★ · 459 |
| 6 | Sculpt Dental Spa Charleston | 48.4 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 20 ChatGPT Perplexity | 8.4 5.0★ · 321 |
| 7 | Palmetto Smiles Family, Cosmetic & Implant Dentistry North Charleston | 47.3 | 28.3 | 0.0 | 10 Perplexity | 9.0 4.9★ · 515 |
| 8 | Johns Island Dental Associates Johns Island | 47.0 | 28.3 | 0.0 | 10 Gemini | 8.7 5.0★ · 417 |
| 9 | Charleston Restorative & Cosmetic Dentistry, LLC Charleston | 45.6 | 36.5 | 1.3 | 0 — | 7.8 4.9★ · 213 |
| 10 | West Ashley Family Dentistry Charleston | 45.5 | 11.5 | 6.0 | 20 ChatGPT Gemini | 8.0 4.9★ · 259 |
| 11 | Trident Dental 6 locations | 44.6 | 34.6 | 0.0 | 0 — | 10 4.9★ · 3,162 |
| 12 | Cypress Family Dental Johns Island | 44.2 | 34.6 | 0.0 | 0 — | 9.6 4.9★ · 759 |
| 13 | James Island Family, Cosmetic, and Implant Dentistry Charleston | 41.6 | 23.1 | 0.0 | 10 Perplexity | 8.5 4.9★ · 353 |
| 14 | Water's Edge Family & Cosmetic Dentistry Mount Pleasant | 41.5 | 25.8 | 6.7 | 0 — | 9.0 5.0★ · 498 |
| 15 | Cooper Cosmetic & Family Dentistry North Charleston | 41.4 | 32.6 | 0.0 | 0 — | 8.8 4.9★ · 446 |
176 more local businesses scored below the top 15.
How the top three win
What we found
- 84 businesses show up in the map’s top three somewhere in the Charleston area. The map changes block by block, so a business that ranks first in West Ashley can be invisible in Mount Pleasant.
- AI assistants named 12 local businesses between them, and all three agreed on just 1: Tatum Dentistry.
- Some well-reviewed businesses are hard to find. West Ashley Family Dentistry has 259 Google reviews but rarely shows in the map’s top three. Reviews alone don’t win the map.
- The #1 business leads #10 by 19.8 points. For most businesses below the top three, the gap is map coverage and AI recommendations, not the quality of their work.
Who the AI assistants recommend
We asked each assistant, with live web search on: “Who are the best dentists in Charleston, SC?”
| ChatGPT | Gemini | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
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|
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Listed as each assistant answered. A business only earns AI points if it is a local business that also appears on Google Maps in the area.
What Charleston customers search
| Search | Avg monthly searches | Cost per ad click |
|---|---|---|
| dentist charleston sc | 1,900 | $19.72 |
| dentist mount pleasant sc | 880 | $11.46 |
| cosmetic dentist charleston sc | 260 | $13.56 |
Searches that name Charleston, last 12 months, Google Ads estimates; searches Google groups together are counted once in the total. Most people search “near me” or just the service, which Google doesn’t report by city, so real demand is several times higher.
How the score works
- Map (40): how much of the Charleston area sees the business in Google’s map top three, checked at 49 points across the tri-county for two searches (dentist; cosmetic dentist). Businesses with several locations are combined.
- Page one (20): where the business’s own website ranks in Google’s regular results for 3 Charleston searches. Directories like Yelp and Angi earn nothing.
- AI answers (30): 10 points each when ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity names the business.
- Reviews (10): total Google reviews on a curve, so the first hundred matter most. Ratings under 4.0 are discounted.
Who’s included: only businesses with an address in Charleston, Berkeley or Dorchester County (or a local service-area listing), in this line of work, with at least 10 Google reviews. For this board we removed 0 listings based outside the area, 0 in a different line of work, and 11 with fewer than 10 reviews, which is usually how lead-generation listings with no real local shop look.
What this score is not: a rating of quality, price or workmanship. It measures visibility only. Search results move daily, so treat this as a snapshot. Nobody paid to be included or to rank higher.
Disclosure: no business in this top 15 is a CORE CONNECT client.
Think we missed your business or got something wrong? Let us know and we’ll check it before the next update.
More Charleston boards: all Charleston industry leaderboards