Which US Cities Have the Highest Patient Demand for Dentists Right Now?

Cleveland, Ohio has the highest volume of “dentist near me” searches of any US metro, followed by Charlotte and Atlanta, according to a 2025 analysis of 98 metro areas by Clarify Capital. If you’re trying to gauge patient demand for dentists in your own market, search volume is a better signal than population size alone.

Which cities have the highest patient demand for dental care?

Clarify Capital measured “dentist near me” search volume per 100,000 residents across 98 metro areas, using Google Trends data. Three cities stood well clear of the rest of the country.

City	“Dentist near me” searches per 100,000 residents	National rank
Cleveland, OH	57,132	1
Charlotte, NC	49,737	2
Atlanta, GA	48,867	3

Orlando, Florida also placed in the top five nationally for search interest, and Scottsdale, Arizona ranked fifth for search demand specifically, according to the full Clarify Capital study. Scottsdale is worth a separate mention: it ranked first overall in the same study once job availability, projected growth, and local business conditions were factored in alongside demand, a different, broader measure than search volume on its own.

Why does search volume matter more than population size?

A big city doesn’t automatically mean big demand. Search volume per capita is a closer proxy for how many people are actively looking for care right now versus how many already have a dentist they’re happy with. A market with fewer residents but a higher searches-per-100,000 figure often has more real, unmet demand than a much larger city where most people already have an established provider.

This is the same underlying signal our local SEO work is built around: showing up when that demand shows up as a search. See what that actually involves on our local SEO service page.

How do you find out your own city’s demand?

You don’t need a national study to check your own market. Two free, practical starting points:

• Google Business Profile Insights, inside your profile dashboard, shows how many people searched for your business directly versus discovered it by searching a category or service, a rough read on local demand reaching you specifically.
• Google Trends lets you compare “dentist near me” or “[your city] dentist” search interest over time for your own metro, free, no login required.

Neither tells you the whole story on its own. What matters is whether that demand actually finds you, which comes down to visibility, not just how many people are searching. That’s covered in more depth in what the Google Map Pack actually is.

Is demand growing faster than practices can absorb it?

In a lot of markets, yes. In the same study, 72% of dental professionals surveyed said there is a shortage of dentists in their area, and 57% said those shortages are already causing delays in patient care. That matters for how you read a demand figure: high search volume in a market with strained capacity means patients are actively shopping, comparing, and calling around, not settling on the first result out of habit. Whoever is easiest to find and book gets the appointment.

What if my city isn’t on this list?

It doesn’t mean demand is low, it means these five happened to lead one national study. Every metro has a baseline of people actively searching for a dentist, and how much of that demand reaches your practice depends far more on your own visibility, your Google Business Profile, your map pack ranking, your listings, than on which national ranking your city landed in.

Which markets do we cover in more depth?

We’ve broken down the demand picture city by city for the metros where the signals are strongest, starting with the three that led this study and extending to other markets selected on the same basis: measurable search demand, market growth, and provider density.

Frequently asked questions

What does “patient demand” actually measure here?

In this study, it’s the volume of “dentist near me” style searches per 100,000 residents in a metro area, a direct signal of how many people are actively looking for care right now.

Does high search demand mean less competition?

Not necessarily. High demand can exist alongside a high number of practices too. Demand tells you people are looking, it doesn’t by itself tell you how crowded the map pack is.

Is search demand the same as how many patients I’ll actually get?

No. Demand is the size of the opportunity in your market. Whether it turns into booked appointments depends on whether your practice actually shows up when people search.

How is this different from Google’s Map Pack ranking?

Search demand is about how many people are looking. Map pack ranking is about whether they find you specifically when they do. You can be in a high-demand city and still be invisible if your listings and profile aren’t in shape.

I’m in a high-demand city but my phone still isn’t ringing, what’s going on?

That’s almost always a visibility problem, not a demand problem. Start with your Google Business Profile, incomplete categories, missing hours, or a thin profile are the most common reasons real demand doesn’t convert. Here’s a full walkthrough of how to fix that.