Where you stand
Then we asked the same four assistants about you by name. Nineteen of 31 answers knew exactly who you are - the North End, the sedation option, the Saturday mornings. Perplexity wrote: “Kestrel Family Dental is a well-reviewed family practice in Boise's North End, noted for sedation options for anxious patients.” Of your 19 mentions, 6 were positive, 10 neutral, 3 negative. Nobody is warning buyers away from you.
So this is not a reputation problem. It is a recall problem. The assistants describe you accurately the moment a buyer already has your name - and a buyer who already has your name was never the one you needed to win.
Why rivals win
Riverstone Dental Group was named in 19 of those 24 category answers. Vista Point Family Dentistry in 14. Foothills Dental Care in 9, and nobody gave us that name at intake - the assistants brought it up on their own.
The mechanism is not subtle. All four assistants opened the same page before answering: treasurevalleyfamilymag.com/best-family-dentists-treasure-valley-2026. Riverstone sits at #2 on that list, Vista Point at #5. That one URL touched 15 answers. All four also read Zocdoc's Boise dentist listing, 16 times between them; Riverstone and Vista Point each have a page there.
ChatGPT's entire answer to “best family dentist in Boise” was three names with a sentence each, and every one of those names came off that magazine list. Gemini's came off Google Maps, where the same three outrank you on volume.
The gap, in one line: they are on the two pages every assistant reads first, and you are on neither.
The thirty-day arc
Week 1 - get one door open. Create your Zocdoc profile and finish it: hours, insurances, sedation, real photos, a booking link. It is free, it takes an afternoon, and it is the highest-scoring row on your ladder - the one page all four assistants already read.
Week 2 - take back the two profiles that exist without you. Your Healthgrades and Yelp listings were auto-generated and nobody has ever logged in. Claim both, fix the hours, name the services. Your 212 Google reviews already say “gentle with my kids” - those two pages should say it too.
Weeks 3 and 4 - pitch, then show up. Send the magazine editor one short note with your license number, your review numbers and two photos; that list refreshes each spring. Then start reading r/Boise once a week and answering dentistry questions as yourself, under your own name.
Honest expectation: these are the four moves the ladder supports, in the order it supports them. We will not tell you when they pay off, or whether they will - we measure what the assistants read, and we do not control what they do with it.