M
Mauricio88
Junior member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2018
- Messages
- 5
Do you trust patient reviews on Google, RateMyMD, Yelp? How much weight do you place on them?
I've been reading some supposed patient reviews from various dental clinics and a lot of them sound suspicious and fake. Especially if the reviews sounds over-the-top and give glowing praise. It's actually quite comical reading some of these reviews as it's quite obvious the dentist or staff wrote the review. For example, some red flags I've noticed (and please feel free to add to the list):
1. A vivid description of the office and waiting room. Statements such as "There was a gorgeous Art Deco Coffee Table Book and an authentic Keith Haring painting on the wall". Or "The wait was brief and they had my favourite magazine there".
2. Enthusiastic raving about the school/program/fellowship the dentist did. That's something the dentist would rave about!
3. How confident and happy the patient is all the time. Patients get depressed and anxious even with good results. Dental visits aren't always balls of sunshine and a review that describes things that way is probably written by a PR firm.
4. Any review that says "I'm so confident now that" and ends in "I just got engaged!".
5. Lots of technical jargon that the average patient doesn't understand.
Thoughts? Do you think it's ethical for dentists (or staff) to write fake glowing, positive reviews about themselves? I've even heard of some dentists hiring third parties to write positive reviews about themselves and write negative reviews about other dental clinics to deter competition. Seems super shady.
I usually go on Facebook and ask people what their recommendations are. That seems to be the best way. I don't trust these review websites like Google, RatemyMd, Yelp, etc because I am suspicious of fake patient reviews. And this doesn't just go for dental but also for medical, optometry, or pharmacy clinics.
I've been reading some supposed patient reviews from various dental clinics and a lot of them sound suspicious and fake. Especially if the reviews sounds over-the-top and give glowing praise. It's actually quite comical reading some of these reviews as it's quite obvious the dentist or staff wrote the review. For example, some red flags I've noticed (and please feel free to add to the list):
1. A vivid description of the office and waiting room. Statements such as "There was a gorgeous Art Deco Coffee Table Book and an authentic Keith Haring painting on the wall". Or "The wait was brief and they had my favourite magazine there".
2. Enthusiastic raving about the school/program/fellowship the dentist did. That's something the dentist would rave about!
3. How confident and happy the patient is all the time. Patients get depressed and anxious even with good results. Dental visits aren't always balls of sunshine and a review that describes things that way is probably written by a PR firm.
4. Any review that says "I'm so confident now that" and ends in "I just got engaged!".
5. Lots of technical jargon that the average patient doesn't understand.
Thoughts? Do you think it's ethical for dentists (or staff) to write fake glowing, positive reviews about themselves? I've even heard of some dentists hiring third parties to write positive reviews about themselves and write negative reviews about other dental clinics to deter competition. Seems super shady.
I usually go on Facebook and ask people what their recommendations are. That seems to be the best way. I don't trust these review websites like Google, RatemyMd, Yelp, etc because I am suspicious of fake patient reviews. And this doesn't just go for dental but also for medical, optometry, or pharmacy clinics.