What we looked for.
We checked whether a first-time visitor could see an appointment control or a call control without scrolling or opening the menu. We counted buttons labeled book, schedule or appointment, including a cleaning appointment. A generic “Contact Us,” a new-patient offer, a chat box or a patient-forms link did not count as an appointment control.
A visible phone icon, call button or telephone number presented as a control counted as a call option. We did not test the destination, make calls, send messages or submit appointments. A visible control does not prove a working booking process.
What the sample showed.
15 of 20 first-screen captures showed an appointment-labeled control. 14 of 20 showed a call control. Five did not show an appointment-labeled control in the captured view; that does not mean the site lacked one elsewhere.
Entry points appeared in several places: the header, the main introduction and the bottom of the screen. Some captures also contained cookie notices, promotions or chat panels. We recorded the screen as presented, without dismissing overlays.
For a practice planning a redesign, the useful question is specific: can a new patient see a clear next step, understand which office it reaches and tell whether they are requesting a visit or reserving a time?
Use this in your own redesign.
Open the website on a phone with a fresh session. Check the first screen, then follow the appointment path. Confirm the office, destination and confirmation wording. Test delivery with the practice team before launch. Keep patient information out of screenshots and analytics.
For a group, repeat the check for each location. A shared design does not prove that every office has the correct booking destination. Our DSO website design guide explains how to plan a rollout.
This study measures visible entry points only. Our Northside Dental case study reports a different kind of evidence: the practice’s new-patient counts, with their source and limits. Do not treat interface observations as a forecast of those results.
How we checked.
We selected 20 publicly accessible practice homepages from web searches about dentists and appointment booking in Chicago, Denver, Austin and Miami. The sample contains seven Chicago sites, five in the Denver area, five Austin sites and three Miami sites. Selection favored discoverable websites and was not random or representative of US dentistry. No WTM client site was included.
Each page loaded in a fresh desktop Playwright WebKit context with an iPhone user agent, touch enabled and a 393 × 844 CSS-pixel viewport. The capture followed DOMContentLoaded and a 1.6-second wait. Navigation, image loading, banners and late scripts can affect what appears at that moment. These were browser simulations, not physical-iPhone tests.
We visually reviewed every captured screen. We did not scroll, open menus or dismiss notices before capturing. No patient information was entered. This is not a speed benchmark, accessibility certification, clinical assessment or conversion study. The observations can change after the check date.
Download all observations and source URLs (CSV). The file records each decision and its limitations. Screenshots are retained as internal evidence; the source links let you inspect the current websites.