This article further confirms the ridiculousness of asking friends and co-workers to recommend a dentist. I do trust friends and co-workers to recommend movies

This article further confirms the ridiculousness of asking friends and co-workers to recommend a dentist. I do trust friends and co-workers to recommend movies or restaurants because most people have seen hundreds of movies and eaten at hundreds of restaurants. Both most people have had only 1 or 2 dentists in their entire lives. They have no basis of comparison to say whether their dentist is any good. You might as well choose randomly from a phone book. That's what I did when I moved to a new city. Actually I looked for dentists that were close to me, that spoke English natively (I live in a very cosmopolitan city), whose dental degrees were more than 5 years ago (gained experience) but less than 20 years (not outdated), and whose staff were pleasant and prompt on the phone (on the theory that the behavior of the staff will reflect the character of the boss). Thus I picked my dentist without a recommendation and without meeting or speaking with him, but I think my method is less arbitrary than asking your friends and co-workers. (And yes, I do wish there was a better way.)