Best Dentists In Hawaii: How Voting Works & How to Win

What Best Dentists In Hawaii is and who runs it

Best Dentists In Hawaii is a public-vote best-of programme run by HONOLULU Magazine, the Honolulu-based publication whose name is printed in the programme's own title. The ballot sits on the publisher's website instead of on a third-party voting service, which is unusual among Hawaii reader polls and shapes how a supporter reaches the vote: everything happens on honolulumagazine.com.

The magazine frames the list in patient terms. The 2013 edition page opens by saying the list exists whether a reader needs a routine checkup or more specialized work, and it presents 237 top dentists in the Islands. That framing tells a dental practice what it is competing for: not a clinical credential but a place on a consumer shortlist that Honolulu readers actually consult when choosing a dentist.

A practice nominated here is also entering a crowded publishing ecosystem. HONOLULU Magazine runs several competing best-of brands, and Hawaii readers encounter a wider set of programmes from other publishers, including the Best of Hawaii ballot and the HAWAIʻI Magazine Readers' Choice Awards. Each has its own rules, its own window and its own publisher, so a nomination earned in one programme counts for nothing in the others.

The facts below summarize what is known about the programme as a reference point for practices and patients.

The dated record: editions, the voting window, and what is not published

The confirmed edition years for this page are 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2026. That list is worth reading closely. The programme started in 2010, according to a quote from a Hawaii dentist describing Top Dentists, the national publication that started the whole Honolulu Magazine listing back in 2010. The confirmed run then shows a gap covering 2015 and 2016, a return in 2017 and 2018, a longer stretch without confirmed editions, and a 2026 edition as the most recent confirmed run. A magazine's publishing plans change, and the gaps mean a practice cannot assume every calendar year produced a list.

On timing, the clearest evidence is tied to the 2013 cycle: voting was done online in the fall of 2012, which anchors the voting phase to the September through November range in that documented cycle. The magazine has not printed an exact start date or finish date for this year's window; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

What else is missing matters just as much for a practice planning a campaign. The magazine has not published how often a supporter may vote, whether repeat voting is allowed, or who qualifies as an eligible voter. No prize structure is described either, because the reward is placement on the published list rather than a cash or trophy prize. Any of these rules can change from edition to edition, so read the instructions printed on the live ballot page before building an outreach plan around assumptions carried over from an earlier year.

How a supporter votes on the live ballot today

The voting mechanic is deliberately simple, which is part of why the programme has lasted since 2010. A supporter visits HONOLULU Magazine's website, reaches the Best Dentists section, and fills out an online form naming dentists in the categories relevant to them. There is no third-party platform login, no separate account creation step, and no round structure beyond the fall voting phase documented for the 2013 cycle. The supporter submits names and the form is done.

The form covers both routine checkup care and more specialized work, which means patients of orthodontists, oral surgeons and other specialists have their own lanes alongside general family dentistry. A practice asking patients to vote should be specific about which category to write in, because a vague "vote for us" instruction can scatter support across the wrong fields.

Because the magazine runs the ballot on its own website, the exact address matters. The most heavily documented edition sits at https://www.honolulumagazine.com/best-dentists-in-hawaii-2013/, and the magazine reuses the Best Dentists area for later editions. Typing the magazine's address directly and navigating to the current dental list is safer than following secondhand links, which can point at an older year's page that no longer accepts votes.

Supporters who want to vote more than once, or who are organizing a group effort, should read the ballot's own instructions first. The magazine has not published a repeat-voting rule in the material this page draws from, so the live page's printed instructions are the only authority on how often a name can be submitted.

How this ballot sits beside its Hawaii neighbours

Hawaii's best-of ballot scene is crowded, and a dental practice deciding where to invest outreach time should understand how this programme differs from its neighbours. The closest structural relative is the magazine's sibling suite of Hawaii reader polls, all listed on this page: the AIA Honolulu People's Choice Awards, which covers architecture; Hawaii Business Magazine People's Choice Award for the business community; Hawaii Home + Remodeling Readers' Choice Awards for the trades; and the Big Island edition of the HAWAIʻI Magazine poll alongside its statewide parent.

What distinguishes the dental programme is its specificity. A general best-of ballot buries dentists among dozens of unrelated categories, while this list puts dental care front and center, which concentrates the audience: readers who reach this ballot arrive looking for dental recommendations. The publisher's own survey framing, asking what qualities mattered to voters completing the form, also suggests a more considered ballot than a name-in-a-box poll.

The trade-off is reach and continuity. Confirmed editions exist for 2010 through 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2026, with gaps in between, whereas some general reader polls in the market have run without the same documented interruptions. A practice with limited outreach capacity should treat this ballot as a high-relevance, and confirm the current year's edition actually exists before committing a campaign to it, since the magazine's own planning material has dropped future years before.

Strengthening support for a practice on this ballot

A dental practice's genuine advantages in this programme are its patient relationships and the fall timing. Because voting in documented cycles ran in the fall, the practical playbook is to align recall scheduling, email newsletters and social posting with the September through November stretch, tell patients which category to write the practice into, and link directly to the live ballot page rather than making patients search for it. A front-desk script that names the magazine and the category converts far better than a generic ask.

Be careful with anything that looks like volume manufacturing. The magazine has not published what it says about outside voting help or automated voting, so there is no printed safe harbor either way, and the risk of a miscalculated push lands on the practice's listing itself. The organizer's page is the only authority on its rules, so read it before committing to any campaign that involves repeat voting or third-party services. For tactics that work within reader-poll mechanics generally, see our guide to getting more votes online and, for the pricing side of vote services, our award votes overview.