Google Reviews for Dental Practices: UK Guide

Ask every patient for a Google review the same way, with no reward and no filtering out unhappy patients. Reply politely without confirming the reviewer is a patient or mentioning care. Report only reviews that break Google's policy, such as staff, incentivised or competitor reviews. Never write, buy or cherry-pick reviews: UK consumer law bans it.

Why reviews need a practice routine

When someone looks for a dentist nearby, Google shows your reviews next to your Business Profile in Maps and Search.

Patients write the reviews, but the practice decides everything around them: who gets asked, what the request says, how the team replies and what gets reported. Each step has rules, from Google's review policies, from UK consumer law and from the confidentiality you owe every patient. Reviews are one part of local SEO for dental practices, alongside your profile, your website and your treatment pages.

This guide covers the review side only. If your profile isn't set up yet, start with our Google Business Profile checklist for dentists. You need a verified profile before you can reply to reviews.

How to ask for reviews within Google's rules

Google lets businesses ask for reviews that reflect a genuine experience, as long as they don't offer incentives or try to influence the rating or what the review says. Its policy for Maps reviews says a business must not:

offer incentives, "such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services", for posting a review, or for changing or removing a negative one
discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or "selectively solicit positive reviews"
require or pressure patients to leave a rating or write a review while they are on the premises
ask for specific content in a review
ask staff to collect a certain number of reviews, or reviews that name a staff member

Reviews based on a conflict of interest are removed too. Google's examples include current or former employment, family relationships and industry competitors.

So "we'll give you a free scale and polish if you change your rating" is out, and so is a prize draw for reviewers. The rule that is easiest to break by accident is the second one. A tablet at reception that asks "How was your visit?" and only sends four- and five-star answers to Google is selective soliciting. So is a team habit of asking only the patients who seemed pleased.

A review routine that stays inside the rules

Use this as a checklist for the whole team:

Pick one moment. For example, a follow-up text or email after the appointment, sent to every patient seen that day, not a hand-picked few. Google suggests thank-you emails, receipts and a printed QR code as places to share your review link.
Use neutral wording. "We'd value your feedback on Google" is fine. "If you were happy, please leave us five stars" is not.
Share Google's own link or QR code. You create both from your Business Profile, on a computer (Google says review QR codes can't be made on a phone). Our free Google review QR poster turns the link into a waiting-room poster with neutral wording.
No rewards, ever. No discounts, raffles or "thank you" credits, for leaving a review or for changing one.
No pressure in the practice. Don't ask patients to write the review at reception, on a practice device or while staff watch.
No quotas or names. Don't set review targets for team members or ask patients to mention a dentist by name.
Staff and family don't review. That includes former staff.
Write it down. Put the routine in your practice policies so new staff follow it too.

Replying to reviews without breaking confidentiality

Google's tips for replies are to be professional and polite, keep it short, apologise when appropriate, not use the reply to offer deals or promotions, and never share a reviewer's private information. For a complex complaint, it suggests asking the reviewer to contact you by phone or email.

A dental practice has to go further than that. Under UK GDPR, data concerning health gets extra protection, and the ICO says appointment details and invoices can count as health data when they reveal something about a person's health. The GDC's Standards for the Dental Team include a principle to "maintain and protect patients' information". Our working rule is simple: never confirm, in public, that the reviewer is a patient, even if they name their treatment, their dentist or the date of their visit.

So a reply never mentions:

that you have their records, or what is in them
their treatment, appointment or what happened in the surgery
anything they said privately to the team

Thank them, show you take feedback seriously, and move the conversation to your complaints procedure. The GDC already requires a practice website to give details of that procedure, so you can point people to it. If a review worries you, speak to your indemnity provider before replying.

Three things Google says happen after you reply: it checks the reply against its content policies first (usually within 10 minutes, sometimes up to 30 days), the reply appears under the practice's name rather than yours, and the reviewer is notified and can still change their review.

Reply templates you can adapt

Google suggests making replies count rather than sending the same "thank you" to everyone, so adapt these rather than copying them word for word.

Positive review

Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. We'll pass your kind words on to the team.

Mixed review

Thank you for your feedback. We'd welcome the chance to hear more about what we could do better. Please contact our practice manager on [practice phone] or [practice email].

Negative review, details given

We're sorry to read this. We take all feedback seriously, but we can't discuss anyone's care in a public forum. Please contact our practice manager on [practice phone] so we can look into your concerns through our complaints procedure.

Review about waiting times, parking or phones

Thank you for raising this. Feedback like yours helps us look at how we run the practice day to day. If you'd like to talk it through, please call [practice phone] and ask for the practice manager.

Review you don't recognise

We take every review seriously. If you have been in touch with us, please contact our practice manager on [practice phone] so we can look into this.

Fake, unfair or rule-breaking reviews: what you can report

You can report any review from your Business Profile, but Google only removes those that break its policies. It says not to report a review just because you disagree with it, and that it doesn't get involved in disputes between businesses and customers. Google says checking a report typically takes several days. You can follow it in the Reviews Management Tool and make a one-time appeal if Google finds no violation.

The review	What Google's policy says	What to do
Left by a current or former member of staff, or their family	Conflict of interest	Report it, and remind the team of your policy
Left in return for a discount, gift or prize	Incentivised reviews are removed	Report it and stop the offer that caused it
Posted by a competitor to undermine the practice	Not allowed; competitors count as a conflict of interest	Report it and say why you believe so
Contains someone's medical or other personal information	Personal information isn't allowed without consent	Report it. Don't reply with any detail yourself
Threatening, harassing or hateful	Harassment and hate speech aren't allowed	Report it and keep a record if it threatens staff
A sudden wave of 1-star reviews followed by a demand for money to remove them	Google treats this as an extortion scam	Don't pay or engage. Collect screenshots and use Google's merchant extortion report form
Genuine but negative, harsh or one-sided	Google allows negative experiences described respectfully	Reply calmly using a template above
Wrong about your opening hours, prices or services	Google doesn't get involved in disagreements between businesses and customers; report it only if it breaks a policy	Reply with the correct information, without mentioning the patient

The UK law on fake reviews

The consumer protection parts of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 apply to commercial practices from 6 April 2025, and they include new prohibitions on fake reviews. Banned practice 13 covers:

writing a fake review, or getting someone else to write one
a review that hides the fact it was incentivised
publishing reviews or review information (star ratings, review counts) in a misleading way

Trading standards guidance for England, Scotland and Wales gives "suppressing negative reviews" and "cherry-picking good reviews" as examples of misleading publishing.

For a practice, that means don't review your own practice or ask friends to, don't buy reviews, and don't present only your best reviews in a way that misleads.

If you show Google reviews on your own website

Copying reviews onto your website, a leaflet or social media changes your position in three ways.

Rule	What it means for the quotes you show	Source
CMA guidance on publishing reviews	A business that publishes consumer reviews on its website or social media must take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove fake and concealed incentivised reviews, and should publish a policy that prohibits fake reviews	CMA
CAP Code rules 3.47 to 3.50	Hold evidence that each testimonial is genuine and contact details for the person who gave it. Get permission (with some exceptions for accurate quotes from a published source). Objective claims inside a testimonial must not mislead, and testimonials alone don't count as evidence for a claim	ASA / CAP advice
GDC guidance on advertising	Anything you produce must be accurate and not misleading, avoid unjustified expectations about results, and must not imply specialist status for a dentist who isn't on a GDC specialist list	GDC

In practice: ask the patient's permission before quoting them, keep that permission on file, show a fair mix with a link to your full Google reviews, and cut any quote that promises a result, such as "completely painless" or "the perfect smile". Our GDC advertising checker gives a first pass on the wording before you publish.

Where reviews fit in your local search

Reviews work best alongside a complete profile and a website that answers patients' questions. If you'd like to see how your practice shows up on Google Maps in your area, and what to fix first, ask for our free website review.

Questions people ask

Can we offer patients a discount or prize draw for leaving a Google review?

No. Google's policy bans incentives such as payment, discounts and free goods or services for a review. It also bans offering an incentive to change or remove a negative review.

Can we ask only our happiest patients for reviews?

No. Google doesn't allow businesses to selectively ask for positive reviews. Ask every patient the same way, for example in a follow-up message sent to everyone seen that day.

How should a dental practice reply to a negative Google review?

Briefly and politely, without confirming the reviewer is a patient or mentioning any treatment. Thank them, say you can't discuss care publicly, and invite them to contact the practice manager through your complaints procedure.

Can Google remove a negative review that we think is unfair?

Only if it breaks Google's policies, and Google decides. Staff, incentivised and competitor reviews break them; a review you simply disagree with doesn't. If Google finds no violation, you can make a one-time appeal.

Is it illegal to post fake reviews of our own practice?

Yes. Since 6 April 2025, writing or commissioning fake reviews is a banned practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and the CMA has published guidance for businesses.

Sources

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