Social media for dental practices: what to post and the rules that apply
Dental practice social media marketing means using your practice's own accounts, and any paid ads, to keep patients informed and bring in new ones. Posts about your practice can count as advertising, so the GDC and ASA rules apply: no promised results, genuine before-and-after photos with signed proof and consent, and the assessment wording on treatment posts.
Treat your practice's posts as advertising
It is easy to think of a practice Instagram or Facebook page as a noticeboard rather than an advert. The rules don't see it that way.
The General Dental Council's guidance on advertising covers "any advertising, promotional material or other information that you produce", and it names social networking sites (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X) and Groupon directly. The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), whose code the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) enforces, says its rules have covered some content on a company's own social media channels since 2011, as well as paid ads. CAP's advice is that any post that bears a relationship to the services you offer has the potential to fall within the ASA's remit.
So the safest working rule is this: if a post is about your practice, your team or your treatments, write it as if it were an advert. How patients find you through Google search and Maps is a separate job, covered on our page about getting a dental practice found in Google search and Maps. What follows is about your feeds: what to put on them, and the rule each kind of post has to meet.
What to post, and the rule each kind of post meets
| Kind of post | What it does for patients | The rule to check | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meet the team | Patients recognise who they will see | Each dental professional named should have their GDC registration number with their name; "Dr" must not imply a medical qualification the dentist doesn't hold | GDC; ASA/CAP |
| A treatment explained | Answers questions before patients phone | Say the treatment may not be appropriate for every patient and depends on a satisfactory assessment | GDC |
| NHS or private news | Tells patients whether they can be seen | Make clear whether the practice is NHS (or equivalent), mixed or wholly private | GDC |
| Before-and-after photos | Shows what a treatment involves | Genuine and representative, with signed and dated proof, not retouched | ASA/CAP |
| Patient quotes and reviews | Shows other patients' experience | Documentary evidence it's genuine, the person's contact details, and their permission | ASA/CAP |
| Teeth whitening | Shows a cosmetic treatment you offer | Don't exaggerate results, including by editing images, and hold evidence it works | ASA/CAP |
| Facial aesthetics (anti-wrinkle injections) | CAP says more dental clinics want to offer them | Botox is a prescription-only medicine and can't be advertised to the public; before-and-after photos of it are very likely to count as an ad for it | ASA/CAP |
| A product you recommend | Helps patients choose, such as a toothbrush | Give only factual, evidenced information, and don't imply the whole profession agrees | GDC |
| Oral health tips and practice news | Keeps the page useful between offers | Still must be accurate and not misleading | GDC |
Treatment captions need the most care. Run each one through our free GDC advertising checker before it goes up: it picks out words such as specialist titles, promises of results, pain-free claims and mentions of Botox. Then work through the checklist at the end of this guide, which covers the rules the checker can't see, such as photo proof and consent.
Before-and-after photos: the post most likely to go wrong
CAP treats before-and-after photos the same way as testimonials. Its advice is that you should hold signed and dated proof that the photos are genuine and haven't been manipulated, and that they mustn't exaggerate what the treatment can achieve. Among the rulings it cites on holding that proof is a 2017 case involving a dental practice.
There is a second issue that has nothing to do with advertising: whether the patient can be recognised. In draft case studies the GDC published for consultation, a dentist shares before-and-after photos she believes are anonymised in a professional WhatsApp group of around 500 people, and members recognise one of the patients. If a dental professional group can spot a patient, a public feed can too.
Under UK GDPR, data concerning health is special category data and gets extra protection (ICO). We'd treat a photo of a patient's teeth with a caption about their treatment as health information, and only post it with the patient's written consent for that specific use.
Team members' own accounts
Team members may post about work on their personal accounts. CAP and the ASA say that when someone is personally or commercially connected to a business, and they name an owner, employee, shareholder and director as examples, any content they post that features or refers to that business needs to be obviously identifiable as advertising. That is also a consumer protection law requirement, enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority and Trading Standards.
What that means in practice:
| Who posts | Is a post about the practice advertising? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The practice's own account, under the practice name | Yes, but CAP says posts from an account clearly identified as the brand are generally obviously ads already | No "Ad" label usually needed; all the other rules still apply |
| An account that doesn't obviously belong to the practice | Yes | Make clear by some other means that the post is advertising |
| A team member's personal account, posting about the practice | Yes: they are connected to the business as an employee or owner | Make it obvious they work there and the post is promotional |
| Any account paid or given free treatment to post | Yes | Label it clearly as an ad; the practice can be named in an ASA ruling as well as the person posting |
It is worth putting this in your practice's social media policy. The GDC's own case studies show the wider risk too: a dental nurse with a large TikTok following is offered payment to promote an overseas provider's free assessments, checks the GDC registers, finds none of its professionals listed, and turns it down.
A four-week plan for a fictional practice
Here is how we'd start a fictional single-dentist private practice with a part-time hygienist and a practice Facebook and Instagram page that hasn't posted for a year. The aim is a steady habit before any paid promotion.
| Week | Posts | What gets checked first |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Two "meet the team" posts (the dentist and the hygienist), each with the person's name and GDC number | The practice's NHS, mixed or private status is in the profile bio |
| 2 | One treatment explained (hygiene appointments), one practice news post (opening hours over the holidays) | Treatment post carries the assessment wording |
| 3 | One patient question answered ("does a scale and polish hurt?") in plain words, with no promise of results | Wording pasted into the GDC advertising checker |
| 4 | One before-and-after post, only if a patient has signed the consent record | Proof held; photo unedited; patient not identifiable beyond what they agreed to |
Paid ads and giveaways wait until the posting habit is in place. A paid post is checked against the same CAP Code as everything above, and CAP treats a giveaway or prize draw as promotional marketing. Put a separately tagged booking link in the Facebook and Instagram bios, so you can tell after a month how many bookings came from each and whether the posts are worth the time.
A checklist to run before every post
- Is anything in it a claim about results? Can you back it up with facts, or does it set an expectation you can't promise?
- Does a treatment post say it may not suit everyone and depends on an assessment?
- Is every dental professional named with their GDC number, and is no one called a specialist unless they're on a GDC specialist list?
- Is it clear whether the practice is NHS, mixed or private?
- For a photo or a patient quote: do you hold signed, dated proof and the patient's permission?
- Is anyone being paid, or are they connected to the practice, and is that obvious from the post?
- Does it mention Botox or another prescription-only medicine? If so, don't post it.
Where social media fits
A post that interests a patient can send them on to your website or your Google Maps listing to book, so those need to be ready for them. Our dental practice marketing guide compares social media with the other channels, and our guide to Google reviews for dental practices covers the rules on quoting reviews on social media. Before you put time into posting, our free website review checks the website and Google Maps listing your posts will send patients to.
Questions people ask
Do the GDC advertising rules apply to a practice's Facebook and Instagram posts?
Yes. The GDC's guidance covers any promotional material or other information you produce, and it names social networking sites such as Instagram and TikTok. Posts must be accurate and not misleading, and treatment posts must say the treatment may not suit every patient and depends on an assessment.
Can a dental practice post before-and-after photos on social media?
Yes, if the photos are genuine and representative and you hold signed and dated proof that they haven't been manipulated, as CAP advises. Get the patient's written consent for social media use, and don't post before-and-after photos of Botox treatment, which is a prescription-only medicine.
Do we need to label our own practice posts as "Ad"?
Usually not. CAP says posts from an account clearly identified as the business are generally obviously advertising already. A team member posting about the practice on a personal account, or anyone paid to post, needs to make the connection and the promotion obvious.
Can we share patient reviews on our social media?
Yes, with care. CAP's rules say you need evidence a testimonial is genuine, the person's contact details and their permission, and any claim within it must not mislead. Testimonials on their own don't count as evidence for a claim.
Sources
- GDC: Guidance on advertising
- GDC: Social media supporting material, case studies (published for consultation)
- ASA/CAP: Remit: Social media
- ASA/CAP: Recognising ads: Brand-owned and paid social media
- ASA/CAP: Recognising ads: Social media and influencer marketing
- ASA/CAP: Before and after photos
- ASA/CAP: Dental: General
- ASA/CAP: Testimonials and endorsements
- ASA/CAP: Claims in testimonials and endorsements
- ICO: What is special category data?
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