UK dental advertising rules for social media

Which rules apply to UK dental posts?

The General Dental Council regulates you as a registrant. Its Standards for the Dental Team expect any advertising and information you produce to be accurate and not misleading, and its guidance on advertising and on social media sets out what that means in practice. A breach can become a fitness-to-practise matter.

The Advertising Standards Authority enforces the CAP Code, which covers marketing on websites and social media, including a clinic's own Instagram, TikTok and paid ads. It can rule against an ad and require it to be withdrawn, whoever wrote it.

What does the CAP Code require?

The most relevant principles for dental posts; read the current Code for the exact rules:

• Substantiation: you must hold documentary evidence for objective claims before you publish them, and health claims need suitable evidence.
• No misleading content: about results, risks, what a treatment involves or how long it lasts.
• Testimonials must be genuine and must not be used to make claims you could not otherwise substantiate.
• Prices, where given, must be accurate and not misleading, including what is and is not included.
• Prescription-only medicines, including botulinum toxin, may not be advertised to the public; promoting a consultation is a different matter, but naming the medicine is not.
• Ads must be obviously identifiable as marketing, including influencer posts.

What does the GDC expect?

The GDC's guidance asks for information that is factual and verifiable. In practice this means: describe treatments accurately and without promising outcomes; only use the title “specialist” if you are on the relevant GDC specialist list (dental care professionals have no specialist lists and must avoid titles that imply one); state qualifications correctly; and make clear in practice publicity whether the practice is NHS (or equivalent), mixed or wholly private.

Its Guidance on using social media, in effect since 27 June 2016, says the standards do not change because you are online: patients must not be identifiable when cases are discussed, closed professional groups may still be visible to the public, and the guidance applies even if you do not say you are a dental professional.

Rules on what appears where can change, so check the current guidance on the GDC website rather than relying on older summaries.

What must a UK practice website show?

The GDC's guidance on advertising lists details that should appear wherever a website names the dental professionals who treat patients. Use it as a checklist for the website your Instagram bio links to:

• Each professional's name and GDC registration number
• Their professional qualification and the country where it was obtained
• The practice's name, address and contact details
• Whether the practice provides NHS (or equivalent) care, private care or both
• How to complain: the practice procedure and, if a complaint is not resolved, the NHS complaints body or the Dental Complaints Service for private treatment
• The date the website was last updated

Check the current wording of the guidance before relying on this list: the items above summarise it, and the GDC may revise it.

Safer wording for common posts

• Instead of “pain-free root canals”: “Treatment is done under local anaesthetic. Most people feel some tenderness for a day or two afterwards.”
• Instead of “Botox from …”: talk about facial-aesthetic consultations without naming the prescription medicine.
• Instead of “Manchester's leading implant specialist” (unless on the specialist list): “Dr Patel has a special interest in implant dentistry.”
• Instead of “results guaranteed”: “Results vary; we'll talk through what's realistic for you at your consultation.”
• Instead of a carousel of reviews: an educational video answering the question those patients asked.

Patients, consent and UK GDPR

Health information is special category data under UK GDPR, and the duty of confidentiality applies on social media as it does in the surgery. Featuring a patient — their face, voice, name, radiograph or story — needs explicit, informed, written consent that is specific to that use and can be withdrawn. Keep it separate from treatment consent and store it with the record.

Take care when replying to online reviews: confirming that someone is your patient, or discussing their treatment, can itself be a breach. For more, see our guide to patient consent on dental social media.

A UK checklist before you post

• Can we substantiate every objective claim with evidence we already hold?
• Does anything promise a result, no pain or permanence?
• Are titles and qualifications stated correctly, and “specialist” used only by those on the list?
• Does the post name or promote a prescription-only medicine?
• Are prices, if any, accurate and complete?
• Is anyone identifiable, and do we have their written consent?
• Is a paid partnership clearly labelled as an ad?

How DentVideo helps

DentVideo writes educational videos that stay away from these risks: no guarantees, “painless”, superlatives, prices, before-and-after promises or testimonials, and every script reviewed for clinical accuracy. Your own recordings are marked for review instead of being reworded. It is a careful filter, not legal advice — you approve every video. For topics that work well, see dental social media post ideas; for the wider picture, advertising rules by country.