Dental reviews: asking patients the right way
Guide · Updated October 31, 2026
Most satisfied patients never think to leave a review. They had a good visit and went home. A steady trickle of honest reviews usually comes from asking consistently, not from a one-time campaign.
This guide covers when and how to ask for dental reviews, what the rules allow, and how to handle the occasional negative review that a fair process will produce.
When and how to ask in a dental office
The best moment is usually shortly after the appointment, while the visit is fresh. A short text or email with a direct link tends to work better than a printed card.
- Ask every patient on the same schedule, not only the ones who seemed pleased at checkout.
- Keep the message short: thank them for coming in, and say an honest review helps other people find the practice.
- Do not mention any treatment details in the request, and use the communication channel the patient has agreed to.
- Do not have staff, family members or vendors post reviews of the practice.
- Never offer whitening, a discount or a raffle entry in exchange for a review.
If you use review software, read its settings carefully. Some tools include a satisfaction screening step that sends unhappy patients elsewhere, which can amount to review gating.
Asking for genuine reviews the right way
The steadiest way to improve how a profile looks is a regular flow of honest reviews from real patients. How you ask matters.
- Ask everyone, not just happy patients. Screening people first and only sending satisfied ones to a review site is known as review gating. Google's policies prohibit discouraging negative reviews or selectively asking for positive ones.
- Do not pay or reward people for reviews. Google prohibits incentivized reviews, and the FTC's 2024 rule on consumer reviews and testimonials prohibits buying reviews and conditioning rewards on positive or negative sentiment.
- Never write reviews yourself or have staff, relatives or vendors post them without clear disclosure.
- Make it easy: send the direct review link soon after the visit or job, in one short message.
- Check each platform's rules. Yelp, for example, asks businesses not to ask for reviews at all.
The federal rules on reviews in plain terms
In 2024 the Federal Trade Commission finalized a rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, which took effect in October 2024. In general terms it targets:
- Fake reviews, including reviews from people who do not exist or who did not have the experience described.
- Buying positive or negative reviews, or offering rewards that are conditioned on what the review says.
- Reviews by company insiders or their relatives that do not clearly disclose the connection, in certain circumstances.
- Using unfounded legal threats, intimidation or false accusations to suppress reviews.
- Misrepresenting that a website that displays reviews is independent when the business controls it.
Separately, the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016 generally makes it unlawful to use form contracts that bar customers from posting honest reviews. If your intake paperwork contains a non-disparagement clause, have a lawyer look at it.
This is a summary, not legal advice. For questions about how these rules apply to your business, consult a licensed attorney.
Replying without creating a privacy problem
Healthcare providers that are covered by HIPAA have to treat review replies like any other disclosure. Confirming that someone is a patient, or mentioning their visit, condition or treatment, can itself be a disclosure of protected health information, even if the patient already posted those details.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights has taken enforcement action in cases involving providers' replies to online reviews. A safe reply speaks about practice policy in general and invites the person to contact the office directly.
- Do not confirm or deny that the reviewer is or was a patient.
- Do not mention dates, procedures, diagnoses, billing or insurance details.
- Use the same short, general reply pattern for every negative review so staff are not improvising.
- Have one trained person approve every reply before it is posted.
Your privacy officer or a healthcare attorney is the right person to confirm your practice's policy.
Legal note: this guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws and platform policies change and vary by state. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.
Getting help
Many of these steps you can take yourself. If you would like someone to look at your situation with you and suggest a plan, you can book a paid consultation. This is a paid consultation: price confirmed when scheduling. No payment is taken on this site. We do not guarantee that any review, article, listing or search result will be removed.