A patient searching for a dentist nearby usually sees a map and a short list of practices before they see a single website. What appears there, the name, star rating, review count, hours, photos, and a call button, comes from each practice's Google Business Profile. For most local practices it is the highest-return free marketing asset they have, and one of the most neglected.
This guide covers setup from claiming and verification through the rules that matter specifically for dental practices: how to list individual dentists, how to ask for reviews without violating Google's policies or the Federal Trade Commission's rule on reviews, and how to respond to reviews without disclosing protected health information. Google changes features regularly, so treat specific menu names as current at the time of writing and confirm in your own profile.
Key takeaways
- The practice owner, not an agency or employee, should hold primary ownership of the profile. Add others as managers.
- Use your real-world practice name exactly. Adding keywords or cities to the name violates Google's guidelines and can get a profile suspended.
- Google has specific rules for individual practitioners such as dentists. Multi-dentist practices and solo practitioners are handled differently.
- Google prohibits offering anything of value for reviews and prohibits selectively asking only happy patients. The FTC's rule, effective October 21, 2024, separately bans fake reviews and incentives conditioned on positive sentiment.
- Never confirm that a reviewer is a patient or mention any detail of their care in a reply. HHS has taken enforcement action against dental practices for exactly this.
Why your profile matters more than you think
Your Business Profile is how Google represents your practice in local search results and on Google Maps. It shows patients whether you are open, how others rate you, how to get there, and how to call or book. For many first-time patients, the decision about which practices to call happens right there, based on rating, review count, recency of reviews, photos, and proximity.
It also affects the rest of your marketing. Paid ads, direct mail, and referrals often send people to search for your name, and what they find is your profile. Our guide on setting a dental marketing budget explains why fixing this free lever comes before spending on paid channels.
Step 1: Claim and verify the profile
- Search for your practice on Google and Maps. A profile may already exist, created automatically or by a previous owner or agency. If it does, request ownership rather than creating a duplicate.
- Sign in with a Google account the practice controls. Use an account tied to a practice email address that the owner can always access, not a personal account belonging to an office manager or a login held by a marketing vendor.
- Verify. Google offers several verification methods, including phone or text, email, a live video call, and a mailed postcard. Google determines which methods are available for your business, and you cannot choose freely. For video verification, be ready to show exterior signage, your location in context (nearby businesses or street signs), and proof that you have access to staff areas or business documents. Live video calls are only available during your listed business hours, and Google notes review of a verification can take up to five business days. See Google's verification help page for the current options.
- Add managers, keep ownership. Give your office manager and any agency manager access. Keep the practice owner as primary owner so access survives staff turnover and vendor changes.
The costly mistake: letting a marketing agency create and own the profile. When the relationship ends, some practices find they cannot access their own profile, reviews, or photos. Ownership disputes can take weeks to resolve. If an agency currently owns yours, ask them to transfer primary ownership to the practice now.
Step 2: Get the core information exactly right
Google's guidelines for representing your business set the rules. The ones that trip up dental practices most often:
| Field | What to enter | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | Your real-world name as it appears on your signage, website, and stationery | Adding keywords or locations ("Smith Family Dental, Best Implant Dentist Springfield"). This violates the guidelines and risks suspension. |
| Address | Your actual physical location, including suite number | Using a P.O. box or a virtual office address, which the guidelines prohibit |
| Phone | A local number that reaches the practice directly | Using a call center number, or a number that differs from your website |
| Hours | Patient-facing hours, plus special hours for holidays and closures | Forgetting holiday hours, leading patients to show up to a closed office |
| Primary category | The single category that best describes what your practice is, typically "Dentist" for a general practice | Picking a narrower category to chase a keyword when it does not describe the whole practice |
| Additional categories | Only categories that describe what the business is (Google's guidance: what the business "is," not what it "has") | Adding many loosely related categories. Google advises using as few as possible. |
| Website | The page on your own website for this location | Linking to a third-party booking page or directory instead of your site |
Specialty practices should use the category that matches the specialty (examples available at the time of writing include Orthodontist, Pediatric dentist, Endodontist, and Periodontist). Category lists change, and your state dental board has its own rules about how you may describe specialties in any advertising, so make sure your category and description are consistent with how you are permitted to present yourself.
Step 3: Handle individual dentist profiles correctly
Google treats dentists, like physicians and lawyers, as individual practitioners who may have their own profiles. The guidelines distinguish two situations:
- Multiple practitioners at one location. The practice has its own profile. Each public-facing practitioner may have a separate profile using only their name, without the practice name.
- A single practitioner operating under a practice brand. Google asks for one shared profile, named in the format of the brand followed by a colon and the practitioner's name (for example, "Smith Family Dental: Dr. Jane Smith").
Practitioners should be public-facing and directly reachable at the verified location to qualify for their own profile. Decide deliberately whether you want individual dentist profiles. They can help patients find a specific doctor, but they also split reviews across profiles and create a cleanup task when an associate leaves. If an associate who has a profile departs, update or request changes to their profile promptly so patients are not sent to a dentist who no longer practices there.
Step 4: Build out services, links, photos, and updates
Services and description
List the services patients search for, in plain language: cleanings and exams, fillings, crowns, implants, clear aligners, emergency visits, and so on. Write a description that states who you serve, where, and what makes the practice distinct. Keep claims factual and consistent with your state's dental advertising rules.
Appointment links
Google allows businesses to add action links, including links for booking appointments, and a link to a menu or list of services (see Google's help page on links). If your practice management software offers online scheduling (Open Dental's Web Sched is one example; see our Open Dental eServices module), linking it here lets patients book directly from search.
Photos
Add real photos: the exterior and signage (which helps patients find the entrance), the reception area, operatories, and the team. Keep patients out of photos unless you have written authorization that meets HIPAA requirements. Replace photos when the office changes.
Updates
You can post updates to your profile, such as holiday hours, a new service, or a new dentist joining. Occasional, useful updates keep the profile current. They are not a substitute for reviews or accurate core information.
What has changed recently
Google adds and removes Business Profile features often, and older setup guides can be out of date. Two recent examples:
- Chat and call history were discontinued. Google ended the Business Profile chat and call history features on July 31, 2024, per Google's announcement. If older materials tell your team to monitor chat messages in the profile, that workflow no longer exists.
- Questions and answers are changing. Google discontinued its Q&A API on November 3, 2025, saying it was updating Q&A functionality. Many profiles no longer show the classic questions and answers section. Put answers to common questions (insurance accepted, parking, emergency availability) on your website and in your profile description instead.
Check your own profile quarterly for new options and removed features rather than relying on a guide, including this one.
Getting reviews ethically: Google's policy and the FTC rule
Two sets of rules apply to reviews, and they are not identical.
Google's policy. Google's fake engagement policy prohibits businesses from offering incentives (payment, discounts, free goods or services) in exchange for posting any review, and from discouraging negative reviews or selectively soliciting positive ones. It also says businesses should not require or pressure people to leave reviews while on the premises, and it treats reviews from people with a conflict of interest, such as current or former employees, as policy violations. Asking all patients for honest reviews, without incentives, is allowed.
The FTC rule. The FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465) took effect October 21, 2024. According to the FTC's questions and answers on the rule, it prohibits, among other things: creating or buying fake reviews, offering incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, undisclosed reviews by company insiders in certain situations, suppressing reviews through groundless legal threats or intimidation, and misrepresenting a company-controlled review site as independent. The rule allows courts to impose civil penalties for knowing violations. The FTC notes the rule itself does not specifically prohibit review gating (asking only satisfied customers), but says that practice could still violate the FTC Act.
| Practice | Google policy | FTC rule | Bottom line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asking every patient for an honest review | Allowed | Allowed | Do it |
| A discount or gift card for leaving any review | Prohibited | Not prohibited by the rule if not tied to sentiment | Do not do it; Google prohibits it |
| A reward for five-star reviews only | Prohibited | Prohibited | Never |
| Sending review requests only to patients who rated a survey highly (gating) | Prohibited | Not specifically in the rule, but may violate the FTC Act | Do not do it |
| Staff or family writing reviews | Prohibited (conflict of interest) | Restricted without clear disclosure | Do not do it |
| Threatening legal action to remove a negative review without a real basis | Not applicable | Prohibited | Never; see the reporting section below |
A compliant review request process
- Get your review link or QR code from your profile (Google's help center describes sharing a link or QR code with customers).
- Send the same request to every patient after a completed visit, by text or email, with no incentive and no pre-screening.
- Train staff to mention reviews in a low-pressure way, without asking patients to write one in the office.
- Do not ask employees, their families, or vendors to post reviews.
Replying to reviews without violating HIPAA
This is where dental practices get into real trouble. Under HIPAA, confirming that someone is your patient, or referring to any detail of their care, appointments, billing, or insurance, can be an impermissible disclosure of protected health information, even if the patient disclosed it first in their review.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights has acted against dental practices over review responses. Examples from HHS announcements:
- A Dallas dental practice paid $10,000 in a 2019 settlement over disclosures of patient information on social media, which were reported to have been made in replies to Yelp reviews (HHS summary).
- A North Carolina dental practice received a $50,000 civil money penalty announced in 2022, after it disclosed patient information in response to a negative online review and did not cooperate with the investigation (HHS summary).
- A California dental practice paid $23,000 in a settlement announced in December 2022 after responding to patient reviews in ways that disclosed patient information, including names and treatment details (HHS summary). In announcing it, the OCR director said plainly that providers cannot disclose patient information when responding to negative reviews.
Rules for every reply
- Do not confirm or imply the reviewer is a patient.
- Do not mention treatment, appointments, dates, billing, insurance, or anything from the record.
- Do not argue facts, even when the review is wrong.
- Keep it short, courteous, and general. Invite the person to contact the office directly.
- Have one trained person (often the owner or office manager) approve replies to negative reviews before they post.
Reply templates that stay general
Positive review: "Thank you for taking the time to share this. We appreciate the kind words and will pass them along to the team."
Negative review: "Thank you for your feedback. We take every concern seriously, and our privacy obligations prevent us from discussing any specifics here. Please call our office manager at [practice phone] so we can talk directly."
Review that is clearly not about your practice: "We take feedback seriously, but we are unable to find any record matching this description. If you believe this was meant for our office, please call us at [practice phone]." Some attorneys advise against even this wording, since saying you have no record can itself imply something. When in doubt, use the general negative template.
The private follow-up is where you fix things. Call the patient (never reply with details publicly), listen, and resolve what you can. Some patients update their reviews on their own after a good conversation. Do not ask them to remove or change a review in exchange for anything, such as a refund or a write-off; that crosses Google's policy.
HIPAA questions have fact-specific answers. Put your review response policy in your HIPAA policies and procedures, train staff on it, and confirm the approach with your HIPAA compliance advisor or a healthcare attorney. Our compliance chapter covers HIPAA in practice more broadly.
Fake, abusive, or off-topic reviews
If a review violates Google's policies (spam, conflict of interest, offensive content, or a review clearly about another business), report it through your profile's review management tools and follow Google's process. Keep records of what you reported and when. Do not threaten reviewers with legal action as a pressure tactic: the FTC rule prohibits using unfounded legal threats or intimidation to suppress reviews. If you believe a review is genuinely defamatory, talk to an attorney before doing anything.
Measuring what the profile does
Your profile's performance view shows how people interact with it, such as calls, direction requests, and website clicks. Track these monthly alongside new patients by source. Two simple additions make the data more useful:
- Tag the website link. Add tracking parameters (UTM tags) to the website URL in your profile so your website analytics can separate visitors who came from the profile.
- Ask and record. Ask every new patient how they found you and record it in your practice management software. "Google" is not specific enough: distinguish the map listing from a paid ad when possible.
Our KPI guide explains how new patients by source fits into the practice dashboard.
Google Business Profile setup checklist
- Profile claimed and verified; practice owner is primary owner
- Office manager and any agency added as managers, not owners
- Business name matches signage exactly, with no added keywords
- Address, phone, and website match your website exactly
- Regular and holiday hours set
- Primary category chosen; additional categories kept minimal
- Practitioner profiles handled under Google's practitioner rules
- Services, description, and appointment link added
- Real photos of exterior, reception, operatories, and team uploaded
- Review request sent to every patient, with no incentives and no screening
- Written HIPAA-safe review response policy adopted and staff trained
- Quarterly check for feature changes and profile accuracy scheduled
Keep it current
Set up the profile carefully once, then maintain it: accurate hours, fresh photos, a steady stream of honestly requested reviews, and short, privacy-safe replies. That combination does more for local visibility than most paid campaigns, and it costs almost nothing but attention.
For the bigger picture, see the marketing and patient acquisition chapter of our operations track and how much to spend on dental marketing. If you offer a membership plan for uninsured patients, it belongs in your services list; our guide to in-house membership plans covers how to set one up.
Educational content only. It is not legal, financial, tax, or clinical advice. Prices and ranges are approximate and vary by region, condition, and year. Verify current rules with your state dental board and qualified professionals. ChairsideSource is not affiliated with any manufacturer, the ADA, or the DAT.