How to get more Google reviews for a dental practice, within the rules
Last reviewed against the regulators’ own text, linked in the sources below.
This is general information, not legal advice.
How to get more Google reviews for a dental practice comes down to asking every patient, at a sensible moment, in the same simple way, and replying to what they write without saying anything about their care. It's unglamorous. It's also the only approach that doesn't put the practice profile at risk.
Before any tactic: reviews are governed by UK consumer law and advertising rules as well as Google's policy. I do not restate that law here. Read the rules on reviews and testimonials first; everything below is written to sit inside them.
Reviews matter for local search because Google names the number of reviews a business has as part of prominence, one of its three local ranking factors, and lists earning reviews and replying to them among its tips1. How they fit with the rest of local search is on showing up in the map results. The full method is in the complete guide to local search for practices.
When to ask
The rule that keeps you safe is simple: ask everyone, not a chosen few. Google prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews2. So the moment you ask must be a routine moment that every patient reaches, not a judgement about who seemed happy.
| Moment | Why it works | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| At checkout, after any completed appointment | Every patient passes through it | Must be every patient, not those the receptionist picks |
| A message the same day or the next | The visit is fresh; the patient is at home with time | Only to patients who have consented to that kind of message |
| At the end of a course of treatment | A natural point for a patient to reflect on the whole experience | Still ask patients whose treatment was complicated |
| After a hygiene visit | Frequent, routine, and reaches the whole patient base | Keep the wording the same as for any other visit |
What decides the moment is the practice's routine, not the patient's mood. If reception is asking only patients who were chatty or complimentary, that is gating in practice, whatever the intention.
How to ask
Google's own guidance is to share a link or QR code that takes patients straight to the review form, to remind customers, and to make it easy3. You can create the link and QR code from the Business Profile3.
A practical setup:
| Channel | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Printed card or QR code at reception | "We'd value your feedback on Google. Scan to leave a review." |
| Text or email after the visit | One line, the link, no pressure. Sent to every patient who has agreed to receive messages |
| On the practice website | A link on the contact or reviews page |
Wording that stays on the right side of the rules is neutral. It asks for feedback, not for a five-star review, and it goes to everyone. For example: "Thank you for visiting today. If you have a moment, we'd welcome your feedback on Google: [link]."
Responding
Google recommends replying to reviews, and for a negative review, finding out why the patient had a bad experience and offering to resolve it3. For a dental practice there's one extra constraint that outweighs everything else: confidentiality.
The GDC's standards say dental professionals "must not post any information or comments about patients on social networking or blogging sites"4, and that patient information must be kept confidential4. A public reply to a review is that kind of post. My cautious reading, and the one I work to, is that confirming the reviewer is a patient, or mentioning their treatment, risks breaching it even if the patient raised it first.
| Review | Reply that works | Reply to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Positive, mentions a treatment | "Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback. We're glad to hear it." | "Glad your implant is settling in well, Mrs Smith." |
| Negative, about waiting time | "We're sorry to read this. Please contact our practice manager on [number] so we can look into it." | "Your appointment on Tuesday ran late because of an emergency." |
| Negative, about clinical care | "We take feedback seriously and would like to discuss this privately. Please contact [practice manager]." | Any detail of the treatment, the diagnosis or what the patient was told |
| Appears to be from someone who is not a patient | A short, neutral reply, then report it through Google if it breaks policy | "We have no record of you as a patient." |
Reply to every review, positive and negative, within about a week. When I manage the profile, I draft each reply and the practice approves it before it's published. The replies are read by patients who have not yet booked, and a calm reply to a complaint often does more for trust than another five-star review.
What not to do
These are the tactics that get profiles restricted. Each is prohibited by Google's own policy.
| Do not | Google's policy says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Offer a discount, free whitening, a prize draw or any reward for a review | Offering incentives such as payment, discounts or free goods or services in exchange for a review is prohibited | 2 |
| Ask only patients you expect to be happy, or filter unhappy ones to a private form | Discouraging negative reviews or selectively soliciting positive ones is prohibited | 2 |
| Ask staff, family or other businesses to review the practice | Content based on a conflict of interest, including employment, is prohibited | 2 |
| Give reception a target number of reviews to collect | Requesting that staff solicit a certain number of reviews is prohibited | 2 |
| Ask patients to mention specific words or treatments | Staff should not solicit reviews that include specific content | 2 |
| Buy reviews or post from several accounts | Content posted from multiple accounts by or at the request of one person is prohibited | 2 |
Google can act on the profile for this. Its published restrictions for fake engagement include blocking new reviews for a period, unpublishing existing reviews, and showing a warning to people viewing the profile that fake reviews were removed5.
The same practices can also breach UK law, which is why the rules page comes first. If a supplier has offered you a review "campaign" with rewards, a pre-filtering form, or a promise of a set number of reviews a month, treat that as a warning.
Before you ask for a review, check the request against the rules on reviews and testimonials. For a review routine you can defend to Google and to your patients, email Fayez@imfayez.com.
Sources
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Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩
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Google Maps User Contributed Content Policy: Prohibited and restricted content (fake engagement), accessed 1 October 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
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Google Business Profile Help: Get reviews on your Business Profile, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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GDC: Standards for the Dental Team, Principle 4, standards 4.2 and 4.2.3, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩ ↩2
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Google Business Profile Help: Business Profile restrictions for policy violations, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩