The short answer
A dental practice can reply to Google reviews, and usually should. The catch is confidentiality. Under the Standards of the General Dental Council (GDC), the body every UK dentist is registered with, everything you learnt about a patient in your professional role is confidential, and that includes the fact that they are having treatment and what it is. So a public reply can apologise, thank and invite contact, but it should not confirm that the reviewer is your patient, name them, or mention their treatment, even if they mentioned it first.
That puts dentists at odds with one line of Google's own advice, which tells businesses to address the reviewer by name. For a hotel that is good advice. For a dental practice it is not.
Two more things changed the picture. The NHS website's ratings and reviews service has been switched off, so Google is now the main place patients read about a practice. And since 6 April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (the DMCC Act) bans fake reviews, hidden incentives and publishing reviews in a misleading way, which matters when you ask for reviews.
I'm not a dentist or a lawyer. I build review software, and I read every source below on 23 October 2026. For a specific difficult review, your defence organisation is the right first call.
The NHS website no longer takes reviews
For years the obvious place for a patient to rate an NHS dentist was the NHS website, and practices got used to answering there. That is over. When I opened a practice's ratings page on nhs.uk on 23 October 2026, it said the ratings and reviews service is no longer available and that the service has been decommissioned. I could not find a date for the change on the site.
The practical result is simple. Patients who want to say how it went now write on Google. If your Google profile has twelve reviews and no replies, that is what a new patient sees when they search for a dentist near them.
What the GDC Standards say about a public reply
Two principles of the GDC's Standards for the Dental Team apply here (read on 23 October 2026).
Principle 4 is about patients' information. Standard 4.2 says you "must protect the confidentiality of patients' information and only use it for the purpose for which it was given". The guidance under it, 4.2.1, spells out what that covers: everything learnt in your professional role, including personal details, medical history, what treatment the patient is having and how much it costs. And 4.2.3 says: "You must not post any information or comments about patients on social networking or blogging sites."
A Google reply is a public post about a person. If it says "we're sorry your crown came loose, Mrs Patel", it confirms she is a patient, names her and discloses her treatment. The fact that she wrote about the crown herself does not change your duty. Standard 4.3 allows release without consent only in exceptional circumstances, such as a court order or a serious risk to someone, and a bad review is not one of them.
Principle 5 is about complaints, and it is the friendlier half. Standard 5.2 says you must respect a patient's right to complain, and the guidance asks you not to react defensively and to find out what outcome the patient wants. Standard 5.3 asks you to deal with complaints calmly, offer an apology and a practical solution where appropriate, and reply to the patient in writing. If they are still unhappy, 5.3.11 points them to the Ombudsman for NHS treatment or the Dental Complaints Service for private treatment.
Put together: the complaint gets handled properly, in private and in writing. The public reply only shows that you take it seriously and opens the door.
The Dental Defence Union (DDU), which gives dentists legal advice, said much the same in its journal piece Responding to online criticism (19 June 2017). Its advice is to contact them before acting on a specific review, that a constructive reply with an apology for the dissatisfaction can put a practice in a good light, that a reply can make the review more visible, and that it helps to explain that confidentiality stops you replying in detail and to invite the patient to contact the practice directly.
One more thing to know. The GDC consulted on a new framework that would replace the current Standards. The consultation ran from 2 June to 31 August 2026. Everything here is based on the Standards in force when I wrote it.
Where Google's own advice does not fit a dentist
Google's help page Tips to get more reviews (read on 23 October 2026) has a section on replies. Most of it suits a practice well: keep it short, never share a reviewer's private information, and for a complex case ask them to contact you by phone or email.
One tip does not suit you. Under "Personalize your reply" Google suggests you "Address the reviewer by name". In a dental practice, using the name confirms that the person is a patient, which is exactly what 4.2.1 protects. Sign the reply with your role or the practice name instead, and leave the reviewer's name out.
The same goes for repeating details. If a review says "my implant still hurts", a reply that says "we're sorry about your implant" has just confirmed treatment on a public page.
Three replies that say nothing about the patient
These are starting points, not legal advice. Keep the practice's phone number and email in each one, so the conversation can move somewhere private.
For a negative review:
Thank you for taking the time to write this. We're sorry to read that your experience fell short. We can't discuss anyone's care in a public reply, but we'd genuinely like to understand what happened. Please call the practice manager on 0123 456 789 or email hello@yourpractice.co.uk.
For a positive review:
Thank you, this means a lot to the whole team. We'll pass it on.
For a review you think is fake or about someone else:
We take every comment seriously. We can't discuss anyone's care here. If you've been to the practice and want to talk about your visit, please contact the practice manager on 0123 456 789.
Notice what the third one does not say. It does not say "we have no record of you", because that is also information about who is and is not a patient. If a review breaks Google's policies, for example it comes from a competitor or a former employee, flag it to Google through your Google Business Profile, the page where you manage your practice's listing. I explained how the flagging route works in an earlier post.
Two habits help. Reply within a few days, and get a second person to read a reply to a negative review before it goes up. Google checks replies before showing them, and once a reply is live it sits under the review for anyone to read.
Asking for reviews: what the DMCC Act and Google allow
Asking is fine. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the regulator that enforces the review rules, says so in its fake reviews guidance (CMA208, 4 April 2025, read on 23 October 2026). Paragraph 3.6 says that "merely emailing customers generally to ask if they wish to provide a review, is not prohibited". Schedule 20 of the DMCC Act 2024, in force since 6 April 2025, is about what you must not do. Paragraph 13 bans fake reviews, reviews that hide an incentive, and "publishing consumer reviews, or consumer review information, in a misleading way".
A few points from the guidance that matter in a practice:
- Staff count. Paragraph 2.10 says commissioning "could include a trader requesting a member of staff to write a review of the trader's product". No reviews from the team or their families.
- Don't trade a complaint for a review. Paragraph 4.4(a) says traders should not interfere with negative reviews, including "by making an offer of dispute resolution contingent on a consumer not leaving a negative review". Example 4 in the guidance describes a refund offered if the customer changes a negative review. A refund with no strings attached is a different matter. A refund in exchange for deleting the review is not allowed.
- Ask everyone the same way. Paragraph 4.5 describes cherry picking "by encouraging just those who are satisfied to leave reviews". A system that sends happy patients to Google and unhappy ones to a private form is that. Google's content policy bans it too: businesses must not "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers".
Google is stricter than the CMA on incentives. The CMA allows a clearly disclosed incentive. Google does not allow one at all, labelled or not. The longer version of all this is in my post on the UK fake reviews law.
In practice, the ask that works and is clean under both rulebooks is boring:
- a card or small stand at reception with a QR code that opens your Google review form, seen by every patient the same way;
- one line in the appointment follow-up email or text, sent to everyone, not only the patients who smiled;
- no pressure at the desk. Google's policy says a business should not require or pressure people to leave a review while on the premises. A card on the counter is fine. A nurse holding out a tablet is not.
ReviewQR: the QR code and the widget, for $9
ReviewQR is our small product for exactly the asking part. It does not write replies.
Free, with no card and no trial clock, you get a simple review QR code that counts scans and one Google reviews widget, a small block on your website that shows your latest Google reviews, in two layouts, with a "Powered by ReviewQR" line. ReviewQR Pro is $9 a month, billed monthly with no trial, and adds up to 5 widgets and 3 locations, all 6 widget layouts, printable PDF posters with your code, and a widget without our line.
If you only need a code for the reception desk today, the free generator makes one from your practice name and town, with no account. It encodes Google's own review link, so it keeps working whether or not you ever sign up. To show your Google reviews on the practice website, start with a free ReviewQR account.
A checklist for the practice manager
- Search your practice on Google and read the last twenty reviews and replies as a new patient would.
- Check that no existing reply names a patient or mentions their treatment. Edit the ones that do.
- Save the three replies above with your own phone number and email.
- Agree who replies, and who reads a negative reply before it goes up.
- Put a QR card at reception and one review line in the follow-up message, for every patient.
- Switch off anything that asks "how did we do?" and sends only the happy answers to Google.
- For a review that worries you, call your defence organisation before you reply.
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