In this episode of the BDM Podcast, host Joshua sits down with Richard, founder of Bright Dental Marketing, to break down one of the most pressing compliance issues facing Australian dental practices right now. The topic? AHPRA’s updated advertising guidelines, and why the majority of dental practices are already in breach without even knowing it.
“Advertising” Means More Than You Think
Most dentists hear the word “advertising” and picture Google Ads or a TV commercial. AHPRA defines it far more broadly. Under their guidelines, advertising includes your website, social media profiles, printed materials, in-practice screens, community promotions, essentially anything public-facing. Your sign outside the front door counts.
That’s a much wider net than most practices realise, and it’s the root cause of widespread non-compliance. Richard estimates that if you were to search “dentist” in any suburb right now and click through the top ten results, around seven of them would be in breach of the current guidelines.
Why the Rules Got Stricter, And Why It Affects You Even If You’re Not a “Cosmetic” Practice
The recent wave of updates was driven largely by aggressive lifestyle and influencer-style marketing in the cosmetic dentistry space. Think emotional Instagram ads heavy on transformation narratives, light on procedure risks. AHPRA responded with a significant tightening of the rules.
But the impact extends well beyond cosmetic-only clinics. If your practice offers Invisalign, veneers, or any service AHPRA classifies as a high-risk cosmetic procedure, these stricter rules apply to you. For most general dentists, that means they’re already caught.
The Consequences Are Real
This isn’t a soft compliance issue. The penalties for breaching AHPRA’s advertising guidelines include substantial fines, potentially tens of thousands of dollars, and in serious cases, the loss of a practitioner’s licence. There’s also the reputational damage of being publicly named, which in a tight-knit industry can be business-ending.
AHPRA has signalled it intends to enforce these rules actively. Examples are likely to be made. The question is whether your practice will be one of them.
Four Common Breaches to Fix Right Now
1. Using the Words “Pain-Free”
The guidelines explicitly prohibit the term “pain-free.” It’s not a grey area, it’s a direct prohibition. If this phrase appears anywhere on your website or in your ads, take it down. You can still speak to sedation options, sleep dentistry, or minimising patient discomfort, but the claim of a pain-free experience is off the table.
AHPRA specifically refers to people’s different tolerances for pain, and therefore you cannot make blanket pain-free claims. You can talk about how you help to minimise pain, but “pain-free” itself is a no-go.
2. Before-and-After Photos Without the Required Information
Before-and-after images are one of the most popular tools in dental marketing, and one of the most frequently misused. Under the updated guidelines, every before-and-after must include the treating dentist’s name, their registration number, and the timeframe between the two photos. Lighting and presentation must also be neutral and non-misleading. Missing any of these details puts you in breach, regardless of how genuine the results are.
AHPRA is particularly concerned about patients looking at these images and thinking they can get that result instantly, when in reality it might be six months of procedures and six months of recovery. The guidelines require transparency about what the procedure actually involves, what the risks are, and what the recovery process looks like.
3. Embedding Google Reviews on Your Website
Positive Google reviews are great, but reproducing them on your own website crosses into testimonial territory under AHPRA’s rules. Any review that references a specific clinical procedure or outcome cannot be used in your own marketing materials. This is especially strict for high-risk cosmetic procedures. Reviews mentioning treatments like All-on-4, veneers, or implants cannot appear on your website under any circumstances. Even in general dentistry, the line is thin enough that the safest approach is to leave testimonials on Google and not repurpose them.
If a review is on Google, that’s fine. You haven’t changed that review. But what AHPRA says is you can’t take a testimonial and use it in your own marketing. There’s some wiggle room around reviews that don’t refer specifically to procedures (for example, “the dental team were absolutely wonderful, care was exceptional”), but you’re looking at very fine lines there. If it goes to the clinical nature, you can’t do it. And if it’s about a high-risk cosmetic procedure, you one hundred percent can’t do it.
4. Using Stock Photos to Imply Real Patient Results
An ad featuring stock-photo smiles alongside patient reviews or outcome claims is misleading, because you’re implying those are real results from real patients when they’re not. Even if no specific procedure is mentioned, the implied representation of outcomes is enough to put you in breach.
When stock photos appear next to language about reviews or transformations, there’s an implication that these are real patients, because you’re talking about reviews. In that case, it’s misleading because you haven’t delivered those smiles that appear in the photos.
The Bigger Challenge: Telling Stories Without Testimonials
Storytelling is fundamental to marketing. Testimonials, case studies, patient journeys, these are the tools that build trust and convert enquiries. AHPRA’s guidelines put significant restrictions on all of it, and that’s a real challenge for any dental practice trying to market itself effectively.
As Richard puts it, storytelling is kind of fundamental to marketing, and this is a pretty big blow to that. So you’ve got to look at how else you can tell stories without breaching the testimonial guidelines. That’s probably one of the biggest challenges for dental practices in this space now.
There are ways to do it. It requires thinking differently about how you communicate results, expertise, and patient experience, but it’s entirely achievable with the right guidance.
What to Do Next
The guidelines are already live. They’ve been out since late last year. If you haven’t reviewed your website, social media, and any printed materials against them, now is the time.
AHPRA publishes two separate PDF documents on their website: one covering general dental advertising and one specifically for high-risk cosmetic services. Both are worth reading, though they’re dense. To make things easier, Bright Dental Marketing has developed a free plain-language checklist that consolidates both into a single document, cross-referenced against the relevant AHPRA sections.
You can download it at brightdentalmarketing.com.au.
And if you want to hear Richard and Joshua unpack these examples in full, including a live compliance quiz running through real dental websites and ads, catch the full episode of the BDM Podcast.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/_riM_RjVThE?si=ndqlYcdHXSqIXHTv
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/57M9PqfexyjYSF8bQhL7KB?si=5XzZcLIMSWu0IzFbj53Sag
