Can dental practices use patient testimonials? AHPRA rules explained

Can dental practices use patient testimonials? AHPRA rules explained

It is one of the most Googled questions in Australian dental marketing, and for good reason. A glowing patient review feels like the most persuasive thing you could put on your website. But under Australian law, using patient testimonials to advertise a regulated health service is an offence, and dentistry is squarely in scope.

Here is what the rules actually say, where Google reviews fit, what a breach can cost you, and what you can put on your website instead.

This is general information, not legal advice.

The short answer

No. You cannot use testimonials that refer to the clinical care you provide to advertise your practice. This is set out in section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, the same law AHPRA and the Dental Board enforce.

This is not a guideline you can weigh up against a marketing goal. It is a provision of the Act, and breaching it is an offence.

Why testimonials are banned

AHPRA's reasoning is that testimonials are usually personal opinions with no objective basis for recommending a practitioner or a service. One patient's outcome does not reflect what every patient will experience, and a single happy review is rarely a balanced source of information. In short, they can mislead the very people they are meant to help.

What actually counts as a testimonial

This is where most practices get caught out, because the line is about content, not format.

A comment about your clinical care is a testimonial, and it is off limits in your advertising. For example:

• "My implant looks amazing."
• "The root canal was completely painless."
• "Dr Lee fixed years of pain in one visit."

A comment about the non-clinical side of your business is generally fine. For example:

• "The reception team was lovely."
• "Easy parking and short wait times."
• "Booking online was simple."

If the review is about the treatment or the result, you cannot use it to advertise. If it is about the experience of dealing with your business, you usually can.

What about Google reviews?

This is the nuance that trips people up.

AHPRA does not hold you responsible for unsolicited reviews that patients leave on a platform you do not control and did not author, like Google. You do not have to hunt them down and take them off the internet.

But the moment you take that review and use it, it becomes advertising you control, and section 133 applies again. That means you cannot:

• Embed or display clinical Google reviews on your own website.
• Screenshot a clinical review for Instagram or Facebook.
• Ask for or incentivise reviews about a patient's treatment.
• Quote a clinical review in an ad or an email.

Leaving a review where a patient posted it is one thing. Repackaging it as your marketing is another.

What a breach can cost you

Since 2 September 2025, AHPRA has tightened enforcement across all health practitioner advertising, including dentistry. Maximum penalties under the National Law now sit at $60,000 per breach for an individual and $120,000 for a corporation.

In practice, most cases start with a complaint and a direction to remove or amend the advertising. But repeated or serious breaches can lead to disciplinary action and financial penalties. Testimonials and unsupported claims are among the most common breaches AHPRA sees.

What you can say instead

You do not have to run bland marketing. You just have to lead with facts, not patient opinions. This is compliant, and still persuasive:

• Factual descriptions of your services and what they involve.
• Your team's qualifications, experience and registrations.
• Objective reasons to choose you, like same-day emergencies, weekend hours, or gentle care for anxious patients.
• Clear, accurate information about what a treatment does, without promising a result.

The goal is to give patients real reasons to trust you, framed as facts about your practice rather than claims about outcomes.

How to know if your website is already breaching

The rule is the easy part. The hard part is that testimonials creep into a website over years, in an embedded review widget, a "what our patients say" section, a social feed pulled onto the homepage, or a smile gallery caption. Most practices do not find out they are non-compliant until someone complains.

That is what we built SwayBlu's free AHPRA audit for. Drop in your website and it scans every page against AHPRA's advertising rules, including testimonials, and shows you the likely breaches and how to fix each one, in about sixty seconds.

Check your practice website, free, at swayblu.com/ahpra-audit.

---

Sources: AHPRA, Testimonials: Understand the requirements, and Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service (ahpra.gov.au); Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, section 133.