Website legal requirements · for dentists
What a dental practice website must show.
The GDC asks for more than most trades: who you are, how to complain, and when the site was updated.
A dental practice website must show the practice’s name and address, its phone and email, the GDC’s contact details or a link to its website, how to complain, and the date the site was last updated. Every dental professional named on it needs their GDC number, their qualification and the country it’s from. Only a registered dentist may use the title “dentist”, and only someone on a GDC specialist list may be called a specialist.
Chris Painter, founder of ThemeSmith · checked 28 October 2026 · every rule links to its source
The rules for dentists
What the rules ask of your website.
The practice page: address, contacts, the GDC, complaints and a date.
The practice’s name and the address where care is given; contact details including an email address and phone number; the GDC’s address and contact details, or a link to the GDC website; how to complain, and who patients can go to if they’re not satisfied (the NHS body for NHS treatment, the Dental Complaints Service for private treatment); and the date the website was last updated.
Regulator guidance · UK · General Dental Council, Guidance on advertising (effective 30 September 2013)
Each person named: their GDC number and qualification.
Anyone named on the site as providing care shows their professional qualification, the country it was gained in, and their GDC registration number. The GDC says misleading advertising is unprofessional, may lead to a fitness to practise investigation and can be a criminal offence.
Regulator guidance · UK · General Dental Council, Guidance on advertising
“Specialist” only for those on a GDC specialist list.
A dentist on a specialist list may use “Specialist” or “specialist in…”. Anyone else must not use titles that imply it, such as Orthodontist, Periodontist or Endodontist, or say “specialising in”; “special interest in”, “experienced in” or “practice limited to” are allowed. Dental care professionals have no specialist lists, so no “smile specialist” or “denture specialist”.
Regulator guidance · UK · General Dental Council, Guidance on advertising
“Dentist” is a protected title.
Only a registered dentist may use the title dentist, dental surgeon or dental practitioner, alone or with other words. Using it otherwise is an offence with a fine up to level 5.
Law · UK · Dentists Act 1984, section 39
A CQC rating, if the service has one (England).
A provider the CQC has rated must show the latest rating, its date and the CQC’s web address on its website. Primary dental services aren’t rated, so most dental practices are outside this rule; a practice with a rated service (for example under a separate registration) shows that rating.
Law · England · Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, regulation 20A
Not on the list
What the rules don’t ask for.
The GDC’s logo.
The guidance asks for the GDC’s contact details or a link to its website, not its logo.
The three rules every business has still apply.
A price shown to the public includes VAT; a limited company shows its registered name, number and office; a site that takes enquiries says how it will use them. What every UK business website must show.
Questions
What dentists ask.
Do dentists have to show their GDC number on their website?
Yes, for every dental professional named on the site as providing care, with their qualification and the country it was gained in. That is the GDC’s Guidance on advertising.
Can a dentist call themselves a specialist?
Only if they are on one of the GDC’s specialist lists. Others may say “special interest in”, “experienced in” or “practice limited to”, but not “specialising in” or a title such as Orthodontist.
Does a dental practice website need to show a CQC rating?
Only for a service the CQC has rated (England). Primary dental services aren’t rated, so most practices have no rating to show.
Building the site
A website for dentists, with this built in.
Other trades with a rule of their own: architects · physiotherapists · therapists and psychologists · estate agents · driving instructors · gas engineers · cafés, restaurants and caterers.