Onlineify

Website design for dentists: Every clinician credited, every fee on the page.

Anyone can look a dentist up on the GDC’s public register. Your website should hand them the number. So each profile shows a qualification and a registration number, the fees are on view, and every page closes on the footer the GDC asks for. NHS, mixed or private, it is the same build at the same printed price.

Price your practice’s site

Business build: £3,950 ex VAT, a one-off fee

Example A dental practice’s team page on a phone. A dentist’s card starts as a name with three empty fields, and fills in line by line: the qualification and the country it came from, a GDC registration number shown as 000000, and the title “special interest in orthodontics”, where an unlisted dentist may not say orthodontist. Below it, the date the website was last updated fills in.

Registering, or switching practice

A new patient’s questions, each with a page of its own

  1. Who will I actually see?

    The GDC’s register is public, and anyone can search it by name, town or number. A profile that gives the registration number, the qualification and where it was gained, and whether this is a specialist or a special interest, lets a careful patient check before they book.

    Answered on The team page

  2. What will it cost me?

    Fees they can read without ringing: a check-up, a hygiene appointment, a filling, X-rays, with a from-to range where the price depends on the mouth. And, before anything else, whether you see NHS patients.

    Answered on The fees page

  3. Can I get in, and when?

    Whether you are taking new patients, hours that fit round a working day, what to do in a dental emergency, step-free access and parking. Then a way to ask for an appointment that does not mean holding on the phone.

    Answered on New patients

  4. What if something goes wrong?

    How to complain, who to go to if your answer does not settle it, and whether treatment is guaranteed, for how long and on what terms.

    Answered on The footer and complaints page

GDC and ASA, at the time of writing

What a practice website is expected to say, and how

The GDC does not leave a practice website to taste. It lists what the site must display, down to a line saying when it was last changed, and that list has a section of its own further down. Here are its rules, and the ASA’s, on how the site presents clinicians, fees and results.

  1. Every clinician credited

    Wherever the site names someone as providing care, their qualification, the country it was awarded in and their GDC registration number go with the name. That covers hygienists and therapists as well as dentists.

    From: GDC, guidance on advertising

  2. Fees on the site, not on request

    Clear prices on your website, so nobody has to phone to find out. Where a fee varies, the GDC’s price-list guidance allows a from-to range. And a plain line on whether the practice is NHS, mixed or wholly private.

    From: GDC, Standards for the Dental Team, 2.4GDC, guidance on advertising

  3. Titles that match the register

    “Specialist” belongs to dentists on a GDC specialist list. Everyone else has a special interest in orthodontics, say, and is never billed as an orthodontist. Memberships and honorary degrees are not abbreviated after a name.

    From: GDC, guidance on advertising

  4. “Dr”, explained or dropped

    A dentist may use “Dr” as a courtesy title. CAP advises saying so beside it, along with the fact that no general medical qualification is held.

    From: ASA, the term “Dr” for dentists

  5. Real smiles, with the paperwork

    Before-and-after photos of dental work only if they are genuine and representative, with signed and dated proof kept on file.

    From: ASA, dental advertising

The GDC footer

Five things the GDC wants on a practice website. We put them in the footer, so every page carries them.

The fifth is the one that drifts. A last-updated date means little if it stays put while dentists come and go, so it sits in your editor beside the team page, for whoever changes one to change the other.

Example The footer of a dental practice website, with the five items the GDC asks for numbered one to five. The list beside it describes each one.

  1. Name and address

    The practice’s name and the geographic address where patients are seen.

  2. Email and phone

    Both, not a contact form on its own.

  3. The GDC

    Its address and contact details, or a link to its website.

  4. Complaints, and who is next

    Your procedure, then where an unhappy patient goes: the relevant NHS body for NHS treatment, the Dental Complaints Service for private.

  5. Date last updated

    A real date, changed whenever the team or the treatments change.

Social feeds and deal sites, or your own

What the GDC asks a practice to publish needs somewhere that can hold all of it, and that you can edit the day a dentist leaves.

What a post or a deal page cannot hold

  • The GDC names Instagram, TikTok and Groupon. A treatment promoted there has to say it may not suit every patient and depends on an assessment first.
  • A profile or a deal page is no place for a fee list, a complaints route and a date last updated, and the GDC asks your website for all three.

What the practice’s own site holds

  • Room for the whole list: every clinician’s profile, the full fee table, the complaints route and the footer, on every page.
  • When an associate joins or leaves, the GDC expects the team page to follow. Your practice manager changes it, and the last-updated date with it, without asking anyone for a login.
  • Nothing to pay us each month. The one running cost is your domain renewal, at cost.

The build we would pick for a practice

Business

£3,950 ex VAT, a one-off fee

The tier for a practice that wants patients booking online. Home, new patients, your treatments, the team with their credentials, fees, and contact with the complaints route all fit inside its allowance of 10 pages. Online booking syncs with your calendar, lead capture forms are routed and tracked, the practice’s Google Business Profile is set up for local search, and your practice manager gets an editor to run it all. The build takes two to four weeks.

Lite, at £1,950 ex VAT, suits a single-dentist practice whose patients phone. It swaps online booking for a contact form and includes 5 pages, three of which go on fees, the team and the complaints route.

Price your practice’s site
A quiet waiting area: linen armchairs, a pale oak console and a folded navy throw in afternoon light

Practice owners and managers ask

What does a dental practice website have to show?

The GDC’s guidance on advertising lists it. The practice’s name and the address where care is given, an email address and phone number, the GDC’s contact details or a link to its site, your complaints procedure with who patients can turn to next, and the date the site was last updated. Anyone named as providing care also needs their qualification, the country it came from and their GDC number beside their name. The footer, team profiles and fees page are laid out for all of it, with the last-updated date as a field in your editor; keeping it true after launch, from a new associate’s GDC number to next year’s fees, is the practice’s job.

Do we have to put our fees on the website?

Yes. The GDC’s Standards for the Dental Team say patients should not have to ask for prices, and that includes your website. Where a fee varies, its price-list guidance allows a from-to range. Your publicity must also make clear whether the practice is NHS, mixed or wholly private.

Can our dentists use “Dr”, or call themselves orthodontists?

“Dr” is a courtesy title for dentists. CAP’s advice is that if you use it, say beside it that it is a courtesy title and that no general medical qualification is held, or leave it off. “Specialist” and titles such as Orthodontist or Periodontist are only for a dentist on a GDC specialist list; anyone else writes “special interest in” or “practice limited to”.

Can we show before-and-after smiles and whitening results?

Yes, if each photo is genuine and representative and the practice holds signed and dated proof of it, which is how the ASA puts it for dental treatment. Whitening claims need evidence behind them too. The ASA also notes that whitening done by anyone who is not a dental professional could be illegal, so a whitening page should say who carries it out.

Do we need to display a CQC rating on the site?

In England, at the time of writing, no: CQC lists primary dental services among the services it does not rate, so there is no rating to show. A service that does hold a rating must put it on its website within 21 calendar days. CQC’s “Regulated by” graphic is optional, and CQC calls it particularly useful for services it does not rate. Check your own location page on the CQC site.

Can patients book online, and can it link to our practice software?

Booking that syncs with your calendar, and enquiry forms that are routed and tracked, come with Business. If each booking should land straight in the practice management software you already use, that needs the advanced integration add-on, at the price printed in the configurator.

Who owns the site?

The domain, hosting, code and editor are set up in your own accounts and we are added as a collaborator, so the site stays put whoever you work with next. Every part of it belongs to the practice from day one.

What do we pay after launch?

Your domain renewal, at cost. Hosting and the editor run on free tiers in your own accounts, so nothing comes to us unless you choose a care plan.

Answer patients before they pick up the phone.

Price your practice’s site