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Google Reviews for Dentists: Get and Answer Them Without HIPAA Risk

Dentists: how patients use reviews, when to ask, how to reply without disclosing PHI (HHS has fined practices for it), and setting up your Google profile.

By Oz IlyasFounder of Revys

Published October 19, 2026

Contents

New patients pick a dentist the way they pick a restaurant: they search, compare a few profiles on Google Maps, and read the latest reviews. The difference is what you're allowed to say back. A dental practice is a HIPAA covered entity, and a careless reply to a review is a disclosure of patient information. This page covers getting reviews, replying safely, showing them, and setting up your Google profiles.

This is practical guidance, not legal advice. For anything specific to your practice, check with your HIPAA privacy officer, your state dental board or counsel.

How do patients use reviews to choose a dentist?

Most of them read reviews first, and many have a minimum rating in mind.

79%

of patients read reviews before choosing a provider. 53% won't consider a provider rated below 4 stars, and 70% say a provider's reply to a negative review improved their opinion.

(Tebra, Patient Perspectives Report, 3,964 US adults, online survey fielded June 2025)

The survey covers healthcare providers in general, not dentists alone, and Tebra sells practice software. We didn't find a recent, dentist-only survey with a published method that we could verify, so we're not quoting the dental percentages that circulate on marketing blogs. The useful takeaway is the last figure: replying well to criticism counts, which makes HIPAA-safe replies the core skill.

How do you reply to reviews without violating HIPAA?

Talk about your office, never about the person. HHS's Office for Civil Rights treats a reply that confirms someone is a patient, or discusses their care, as a disclosure of protected health information. It has acted on it:

Practice	Year	Platform	What happened	Settlement
Elite Dental Associates (Dallas, TX)	2019	Yelp	Replies disclosed patient information	$10,000 + corrective action plan
New Vision Dental (CA)	2022	Yelp	Replies added patients' full names, visit details and insurance information	$23,000 + corrective action plan
Manasa Health Center (NJ, psychiatric practice)	2023	Google reviews	Replies disclosed PHI of four patients	$30,000 + corrective action plan and breach notices

In the New Vision Dental case, OCR also cited the lack of policies and procedures for disclosures on social media and public platforms. A written review-reply policy is part of the fix, not a formality.

Don't confirm the reviewer is a patient, even if they describe their visit.
No treatment, diagnosis, appointment date, insurance, balance or name in the reply.
Speak to office policy in general: scheduling, wait times, billing questions, emergencies.
Offer an offline channel: "Please call our office manager so we can look into this."
Keep it short and calm, with no sarcasm: future patients are reading.
Have a second person read replies to harsh reviews before they go live.
Write your review-reply rules into your HIPAA policies and train the front desk on them.

A reply pattern to adapt:

Thank you for taking the time to share this. Privacy rules don't allow us to discuss anyone's care online, but we take every comment seriously and use it to improve how our office runs. Please call our office manager at the number on this listing so we can talk directly. The team at [Practice name]

More wording, for 5-star reviews as well as complaints about waits, billing or pain, is in our dental review response templates. For general method on hard reviews, see how to respond to negative reviews.

How do you get more Google reviews as a dental practice?

Ask every patient, after a visit that went well, with your profile's direct review link. Two moments work: checkout, and a text or email the same day.

Get your review link and QR code
Copy the direct link from your Business Profile, or use our Google review link generator. The QR code generator makes a printable version for the front desk.
Ask at checkout
"If you were happy with your visit today, a Google review really helps the practice." Said to every patient, with the QR code on the counter.
Send one text or email the same day
From your practice management or patient communication system. Keep treatment details out of the message: "Thanks for visiting [Practice name] today" is enough. Our review request templates for SMS and email are ready to copy.

What to avoid:

Incentives: no discounted cleaning, gift card or raffle entry for reviews. Google bans all incentives, and the FTC rule bans incentives tied to positive or negative sentiment. Check your state dental board's rules as well.
Filtering: the same link for every patient. Sending only happy patients to Google ("review gating") breaks Google's rules.
Staff or family reviews, and bought reviews: Google removes them and the FTC can impose civil penalties (see fake Google reviews and the law).

The full playbook is in how to get more Google reviews.

Can you show patient reviews on your website?

You can display your Google reviews, but treat it as advertising. Check your state dental board's rules on testimonials in advertising, follow the FTC's rules on reviews and endorsements (don't edit reviews or present a hand-picked set as if it were all of them), and ask your privacy officer whether featuring a named patient's review requires an authorization under your policies. The cautious route is to show reviews as they appear on Google, without adding anything about the patient.

If you go ahead, the Revys Google reviews widget has five layouts (grid, list, carousel, wall, badge). With the WordPress plugin or the server-side include, reviews are written into the page HTML and refreshed nightly, so Google and AI tools can read them; the JavaScript snippet works on any site builder but loads in an iframe that AI tools don't read. Place them on your new-patient page and next to your online booking button.

How do you set up a dentist's Google Business Profile?

Get the structure right first, then fill in the details. Google's guidelines for individual practitioners are specific:

each public-facing dentist can have their own profile, named with the practitioner's name only (no practice name);
a group practice has its own profile, separate from the dentists' profiles;
a solo dentist at a branded practice shares one profile named "Brand: Dentist name";
no separate profiles per specialty, and none for support staff.

Then: the most precise primary category (Dentist, Cosmetic dentist, Pediatric dentist, Orthodontist, Periodontist…), services listed, hours and holiday closures, your online booking link, accessibility attributes, and photos of the exterior and entrance so new patients can find you. Keep the description factual: what you treat, who you see, where you are, with no promotions. The full guide: Google Business Profile optimization.

The Revys Google profile advisor (Pro plan) checks categories, hours and upcoming holidays, services, attributes, key photos, review pace and unanswered reviews, with a score out of 100.

What Revys does for a dental practice, and what it doesn't

Revys connects your Google Business Profile through the official API, alerts you to new reviews, gives you the review link and QR code, shows your reviews on your site and audits your profile. With AI review replies (Pro plan, $7.90 a month for the first location), you can keep every reply on manual approval so nothing posts without your sign-off. The AI has no access to your patient records, but it can still get things wrong: read each draft against the checklist above.

What it doesn't do: it isn't a HIPAA compliance tool, doesn't remove reviews (only Google decides) and doesn't send review texts for you. It doesn't guarantee a rating or a ranking.

FAQ

Can a dentist respond to a Google review under HIPAA?

Yes, as long as the reply doesn't disclose protected health information. Don't confirm the reviewer is a patient, and don't mention treatment, dates, insurance or anything from their chart, even if they described it themselves. A general reply about your office policies, with an invitation to call, is the safe pattern.

Has anyone actually been fined for replying to a review?

Yes. HHS's Office for Civil Rights settled with Elite Dental Associates in Dallas for $10,000 in 2019 and with New Vision Dental in California for $23,000 in 2022, both over replies to Yelp reviews. In 2023, a New Jersey psychiatric practice paid $30,000 over replies to Google reviews.

When should a dental office ask for a review?

At checkout, after a visit that went well, and by text or email the same day with the direct link. Ask every patient, not only the happy ones, and keep treatment details out of the message.

Can I offer a discount on cleanings for reviews?

No. Google bans incentives for reviews, and the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule bans incentives conditioned on positive or negative sentiment. Your state dental board's rules on inducements and advertising also apply.

Can I put patient reviews on my practice website?

Many practices do, but treat it as marketing: check your state dental board's advertising and testimonial rules and the FTC's endorsement rules, and ask your HIPAA privacy officer whether you need patient authorization before featuring a review.

Should each dentist have a separate Google Business Profile?

Google allows a profile for each public-facing practitioner, named with the practitioner's name only, plus a separate profile for the practice. A solo dentist at a branded practice shares one profile named Brand: Dentist name. Support staff shouldn't have profiles.