How to make your dental practice website GDC compliant

It’s not the most exciting topic when building your new dental practice website, but compliance with GDC guidelines is essential.

The good news is, it’s really easy to comply.

Here’s another thought…

As well as being a legal requirement, your actions to comply provide essential information for your patients and plenty of trust signals that your dental practice is the one they should choose.

Let’s take a look.

GDC standards for websites

Here are the website standards from the GDC:

In line with European guidance*, if you are mentioned on a website as a dental professional providing dental care you must ensure the following is displayed:

• your professional qualification and the country from which that qualification is derived; and
• your GDC registration number.

If you are responsible for a dental practice website, you must ensure that the following information is displayed:

• the name and geographic address at which the dental service is provided;
• contact details of the dental service, including e-mail address and telephone number;
• the GDC’s address and other contact details, or a link to the GDC website;
• details of the practice’s complaints procedure and information about who patients may contact if they are not satisfied with the response (namely the relevant NHS (or equivalent) body for NHS treatment and the Dental Complaints Service for private treatment); and
• the date the website was last updated.

You must update the information showing on your website regularly, so that it accurately reflects the personnel at the practice and the service offered.

You must also ensure that you do not display information comparing the skills or qualifications of any dental professional providing any service with the skills and qualifications of other dental professionals.

Read more here.

How to comply with GDC standards for dental practice websites

So we know what the GDC dental website guidelines are, now let’s see how to comply with them.

Your GDC number and your professional qualifications

• your professional qualification and the country from which that qualification is derived; and
• your GDC registration number.

The best place to cover this information is on your team pages. We also recommend linking to the individual team member’s GDC profile.

Your name, geographic address and contact details

• the name and geographic address at which the dental service is provided;
• contact details of the dental service, including e-mail address and telephone number;

Our dental website theme provides multiple opportunities to add this throughout your website. The obvious place is on your contact us page. However, it makes sense to include it throughout so that people can easily find you.

The example below is of our location block that GCG Dental Practice use on their home page. It also incorporates a call to action alongside the contact information.

Links to the GDC

• the GDC’s address and other contact details, or a link to the GDC website;

The best place to provide this information is on your About Us and Team pages.

As we mentioned previously, you can link individual team member GDC numbers to their profiles.

Alongside this you can link directly to the GDC website in your team listing.

Here’s an example:

Complaints procedure

• details of the practice’s complaints procedure and information about who patients may contact if they are not satisfied with the response (namely the relevant NHS (or equivalent) body for NHS treatment and the Dental Complaints Service for private treatment);

Our dental website templates provide two ways to comply with this requirement.

Firstly a link is provided in the footer of your website.

Secondly, if you have a plan that includes optional pages, you can use the Treatments page which includes a link to your practice complaints procedure.

Need help promoting your private dental treatments? Take a look at our dental marketing and web design services.