Is advertising banned for dentists? The seven levers you are still allowed to use

Many practices live with a simple idea: "advertising is banned for us, so we can't do anything." Both halves of that sentence deserve a second look.

Decree no. 2020-1658 of December 22, 2020 rewrote the communication rules for dental surgeons. It removed from article R.4127-215 the ban on "all direct or indirect means of advertising", and it opened up information: you can present your skills, your background, your practice conditions and your fees. What remains off-limits is more specific than a general ban. We detailed that line in the guide what the Dental Council allows on a dentist website. Here, we start from each way of being found and check whether it fits within the rules set by the French Dental Council (Ordre national des chirurgiens-dentistes).

What is off-limits fits in a few lines:

• paid ads on Google (the Google Ads service);
• paid posts on social media;
• time-limited discounts and welcome gifts;
• buying a priority listing, "paid or not" according to the Dental Council (article R.4127-217 II);
• patient testimonials and comparisons with other dentists (article R.4127-215-1).

Everything else counts as information. That is where your visibility is decided, because 59.8% of French people look for health information online (Eurostat, 2025). That information also travels on social media, and a public post can now show up in search results: we explain this in the article on Instagram indexed by Google.

Lever 1: the practice website and its treatment pages

The rule. Since the 2020 decree, you can inform the public by any means, including a website. The content must remain fair and honest, with no third-party testimonials, no comparisons and no encouragement of unnecessary treatment (article R.4127-215-1).

What to do. One page per treatment, written for a patient: the steps, the duration, the recovery, the alternatives, the fees. A page for the team, with the titles and degrees you are allowed to display, another for directions and hours. This is what patients type: "dental implant" is searched 33,100 times a month in France (Semrush, August 2026). A homepage alone answers none of these searches. Our dental practice website page details this structure.

The common mistake. A one-page website, with vague phrases, and a "website by" credit at the bottom. That credit is advertising for a third-party company, banned by article R.4127-225. Remove it.

Lever 2: displayed fees

The rule. You must inform your patients about your fees and your payment methods (article R.4127-240 II). The order of May 30, 2018 requires the practice to display the consultation, at least five routine procedures and at least five prosthetic or orthodontic procedures. The Dental Council recommends five to ten procedures on the website.

What to do. A "Fees" page that lists these procedures, with an amount or a range, and a sentence reminding patients that the treatment estimate sets the final amount. It reassures the patient and gives an answer to Google and to AI tools, which get many questions about the cost of treatment.

The common mistake. Hiding fees for fear of the Dental Council, when displaying them is a legal duty. Or, the other way around, presenting them as promotion: a discount valid until the end of the month, a crossed-out price, a comparison with "elsewhere". An amount written plainly, in a list, is information. The same amount in a banner with a countdown is advertising.

Lever 3: the Google Business Profile, without a review campaign

The rule. A complete Google Business Profile is information, just like the plaque on your door. Google's official criteria for the map are relevance, distance and prominence (Google help). Google states that no payment moves a profile up on the map, which matches article R.4127-217 II.

What to do. Claim the profile, choose the right category, enter the exact hours, add photos of the premises and the team, list your website as the official site, list the treatments. Then keep it up to date, because Google handles 88.76% of searches in France (Statcounter, August 2026). We describe each field on the Google Business Profile for dentists page, and how Google picks the three practices in the local pack in a separate article.

The common mistake. Running a review drive, with a QR code to scan at the front desk or a message sent after treatment. No text forbids asking for a review, but in 2025 the Dental Council asked the French Ministry of Health to remove reviews of health professionals. Our line: we never organize review collection. We reply to existing reviews neutrally, or not at all, without ever confirming that someone is a patient of the practice. The details are in the article Google reviews and the code of ethics.

Lever 4: the same information everywhere

The rule. Your communication must be accurate and must not mislead the public. An address or opening hours that differ from one channel to another means false information somewhere.

What to do. Write the practice name, address, phone number and hours the same way, down to the letter. That applies to the website, the Google Business Profile, Doctolib (France's leading online booking platform), the Assurance Maladie health directory and local directories. Google and AI tools cross-check these sources before citing a practice. When they contradict each other, they prefer a competitor with cleaner data.

The common mistake. Take a fictional practice, Cabinet des Tilleuls. Its website says "Cabinet dentaire des Tilleuls", its Google Business Profile "Dr. Durand", and a directory "Cabinet Durand et associés", with the old phone number. For a patient, it is one practice. For a machine, it is three doubtful businesses.

Lever 5: answers to patients' questions

The rule. Informational content about a condition, a treatment or prevention is allowed. It must remain accurate and measured, with no encouragement of unnecessary treatment.

What to do. On each treatment page, a frequently asked questions section, with the questions your patients ask on the phone: does it hurt, how long does it take, what are the alternatives, how does the first appointment go. A clear answer first, then the details. These are the answers a Google AI Overview can pick up when a patient asks the same question.

The common mistake. Writing questions for Google rather than for patients, repeating a keyword on every line. Or slipping a promise into the answer: "painless", "guaranteed results". Google has also stopped showing FAQ rich results in its search results since May 7, 2026. The value is in the text itself, not in the markup.

Lever 6: showing up in ChatGPT and AI Overviews

The rule. Being cited by an AI is not advertising: the AI reads information that is allowed and summarizes it. The stakes are growing: 56.6% of French people already use artificial intelligence, including to find a dentist (Arcom and Médiamétrie, April 2026). Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode have been live in France since July 22, 2026.

What to do. First check that AI crawlers can read your website. The OAI-SearchBot crawler is what makes a website appear in ChatGPT. The crawlers of OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity do not read JavaScript, the language that displays content through scripts: a website built that way is invisible to them. Cloudflare, a widely used protection service, has blocked these crawlers by default since July 2025. Next, write in full sentences that say who you are, what you do and where. The AI search for dentists page explains the method, and the guide how AI chooses a dentist describes its four filters.

The common mistake. Believing a special file is enough: the llms.txt file has no proven effect on rankings. Or looking for a "position" in ChatGPT: presence in AI search is measured as the percentage of answers in which the practice is cited, never as a position.

Lever 7: Doctolib, a booking tool, not a visibility tool

The rule. Nothing forbids using an online booking platform. But its page is not your communication: you choose neither the photos, nor the explanations, nor the space given to other dentists.

What to do. Keep Doctolib for what it does well: booking. Your website presents the practice and links to Doctolib for booking. Your Google Business Profile lists your website as the official site. The patient finds you on your own website, then books with the tool they already know.

The common mistake. Thinking Doctolib takes care of your visibility. Doctolib is used by a majority of practices, and its page often outranks the practice website when a patient types the dentist's name. On that page, the patient also sees other dentists available sooner. The guide Doctolib outranks my website gives the steps to follow.

These seven levers take time and method, not an advertising budget. The logical next step is to look at what they deliver today for your practice, on Google, on the map and in AI search: that is the starting point of any dental SEO work.

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