Dentist influencer: what the Dental Council allows, and what crosses the line into misconduct

The phrase "dentist influencer" makes dentists nervous. Yet the French Dental Council (Ordre national des chirurgiens-dentistes) has answered the question in black and white, and its answer is neither yes nor no. It comes down to three cases, and it flips the moment a specific practice appears.

This framework appears in the Council's newsletter, Lettre de l'Ordre No. 196, from March 2022. It is rarely quoted. We present it as it reads, along with the two points almost nobody mentions: a private account used to share professional information is treated as a professional account, and the June 9, 2023 law on commercial influence applies on top of the code of ethics.

A note in the interest of honesty: the list of practices below combines several passages of Lettre 196, namely the practical guide and the scenarios devoted to the influencer and the video creator. It is not a single list in the document.

The Dental Council's framework for a dentist influencer, in three cases

The Dental Council distinguishes three situations, and only one is closed outright.

The condition in the second case is often misunderstood. It is not about how serious the content is, but about the link to your practice. Informational content about a condition or about prevention is fine. The same content, once it becomes a path to your waiting room, is not.

This reading is consistent with article R.4127-215-1 of the French Public Health Code. A dentist "is free to communicate with the public, by any means, including on a website," but that communication must remain fair and honest, and it "does not make use of third-party testimonials." We covered this line in detail in our guide on what the Dental Council allows on a dentist website.

The practices that amount to misconduct

According to Lettre 196, eight practices move a dentist influencer to the "no" side. They concern the content and how it is funded, never the platform used.

• product placement for dental products;
• any contract with brands;
• any compensation tied to the number of views or followers;
• self-promotion, and advertising for one's own practice;
• any steering of dental consumption;
• blending private life and professional life for show;
• seeking sensationalism;
• disparaging other practices.

Two of these lines deserve a closer look. The fourth targets dentists themselves: promoting your own practice is placed on the same side as promoting a brand. The sixth contradicts a piece of advice the market keeps pushing, the behind-the-scenes content that mixes practice life with personal life.

On top of that comes a ban that weighs heavily in video: article R.4127-225 prohibits "any advertising benefiting a third party or an industrial or commercial company." Lettre de l'Ordre No. 209, dated November 10, 2023, lists visible brands of products or medical devices in a video among the breaches. A box of aligners sitting behind you is enough to create the problem.

Your personal account does not protect you

A private account used to share professional information is treated as a professional account. Lettre 196 says so twice.

The consequence is simple: your privacy setting changes nothing about your position with the Dental Council. What counts is the nature of what you post, and its possible link to your practice. An account under a person's name, without the practice name, that explains treatments is still professional communication.

Lettre 209 adds another breach: a "more or less obvious redirection to the influencer's place of practice." The key word is "obvious": you do not need to write out the practice address for content to count as a redirection.

The June 9, 2023 law applies on top of the code

Law No. 2023-451 of June 9, 2023 regulates commercial influence. It covers people who, "for consideration, use their standing with their audience" to share content promoting goods, services or a cause. A dentist paid by a brand falls within this definition, without leaving the scope of the code of ethics.

The law then requires an "Advertising" ("Publicité") or "Commercial collaboration" ("Collaboration commerciale") label, which must be "clear, legible and identifiable on the image or video, in all formats." Hence a contradiction: the label the law requires is itself proof of the breach of the code. For a dentist, content that complies with this law is content that openly presents itself as advertising for a third party.

The same law requires a "Virtual images" ("Images virtuelles") label when the image shown is produced "by any artificial intelligence process intended to depict a face or a figure."

What the Dental Council has done, and when

The Dental Council moved from education to formal complaints in under two years. Here are the dates, without a scale of penalties: no public source provides one.

1. March 2022: Lettre 196 publishes the decision guide and the influencer and video creator scenarios.
2. June 2023: the law on commercial influence takes effect, on top of the code.
3. November 2023: Lettre 209 details the breaches observed and states that "complaints have been filed."
4. December 2025: Lettre 226 warns against paid-for news features and points out that "while the December 2020 decree did broaden dentists' options for communication, in no way did it open the possibility of advertising."

The original French of this quote is reproduced with the Dental Council's own spelling. The medium targeted in December 2025 was television, and the Dental Council does not name any service provider. The National Council's recommendations on professional communication complement these newsletters, and article R.4127-215-1 III requires a dentist's communication to take them into account.

The checklist before you post a video

Check seven points before anything goes live, in this order.

1. No identifiable patient: the face must be blurred, even if the patient gives express consent to the use of their image.
2. No X-ray, photo or screenshot that could identify a person.
3. No visible brand of a product or medical device in the camera frame.
4. No contract, no product exchange, no compensation tied to views or followers.
5. No sensational hook, no blending of private and professional life for show.
6. No patient testimonial, no rating, no stars displayed.
7. Written sign-off from the dentist before posting, because the dentist is the one accountable to the Dental Council.

The first point is the strictest. Professional secrecy, set out in articles R.4127-206 and R.4127-208, is a principle from which the patient cannot release the dentist.

Informing without becoming an influencer

The way out of this dilemma is not silence; it is separating information from influence. An account that informs describes treatments, steps, durations and aftercare. An influencer account looks for an audience, then converts it.

We work with Instagram as the main network, because that is where your patients are. In June 2026, Instagram reached 45.3 million unique monthly visitors in France, based on the population aged 11 and over (Médiamétrie and Médiamétrie//NetRatings, June 2026). On a Facebook Page, we post a photo or a text with a link.

Our service commitment is to produce two subtitled vertical videos and three written posts per week, in which the dentist is the one speaking, in their real voice. That is a production commitment, not a result: we do not promise any follower or reach numbers.

On the dentist's side, the work is counted in tasks. A 30 to 40 second voice memo per video, based on a script we prepare. One review and sign-off per post. Counting generously, that adds up to a few minutes a week. This total is a sum of tasks, not a time measured with a stopwatch over a full month: the day we measure it, we will publish the measurement and its date.

We commit to three things, and each can be checked line by line. We cite the texts, code articles, recommendations and Dental Council newsletters, with a link to the source. We also say what is not written down: paid posts are not named in any Dental Council text; the ban is inferred from the prohibition on commercial practice and from the list of permitted media. And no post goes out without your written sign-off. The details are on our social media for dental practices page.

That leaves the underlying question of what you are allowed to do to become visible: it is covered lever by lever in our article on the dentist advertising ban and the levers that are allowed. And before presenting your background on camera, reread the titles, degrees and other information you are allowed to display: the wording required by the Dental Council applies when you speak, too.

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