Google Business Profile for a multi-dentist practice: one profile, or one per dentist?

Take a fictional practice, Cabinet des Deux Tilleuls, in Nantes. Three dentists, one address, one front desk line. Yet on Google there are four profiles: the practice's, two under dentists' names, and a fourth that nobody recognizes, with a phone number that no longer rings. The opening hours contradict each other, the reviews are scattered, and the dentist who handles it no longer knows which one to fix.

The question then always comes in the same terms: do you need one Google Business Profile per dentist, or a single one for the dental practice? Google has written down the answer. It is more open than people think, as long as you meet three conditions and name each profile correctly.

One profile per dentist or just one: what does Google say?

Both, at the same time. Google's help center provides for one profile for the business, meaning the practice at its address, and one profile for each dentist who personally sees patients at that address. A practice with three dentists can therefore be represented by four profiles, without breaking the rules.

This rule appears in the guidelines for representing your business on Google, in the section on individual practitioners. It is not specific to dentistry: it applies to every profession in which a professional is consulted in their own name.

The point is not to take over the map. It is to exist in two different searches. A patient who types "dentist" followed by the name of their town lands on businesses, which Google ranks on relevance, distance and prominence (Google help center). A patient who types a dentist's name is looking for a person, and that is often where a directory outranks you, as explained on our Google Business Profile for dentists page. Google handles 88.76% of searches in France (Statcounter, August 2026): both of these paths carry a lot of weight.

The conditions a dentist must meet to have a profile

A profile under a dentist's name is not created just because they work on the premises. Google sets simple conditions, and they take a minute to check.

• The dentist is in contact with patients, meaning they see them personally.
• They are reachable at the verified address, during the hours shown on the profile.
• Those hours are their own, not the whole practice's, when they differ.
• They have only one profile per address where they practice, never two.

So a dentist who practices at two locations can have two profiles, one per address. A locum dentist who is there for three weeks has none. And a dental assistant, front desk staff or a dental technician does not fall within this framework, since they do not see patients in their own name.

Which setup for which practice

This table covers the situations we see most often. Find the row that looks like yours.

The last row is the most important. Duplicate profiles, or profiles created to cover more ground, end up merged, and the reviews and photos go with them. So the setup is chosen based on how the practice is actually organized, never on the wish to appear twice.

The name of each profile, and the Dental Council's rules

The name is the rule group practices miss most often. In a practice with several professionals, Google asks that a dentist's profile carry their own name and not the practice's. The reverse case exists too: when a single dentist sees patients under a brand, their single profile is written in the format business name then professional's name.

The rest falls under the French Public Health Code, which contains the code of ethics enforced by the French Dental Council (Ordre national des chirurgiens-dentistes). Article R.4127-217 II prohibits obtaining, for payment or by any other means, a listing that would give priority display to one's information, and Decree No. 2020-1658 of December 22, 2020 is available on Légifrance. Article R.4127-215-1 requires fair and honest communication, with no comparison with other dentists. In practice, a profile name is limited to the real name of the dentist or the practice, with nothing added to catch the eye.

The category you choose follows the same logic: it describes what you practice, with the titles you are allowed to display. Our article on what you are allowed to display on a dentist website details which titles and degrees may appear.

Getting the profiles in order: the seven steps

Here is the process we follow when a group practice starts from a tangled situation, like the one at Deux Tilleuls.

1. Take stock of what exists. Search for the practice name, then each dentist's name, on Google and on Maps. Write down every profile you find, even old ones.
2. Claim every useful profile. A profile nobody manages can be edited by anyone, and it often stays on an old phone number.
3. Report duplicates. For two profiles that describe the same thing, request closure of the weaker one from the profile itself, never by deleting the one with the best ratings.
4. Lock down the practice profile. Exact name, address, front desk phone number, opening hours, category, description, photos of the premises.
5. Create or fix each dentist's profile. Their name alone, their direct line or the front desk number, their appointment hours, and a link to their dedicated page on the website.
6. Align the website. Name, address, phone number and hours must be written exactly the same way everywhere. One page per dentist on the website makes each profile make sense.
7. Review every three months. Hours change, dentists change too, and Google accepts edits suggested by third parties.

This cleanup looks a lot like the one for a change of address, described step by step in our article on moving a dental practice. The difference is what moves: here, it is the people.

Departures, arrivals, replacements: what changes

A dentist's profile belongs to their practice of dentistry, not to the practice building. When they leave, their profile leaves with them: it is updated to their new address, or closed if they stop practicing. It is never recycled under the name of whoever takes over, because reviews and history relate to a person.

A dentist who joins creates their own profile and has it verified at the practice address. Handing over the practice itself, when the whole business changes hands, follows a different logic, detailed in our article on buying a dental practice.

A word on reviews, since group practices always ask. Reviews left on a dentist's profile go with them; those on the practice profile stay. No text prohibits a patient from leaving a review, but in 2025 the Dental Council asked for reviews of dentists to be removed, and the safe course is never to organize collecting them. Our article on Google reviews and the code of ethics covers the topic in full.

The ten-minute check to run yourself

Take your phone, turn off Wi-Fi, and go through these six points.

1. Search for the exact name of your practice. Count the profiles that appear at your address.
2. Search for each dentist's name, first name included. See whether a profile exists, and whether it is up to date.
3. Open each profile you find and tap the call button. The number dialed must be the one that rings today.
4. Compare the hours on each profile with those on the website. A single difference is enough to lose a patient at the door.
5. Check the names of the dentists' profiles: the person's name, without the practice name attached.
6. Look for an old profile under the name of a partner who has left. If it still exists with your address, it is costing you calls.

A practice that checks these six boxes is already ahead of most practices in its town, for the reason explained in our article on how Google picks the local pack (the three practices shown on the map). Our SEO test runs this check for you. Once the profiles are in order, the next question comes up on its own: does each dentist have a page in their name on the website that their profile can point to?

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