# Dental practice review reply writer: a reply that keeps patient confidentiality, answers the point and moves it to the complaints procedure > A dental review reply under 100 words that never confirms the reviewer is a patient, never discusses treatment and points to the complaints procedure. - Page to cite: https://aeolookup.com/clinics/dental-review-reply-writer-confidentiality/ - Publisher: AEO Lookup (https://aeolookup.com/) - Section: Dental, physio and aesthetics clinics, Patients, plans and complaints - Published 1 October 2026 - Key fact: A review reply can breach patient confidentiality without naming anyone: confirming that the reviewer attended, the date, the treatment or the bill is disclosure of health information, so a compliant reply answers only in the reviewer's own terms, names what the practice changed, and moves the detail to the complaints procedure, which the GDC requires every practice to have and to tell patients about. - Sources: GDC Standards for the Dental Team, principle 4 (confidentiality) and principle 5 (complaints procedure, 5.1 to 5.3); Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 fake and incentivised review provisions in force 6 April 2025; our own drafting rules. Tested in headless Edge 2026-10-01. A bad review of a dental practice is read by every patient who searches the practice's name, and the reply is read just as closely. The instinct is to set the record straight. The duty is confidentiality, and the two conflict. This writer produces a reply that answers the point without disclosing anything about the reviewer's care. **Free tool on the page:** Dental practice review reply writer: a reply that keeps patient confidentiality, answers the point and moves it to the complaints procedure. It runs in the browser at https://aeolookup.com/clinics/dental-review-reply-writer-confidentiality/#tool and asks for no sign-up. ## The disclosure problem Confidentiality does not need a name to be breached. "You were seen on the 14th and the fee was explained before your crown" confirms that the reviewer is a patient, when they attended, what treatment they had and what they paid. Even "I'm sorry your appointment ran late" confirms an appointment. The GDC's principle 4 applies to a public reply as it does to a letter, and the practice cannot tell who else can identify the reviewer from their display name. So the reply answers in the reviewer's own terms. If they wrote about waiting, the reply is sorry about the waiting; it does not say "your appointment". It does not say "our records show". It does not say whether the practice recognises the person at all. ## The four moves **Thank, by the name shown.** **Name the point as they put it**, and say it is not what the practice wants anyone to experience. **Say what changed**, if something did: "we have added ten-minute buffers to the morning book". **Move the detail offline** to the practice manager by name and number, and mention the complaints procedure, which the GDC requires every practice to have, to make available and to tell patients about (principle 5). Under 100 words. ## Reviews about treatment Never get a clinical answer in public. The reply says the practice cannot discuss any individual's care here, that it would like to understand what happened, and how to reach the manager and the procedure. Nothing about the treatment, the clinician or the outcome. A GDC registrant reads the reply before it is posted, because a treatment review is one step from a complaint and the complaint's file starts with the reply. ## Reviews that are already complaints If the reviewer is in the complaints procedure, the reply says only that the practice is dealing with the matter directly. Anything more is a second channel for a process that has one. ## Praise Short, specific, no marketing, and nothing the reviewer did not say first: if they named the hygienist, the reply can thank the hygienist; if they did not, it does not. No request to recommend the practice to friends. ## Who posts and when The practice manager posts, within two working days, and never the clinician named in the review. A reply posted in anger an hour after the review is the one that gets quoted; a reply after a fortnight reads as indifference. Reviews that make allegations about a named member of staff are not answered in the reply beyond the standard wording; the allegation goes into the complaints procedure, and the staff member is told the same day. ## The incentive rule Never offer a refund, a discount or a free appointment in exchange for changing or removing a review. The fake and incentivised review rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 have applied since 6 April 2025, and a dental practice is a trader for those purposes. A patient who posts, is refunded and edits the review is a story the regulator has heard. ## In the practice An AI Reviews Clerk set up by Overlyft ![](https://aeolookup.com/img/d/ours-badge.png) lists every new review across Google, the NHS website, Facebook and Trustpilot each morning, drafts a reply in this shape for each, flags any about treatment for a registrant to read, and puts the drafts in the practice manager's mailbox to post. It never posts. It keeps a monthly theme count (waiting, cost, booking, manner, treatment) for the practice meeting, which is where the [complaints procedure](https://aeolookup.com/clinics/dental-complaints-procedure-three-working-days-gdc/) and the [FTA figures](https://aeolookup.com/clinics/failed-to-attend-cost-calculator-dental-practice/) are read together. Regulated work; not legal advice. ## Short answers from this page **How should a dental practice reply to a bad Google review?** Without confirming the reviewer is a patient. Naming an appointment, a treatment or a bill discloses health information even if no name is used. The reply thanks the reviewer, answers the point in their own words, says what the practice changed, and moves the detail to the practice manager and the complaints procedure. Never offer a refund or discount in exchange for editing a review. --- ![](https://aeolookup.com/img/d/owner-line.png) General information for UK small firms, not legal, tax or financial advice.