Orthodontic marketing for general and specialist practices

Adult versus teen

Adult and teenage orthodontics are two funnels that happen to share a treatment.

Adults are the audience most private practices are chasing, and they behave like other cosmetic buyers: they research, compare prices and care about how treatment looks. Lingual braces are one answer to the appearance worry, which makes them worth a page of their own.

The adult funnel also has a quiet leak: people who had treatment as teenagers and whose teeth have moved since. They often feel embarrassed to ask again. Content that speaks to them directly, without blame, and explains what retreatment involves, answers a question many adults are reluctant to put to their dentist.

Teenagers are reached through their parents. Meta says that age and location are the only information about a teen it uses to show them ads,¹ so targeting teenagers by interest isn't possible, and marketing to children carries extra care in any case. The practical answer is to talk to parents: what private treatment offers compared with NHS eligibility, what it costs, and who will look after their child.

Channels

Parent searches bring a specific problem. Some parents are looking for NHS orthodontic treatment first, and some of those searches will come from families whose child is eligible for it. A private practice needs its ads and pages to be clear about what it offers, so it doesn't pay for clicks from people looking for something it doesn't provide. The same page should explain honestly why a family might choose private treatment anyway, without running down the NHS option. More on keeping search spend on the right people is on where dental ad spend leaks.

Titles

This is the constraint that shapes orthodontic ads more than any other. The GDC's advertising guidance says that only dentists on a specialist list may call themselves a specialist, and names "Orthodontist" among the titles others must not use.² The GDC recognises eleven specialties in its specialist list regulations, orthodontics among them, and the public can check a dentist's specialist status on the register.³ The ASA adds that dentists using "Dr" should take care not to imply a general medical qualification they don't hold.⁴

The full rules, including the alternative wording general dentists can use, are on specialist titles and the Dr title. I won't restate them here. What matters for marketing is how they play out in each asset:

Getting this right is also a selling point. A specialist practice can say so plainly, and a general practice that describes its dentists accurately looks more trustworthy than one stretching titles.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Referrals

Orthodontics runs on referrals more than most treatments, in both directions.

Specialist practices that take referrals depend on general dentists sending patients to them. For them, the referring dentist is a marketing audience in their own right: what they need is a simple referral process, updates on their patients and the patient returned to them for routine care. That is relationship work, supported by a clear referral page and a record of which practices refer and how many of those patients start.

General practices that offer orthodontics have a referral base inside their own appointment book: patients and their children seen for check-ups. The practice's own clinicians are the first channel. A consistent way of raising treatment options at check-ups, with written information to take home, is worth setting up before spending on ads.

In both cases I measure the same things as any paid channel: referrals received, consultations attended and treatments started, by source. That is the only way to know whether the referral base is growing or quietly shrinking.

If you want more orthodontic starts, email me about your practice, or see what an engagement includes.