UK practices are cautious about social media for good reason: a Botox price in a story, a patient's smile posted without written consent, a "best in town" caption — each is a regulatory complaint waiting to happen. The answer is not silence; it is a content plan built around what is allowed and what works. This is how we run social media management for dentists, orthodontists, aesthetic clinics and private practices across the UK.
The rules in one paragraph
No advertising of prescription-only medicines to the public (so no "Botox from £150" — promote the consultation for anti-wrinkle treatment instead); no unsubstantiated claims; GDC registrant names and the practice's complaints route accessible; written consent for any identifiable patient image or story; genuine reviews only, never incentivised; and no personal health data in public replies or DMs — move clinical conversations to the phone. Put this on one page and every team member who posts signs it.
The posts that bring private patients in
- The team on camera. A 30-second clip of the hygienist explaining a scale and polish, or the dentist walking through what a composite bonding appointment involves, is the content that lowers the fear barrier. Practices whose accounts show faces get more first-visit bookings than practices that post smiles from a stock library.
- Answer one question per post. "How long does Invisalign take?", "Is a hygiene appointment worth it privately?", "What happens at an emergency appointment?" Plain answers, filmed at the practice, doubling as content for the treatment page.
- Before-and-afters, with consent and without claims. Consented images, no "permanent" or "pain-free", and the treatment named accurately. They remain the highest-engagement post type for aesthetic and orthodontic work.
- Google reviews as designed graphics once a week — public, genuine, and the most reliable converter we track.
- Local life. The school you sponsor, the charity walk, the new coffee machine. It is what makes a practice a place people feel they already know.
Channels and cadence
Instagram and Facebook, three to four posts a week plus stories; one Reel a week; TikTok if the team enjoys it; LinkedIn for specialists who receive referrals. Post at the times your patients scroll — early morning and evening in the UK — and keep the practice's Google Business Profile updated with the same content, because Google shows those posts in the map listing.
Paid social
Meta ads work for awareness within a tight radius and for promoting a treatment page, but not for anything involving prescription medicines, and since 2025 not with health-inferred targeting. Consent-mode tagging is required under PECR before any pixel fires. Google captures the intent; Meta builds the familiarity — budget accordingly, as set out in our UK healthcare marketing guide.
What a managed service should include
An agreed monthly content calendar, a filming and photo session at the practice, design and captions checked against the rules above, scheduling, community management in practice hours with clinical questions routed to reception, review re-shares, and a monthly report on reach, profile visits and website clicks. Our clients approve every post in the same portal that holds their performance reports. See the tone we write in with the caption generator, and the UK team can scope a monthly plan for your practice.