The short answer
Make it easy for someone who's already looking to choose you. Show up when people nearby search. Say plainly that you're taking new private patients and what the first visit costs. Answer the phone. Then give people a reason to stay, because a private list is built from people who come back and bring their families.
That sounds too simple until you ring a few practices near you, as a new patient, and ask what an exam costs and how soon you could come in. Try it. Then try your own.
One warning first. This only makes sense if you have room. If your private clinicians are booked out for months, more enquiries will annoy people, and the same goes for a hygienist list with no gaps. Fix capacity first.
Why people go private
The CMA's announcement of its private dentistry study quotes two surveys worth reading before you write a word of marketing.
| Why people turned to private care (GDC survey, 2024) | Share |
|---|---|
| Couldn't get NHS treatment at all | 36% |
| Couldn't get NHS treatment quickly enough | 31% |
| Their practice stopped offering NHS treatment | 25% |
| Preferred private care | 18% |
It also cites a 2024 Denplan survey in which 61% of NHS patients said they'd consider paying for private care, mainly to be seen faster. Denplan sells dental plans, so read that one with care. The same release says 29% of adults in England used private care exclusively in 2023 to 2024.
So you've got two groups. One is pushed: they need a dentist, the NHS route hasn't worked, and they may resent paying. They want to know you can see them and what it'll cost. The other group is choosing: they want aligners, implants or a dentist who'll spend time with a nervous patient, and they'll read for weeks. They want to know who does the work, what's involved and if you're any good.
A site that only talks to the second group, all smiles and technology, can lose the first group in the time it takes to look for a price.
Use the CMA's checklist on yourself
The CMA published a guide for patients alongside its study. Few of the articles on this subject that we read mention it, yet it tells your next patient exactly what to look for. Here's what each point means for your practice.
| The CMA tells patients to | So make sure |
|---|---|
| Compare private prices between practices | Your site has a price page, not a "contact us for fees" line. The GDC's reception price list is a good start: consultation, single-surface filling, extraction, X-rays, hygienist. Ranges are allowed. |
| Ask what they're likely to pay when a range is shown | Your front desk can answer that without going to find someone |
| Check for evening and weekend appointments and waiting times | Your hours are right everywhere, and you say how soon a new patient can usually be seen, if that's something you can stand behind |
| Check out-of-hours emergency care | One page says what to do out of hours, since the GDC expects you to give clear information on it |
| Look at online reviews and ask friends and family | You ask every patient for a review, in the same way, and your Google Business Profile is accurate |
| Search the GDC register | Each dentist named on your site has their qualification, its country and GDC number showing, so the check is easy |
| Expect a written plan and costs before treatment | You say you provide one, and you do. The GDC requires it |
| Ask what's on the NHS and what's only private | Mixed practices say clearly which is which |
Be clear about price
Plenty of practices worry that printing prices invites comparison. Patients are comparing anyway, because they've been told to. Your choice is whether they can do it on your site or have to go elsewhere for an answer.
For a sense of the range, the CMA says initial consultations rose by over 23% to £80 and routine check-ups by over 14% to £55 between 2022 and 2024. Which?, in January 2024, suggested roughly £40 to £75 for a private check-up with some practices charging nearly twice that. The NHS website lists Band 1 at £27.90 as of November 2026. So someone coming from the NHS may be seeing a noticeably bigger number, and they'll want to know what it covers.
Say what's included in plain words. How long is the appointment? Who does it? Does it include X-rays? And if you offer a membership plan, explain it without jargon: what it covers, what it doesn't and what happens if they leave. GDPUK reports that the CMA has added dental payment plans to the consumer choice part of its study, so vague plan wording is a poor bet right now.
Don't get into a price war with the practice down the road, though. Dental Wealth Builder, a coaching firm, makes the fair point that marketing can't rescue an unclear offer. What can a patient get from you that they can't get nearby? If the honest answer is a longer appointment or a dentist who's good with anxious patients, say that, and only if it's true.
Get found by people nearby
Google says local results depend mainly on relevance, distance and how well known you are, and that you can't pay for a better local ranking. You can't move your building, so the work goes into the listing and the website.
These are examples of what people type, not measured volumes: private dentist near me, dentist taking new patients plus your town, emergency dentist open now, Invisalign cost plus your town, dental implants plus your town. Each deserves a real answer on your site, not one Services page that tries to do them all. Our guide for dental practices covers how those pages fit together.
The numbers will be small, especially outside big cities. Google's own planner won't show keywords with very low search volumes. That's fine. You aren't trying to win a national audience, and you only need a modest number of people from your own town to choose you each month. Dental SEO services covers the work and its cost, and our new landing pages feature can draft the pages you're missing.
Skip the shortcuts. Pages cloned for every nearby town are what Google calls doorway abuse, and keywords added to your business name aren't permitted.
Answer the phone, then follow up
This is where the most money leaks, and it's the part SEO can't touch. Dental Wealth Builder says a slow response loses patients your marketing has already paid to bring in, which is obvious once you've rung yourself at lunchtime. Updent claims a reply within five minutes converts at about double the rate of one after an hour, though it doesn't give a source, so read that as a direction, not a number.
- Know your missed calls. If your phone system reports them, read it weekly. If not, have someone note them for a fortnight.
- Give reception three answers: are we taking new private patients, how much is a new patient exam, how soon can you come in? Write them down, and keep them current.
- Book a time on the call. "Someone will ring you back" loses people.
- Follow up on big cases. Someone considering implants has a lot to think about. Send the written plan, give them time, and put one follow-up in the diary. The GDC says you must put patients' interests before financial gain, so a chase is one thing and pressure is another.
Your existing patients come first
If you're mixed, your first private patients are probably already in your chairs. Dental Wealth Builder says working through them may reveal opportunities before you need more advertising, and we think that's right.
There are two rules to keep in mind. The GDC says you must not suggest that treatment available on the NHS can only be obtained privately, so your wording, and your team's, should leave people free to choose. And if you email or text, the ICO's rules on consent and opt-outs apply, and a list based on what's in someone's mouth is health information that should have explicit consent. A printed notice in reception, or a conversation in the chair, doesn't raise that problem.
What to leave out
- Paid or filtered reviews. Hidden incentives are illegal, and Google won't allow rewards or asking only happy patients. The CAP Code also says you can't remove negative reviews while publishing positive ones.
- "Best dentist in town". If you can't produce documentary evidence, don't say it.
- "Specialist" for anyone not on a GDC specialist list. "Special interest in" is allowed.
- Bought-in lists. The ICO's existing-customer exception doesn't reach them.
There's more on all of this in our guide to GDC advertising rules. It's general information, not legal or regulatory advice, so check the current guidance or ask your indemnity provider.
How you'll know, and where Sojig fits
Count new private patients by source and by first treatment, in one spreadsheet, and look at it quarterly. Ask each one how they found you. Your profile's performance page shows calls and website clicks in between. Since every practice's area is different, we won't give you a number to aim for, and we'd be wary of anyone who does.
Sojig, our product, can carry the search part: it drafts pages and fixes each week and tracks where you rank in Google Maps from your town, for you to approve. It drafts Business Profile replies and posts too, which you copy in by hand for now. It's priced in US dollars, from $99 a month as of November 2026. It won't answer your phone, run ads or set your fees, and those may matter more. For how this fits a wider budget, read marketing for dentists in the UK.