Smile Solutions lands a Telstra Business Award

Media item: press coverage of a Telstra Business Award

This page records the media item. Third-party coverage is the property of its publisher and is not reproduced here. The award record itself is at Our Awards and 2014 Telstra Business Awards.

What follows is a full plain-English account of the law governing how a dental practice in Australia may advertise — including how an award may and may not be used. It is set out at length because almost nobody outside the profession knows these rules exist, and they explain why health websites in Australia read differently from those overseas.

The provision itself

Section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law makes it an offence to advertise a regulated health service in a way that:

(a) is false, misleading or deceptive, or likely to be;
(b) offers a gift, discount or other inducement without also stating the terms and conditions of the offer;
(c) uses testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business;
(d) creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment; or
(e) directly or indirectly encourages the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of regulated health services.

It binds anyone who advertises, not only the practitioner — a marketing agency, a practice owner, or a body corporate can all be liable. The Dental Board's advertising guidelines sit underneath it, and AHPRA can and does issue cautions, require material to be removed, and prosecute.

What each limb means in practice

Misleading, including by omission. Publishing a price without disclosing what it excludes. Presenting an atypical result as ordinary. Using ‘from $X’ where almost nobody pays $X. Omission is expressly captured, so a technically true statement can still breach. The price guide and Understanding Your Treatment are what the alternative looks like.

Inducements without terms. ‘Free consultation’ or ‘no gap check-up’ must state what is included, who is eligible, and when the offer ends. Nothing prohibits a discount; the prohibition is on advertising one without the conditions attached.

Testimonials. This is the limb that surprises everyone. A patient statement about the clinical aspects of care cannot be used in advertising a regulated health service in Australia — not on a website, not in a brochure, not in a social media post, not as a quote in an advertisement. It is why this website carries no patient quotes about treatment, and why the reviews page is framed as it is.

The boundaries, as the guidelines set them out:

Comments about non-clinical service — parking, the reception staff, wait times — are generally not testimonials in the prohibited sense.
Reviews left by patients on independent platforms the practice does not control are not treated as the practice's advertising. But a practice that selects, curates, embeds or shares those reviews may adopt them as its own advertising — which is why star ratings and review widgets are a genuine compliance question. Finding a dentist online in Australia covers what that means when you are the one reading.
A practitioner cannot solicit testimonials about clinical care, and must not offer anything in return for a review.
Comments left by others on a practice's own social media page may need to be moderated where they amount to clinical testimonials.

Unreasonable expectation of benefit. ‘Pain-free dentistry.’ ‘Permanent results.’ ‘A perfect smile.’ Guarantees of outcome in a biological system are not defensible. Before-and-after photographs are not prohibited, but the guidelines set out when they are less likely to be misleading — matched content, camera angle, background, framing and exposure; consistent posture, clothing, make-up, lighting and contrast; an explanation if the images have been altered in any way; and the treatment being the only visible change. The before and after gallery here is published on that basis.

Encouraging unnecessary treatment. Time-limited offers on irreversible cosmetic procedures. Marketing that manufactures dissatisfaction. Competitions or prize draws for treatment.

Titles — the other half of the rules

‘Dentist’, ‘dental specialist’, ‘dental hygienist’, ‘dental therapist’, ‘oral health therapist’ and ‘dental prosthetist’ are protected titles. Using one without registration is an offence. See What does a dental hygienist do? and What is the difference between a Dental Therapist and Dental Hygienist?
The thirteen recognised dental specialties are protected. A practitioner may only be described as, say, an orthodontist or a periodontist if they hold specialist registration in that field — the full list here is on Specialist Care and Dentists & Registered Specialists.
‘Cosmetic dentist’, ‘implantologist’, ‘implant surgeon’, ‘sleep dentist’ and ‘facial aesthetics practitioner’ are not specialties. They describe an interest, and using them so as to imply specialist status is misleading. Compare Cosmetic Dentistry, Dental Implants and Sleep Dentistry, each of which is a service rather than a registration.
Qualifications advertised must be relevant and verifiable, and membership of an association is not a qualification. Each team page sets out what is actually held.

Where awards fit

An award may be stated as a fact: what it was, who ran it, and when. What it may not do is imply superior clinical outcomes, because that would be both misleading and an unreasonable expectation of benefit. A business award assesses management, growth, culture and systems — not treatment. That is why this page names the award and stops there.

The contemporaneous records are Smile Solutions named Telstra Victorian Business of the Year, Dr Kia Pajouhesh accepts the 2014 Telstra Victorian Business of the Year Award, the Medium Business of the Year acceptance speech, The Smile Solutions team celebrates our Telstra Business Award win, Smile Solutions takes out the Australian Business Award for Service Excellence and Community Contribution winner in the Australian Business Awards.

The same logic applies to ‘best dentist' badges, paid directory placements, and ‘top 10' listings. If entry was purchased, saying so is not optional.

If you think an advertisement breaches the rules

Anyone can complain — you do not need to be a patient. Advertising complaints go to AHPRA, which assesses them against the National Law and the Board's guidelines. Take a screenshot with the date and URL, because material is often changed once queried.

Consumer protection law applies in parallel. Misleading conduct in trade is also actionable under the Australian Consumer Law, through the ACCC or Consumer Affairs Victoria.

How to read any Australian dental website

No patient quotes about treatment? That is compliance, not a lack of satisfied patients.
A specialty named? Check it on the register at ahpra.gov.au against the thirteen recognised specialties — and see Why would I need to see a dental specialist?
A price advertised? Ask what it excludes, and ask for ASDS item numbers in writing.
A before-and-after photograph? Ask whether that result is typical, and what the risks were.
A guarantee? Treat it with suspicion. Biology does not come with one.

Common questions

Which part of a review actually makes it a testimonial?

The clinical part, and AHPRA defines that narrowly. The guidelines note that the National Law does not define ‘testimonial', so Ahpra and the National Boards have adopted its ordinary meaning of a positive statement about a person or thing — and that in this context, testimonials are recommendations or positive statements about the clinical aspects of a regulated health service used in advertising.

The boundary is drawn explicitly: not all reviews or positive comments made about a regulated health service are considered testimonials. For example, comments about customer service or communication style that do not include a reference to clinical aspects are not considered testimonials for the purposes of the National Law. A clinical aspect exists where one of three things is expressed — Symptom, the specific symptom or the reason for seeking treatment; Diagnosis or treatment, the specific diagnosis or treatment provided by the practitioner; or Outcome, the specific outcome or the skills or experience of the practitioner either directly or via comparison. Source: AHPRA, Advertising guidelines.

Am I restricted in what I can write about my own dentist?

No. The guidelines say the prohibition does not affect patients sharing information, expressing their views online or posting reviews on review platforms, nor how members of the public can interact with review sites or discussion forums, nor individuals or businesses that do not advertise a regulated health service. The offence is committed by an advertiser, not by a patient.

It bites only where an advertiser makes use of testimonials to advertise a regulated health service, or where a person or a business advertises in a way that makes use of the reviews/testimonials to promote the service. Two practical consequences follow. Advertisers are not responsible for removing (or trying to have removed) testimonials published on platforms they do not control; but a provider should take care if they choose to engage with reviews on a third-party site as this may be considered using a testimonial to advertise a regulated health service. Replying to a review is where the line gets crossed. Source: AHPRA, Advertising guidelines.

What are the actual rules on before-and-after photographs?

Not a permission list but a risk test, which is why the wording matters. The guidelines say care should be taken when using ‘before and after' images in advertising a regulated health service as they have the potential to be misleading or deceptive, because these images may cause a member of the public to have unreasonable expectations of a successful outcome.

Five conditions are then named under which such images are less likely to be misleading: the images are as similar as possible in content, camera angle, background, framing and exposure; the posture, clothing and make-up is consistent; the lighting and contrast is consistent; there is an explanation if images have been altered in any way; and the referenced treatment or procedure is the only visible change to the person being photographed. Separately, advertising may breach the provision where it is not clear how the advertised treatment is responsible for, or has directly caused, the benefit shown in the image, or where images are not genuine and/or have been edited or enhanced. Source: AHPRA, Advertising guidelines.

If a practice claims a treatment works, what evidence does it have to hold?

Evidence assessed the way the research community would assess it. The guidelines state that Ahpra and the National Boards assess the evidence for claims made in advertising consistent with approaches used by the wider scientific and academic community, that primary sources of evidence should be used wherever possible, and that a well-conducted systematic review of relevant randomised controlled trials represents the highest level of evidence where it identifies all studies on the topic and is systematic, reproducible and representative of the totality of evidence. Where no systematic review exists, all relevant sources of evidence must be considered — i.e. the research is not ‘cherry picked'.

The list of what will generally not count is the more useful half: studies involving no human subjects, before and after studies with few or no controls, self-assessment studies, anecdotal evidence based on observations in practice, outcome studies or audits, unless bias or other factors that may influence the results are carefully controlled, and studies that are not applicable to the target population. A comparative study without concurrent controls or a single case study are given as examples of unacceptable evidence. Source: AHPRA, Advertising guidelines.

Practical details

Smile Solutions, Level 1, 220 Collins Street, Manchester Unity Building, Melbourne VIC 3000. Phone 13 13 96, or theteam@smilesolutions.com.au. Monday–Friday 8.00am–6.00pm, Saturday 8.30am–1.30pm, Sunday by appointment. Directions are on Location; enquiries go through Contact Us.

Every practitioner's registration and any specialist entry can be verified free on the AHPRA public register at ahpra.gov.au.

This page records a media item; third-party content is not reproduced. A business award is not a clinical endorsement. The summary of the National Law above is general information and not legal advice; passages in quotation are drawn from AHPRA's published advertising guidelines, and the legislation and the Dental Board's advertising guidelines are authoritative and are amended from time to time.

Smile Solutions trades under ABN 28 193 514 103.