Promote yourself

As oral health professionals, we need to inform the public about our products and services. Bill Suen takes a look at what you need to do and the regulations that govern you

Dental hygienists, dental therapists and oral health therapists play a pivotal role within the health system. However, the Australian public, including other health professional groups, have little understanding of what we do and how we can contribute to the health and wellbeing of the population at various levels and settings.

With the recent changes in the Dental Board Registration Standards and the imminent recognition of our profession as legitimate dental providers who practise and charge independently, there is an urgent need to provide the public with information regarding our services so that these changes may improve public access to oral health services as anticipated.

There are many direct and indirect ways that either the profession collectively, various practices, or individuals may inform others regarding our products and services, both publicly and/or privately. These may be done through our own private and public social media connections, commercial advertising channels, billboards, local mailbox drops, professional websites, sponsorship/donations, health campaigns and much more.

Most people see advertising as the promotion of products through paid commercial channels. However, advertising includes all forms of verbal, printed and electronic communication that promotes and attracts a person to a product, a provider or a service.

As AHPRA registered dental practitioners that may be involved in the provision of health services, and in many cases supply or modification of dental devices, we need to comply with various legislations when communicating our products and services with the public. These include:

Australian Consumer Law

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and various state and territory consumer protection agencies have national and state-based legislation that aims at protecting the public’s rights. The ACCC administers the Australian Consumer Law that contains several rules that businesses must follow when advertising and selling products and services. These rules apply to all businesses including dental practices and sole traders.

The Australian Consumer Laws require all statements about any products or services to be true, accurate and substantiated and must not mislead consumers even when it is unintentional.

There is an urgent need to provide the public with information regarding our services so that these changes may improve public access to oral health services as anticipated

Most businesses and individuals use social media to communicate with their contacts, both for private or business purposes. Websites providing individual and business information are extremely common. Owners of these social media pages are responsible for the accuracy of information and compliance, regardless of who put them there. It is therefore important that you remove any posts or comments made by others on your social media pages that are false or misleading.

National Law

Section 133 of the National Law provides details of legislative obligations for the advertising of regulated health services, which are services provided by or usually provided by a health practitioner.

Dental practitioners must not provide any communication for the health services that may be false, misleading or deceptive. Dental practitioners must not use scientific information in their promotion that is inaccurate, unbalanced or difficult to understand by laypersons. Statements about treatments that are not supported by acceptable evidence or providing only partial/ selective information are not allowed.

“ Dental practitioners must not make statements that their services are superior to others unless they have clear and accepted evidence to substantiate their claims”

Comparative advertising is a minefield for dental practitioners, as they are often difficult to be substantiated when comparing outcomes, quality of care, competency and skills. Dental practitioners must not make statements that their services are superior to others unless they have clear and accepted evidence to substantiate their claims.

Testimonials about the service or practice are not permitted. However, the restriction only applies to reviews and comments made about the clinical aspects of the services, such as symptoms, diagnosis, treatments outcomes. Comments about customer service or communication styles are not considered testimonials under the National Law.

The Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code

The objects of the Code are to specify requirements for advertisements about therapeutic goods. Advertisements should promote the safe and proper use of the therapeutic goods by minimising misuse, overuse or underuse; be ethical as to avoid misleading or deceiving consumers or creating unrealistic expectations and support informed health care choices. The Code only applies to therapeutic goods as defined by the TGA Acts. Health services not involving therapeutic goods are covered by the National Law.

Like all other jurisdictional requirements, an advertisement about therapeutic goods must be accurate, balanced and substantiated with accepted evidence. The Code specifies that advertisements about therapeutic goods included in the ARTG must be consistent with the indication or intended purpose as accepted by the register. Off label use of these devices cannot be promoted. Any advertisement of therapeutic goods must not represent the goods to be safe, or without harm or side-effect, or effective in all cases, or a guaranteed cure, or infallible, unfailing, magical, or be miraculous. On the other hand, advertisements must not cause undue alarm, fear or distress, or contain a representation to the effect that harmful consequences may result from the therapeutic goods not being used.

The Code also prohibits statements containing comparisons about therapeutic goods, classes of therapeutic goods, or therapeutic services (“comparator goods or services”) where such a comparison suggests that the comparator goods or services are harmful or ineffectual.

In cases that scientific research is cited, the researcher and any financial sponsor of the research must be identified to enable consumers to access the research.

There are stringent restrictions in relation to testimonials and endorsement of therapeutic goods. Current or former health professionals (including dental practitioners), medical researchers, healthcare facilities (including dental clinics) are not permitted to provide any endorsement or testimonial to therapeutic goods, either explicitly or implicitly.

Dental practitioners might recall the regulatory changes for custom-made medical devices in 2021, leading to many practitioners working on or supplying dental devices being required to register these products with the ATGR and meeting all compliance, reporting and conformity assessment obligations. Through the work of the Dental Sector Working Group and the TGA, regulatory amendments were made to reduce the administrative burden on the changes to dental practitioners. It is important to note that any exemption made for dental practitioners does not remove the general obligations related to the affected products under the advertising code.

5 promotional tips for dental practitioners

When the legislative requirements of the Australian Consumer Law, the National Law and the TGA Advertising Code are considered together, the following key points must be noted:

1 Advertising includes all forms of verbal, printed and electronic communication that promotes and attracts a person to a product, a provider or a service. Your private social media posts to your friends and relatives may be regarded as advertising as they are also members of the public or consumers.

Your comments about a particular dental device and/or treatment on your Facebook page may be regarded as communication to the public, either directly or indirectly.

2 Statements about your products and services must be accurate, balanced and substantiated with accepted evidence. Misleading statements, either intentionally or unintentionally, are not permitted.

If a dental hygienist sets up a mobile dental service without the support of a dentist, consumers may mistake the service as a full dental service. Every effort must be made to ensure consumers are fully informed of the scope of service and that no dentist is available through this engagement. Full disclosure of the staff qualification and registration categories are useful.

3 It is illegal for a dental practitioner to provide testimonials and endorsements on therapeutic goods.

4 You are responsible for all comments posted on channels that you have control of. Monitor and remove non-complying postings on your website, online blogs or social media.

5 Avoid comparative statements unless there are clear and substantiated evidence for a proper and complete comparison.

Statements such as ‘we are the best’, ‘we are the cheapest’ cannot always be substantiated, while ‘our highly qualified staff’ collectively ‘compares’ the level of qualifications.

Please refer to the respective legislations for further details of do‘s and don'ts when promoting your dental products, services and practices.