Patient review policy

We accept first-hand accounts of a dental practice visit. Reviewers must confirm that they are independent of the practice and competitors and have received no incentive. Staff, agency-written, purchased and copied reviews are not accepted.

Before a review is published

An editor checks the submission for relevance, duplicate content, conflicts of interest, consent and evidence of a visit. Submitting an email address alone does not verify a visit. Reviews remain private until these checks are complete. Please do not submit clinical records or other people's personal information. Any evidence needed should have irrelevant personal and medical information removed.

What appears publicly

Approved reviews show the display name, rating, visit month, review text and publication date. The contact email and verification evidence remain private. We show an aggregate rating only when at least five approved reviews are available. Ratings from different sources are kept separate. A review is an individual's experience and does not establish clinical quality.

Fair moderation

The same checks apply to positive and negative reviews. Advertising or a paid listing cannot buy a rating or remove a critical review. We remove spam, threats, personal data, irrelevant promotion, impersonation and reviews that cannot be supported. We do not rewrite a review to make it more favourable.

Corrections, responses and withdrawal

Contact info@thelocaldentist.co.uk with the practice, review reference and reason. Practices can submit a factual response or evidence of a problem. Reviewers can correct or withdraw their submission. Disputed reviews may be withheld while evidence is checked; we keep an editorial audit trail.

See the privacy policy for retention and your rights. This directory is not an emergency, complaints-resolution or clinical-advice service.