Advertising and facial aesthetics in primary care: how compliant are practice websites and social media with published guidance?

Aims and objectives To assess compliance of dental practices across North East England and North Cumbria (NENC) with General Dental Council (GDC) Guidance on advertising and Advertising Standards Agency-Committee of Advertising Practice (ASA-CAP) Regulation 12.12 - prohibition of marketing prescription-only medicines/treatments to the public. To provide checklists for registrants to safeguard their own compliance with GDC guidance and ASA-CAP advertising regulations.Materials and methods All premises providing dental care in NENC were identified from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) database and subsequently checked against the GDC Guidance on advertising and the ASA-CAP code for advertising prescription-only medicines, specifically relating to aesthetic treatments.Results Of the 450 dental practices sampled, 84.7% had a website, 72.7% had a Facebook page and 34% had an Instagram account. Only seven websites (1.8%) were fully compliant with GDC advertising guidance. Of the 450 practices sampled, 148 websites, 51 Facebook pages and 41 Instagram accounts mentioned or offered skin treatments. Only six websites and three Facebook pages were fully compliant. No Instagram accounts were compliant.Conclusions Compliance with the most up-to-date advertising guidelines from the GDC and ASA-CAP is generally poor. A lack of registrant knowledge surrounding the scope of guidance available has most likely resulted in inadvertent non-compliance. Checklists should help improve compliance.