What a Dental Practice Website Needs in Canada

The core pages

Every practice is different, but most sites need these pages.

• Home. Who you are, where you are, what you treat and how to book, in the first screen.
• Treatments. One page per treatment or closely related group, explaining what it involves, who provides it and what to expect.
• New patients. What happens at a first visit, what to bring, how billing and insurance work, and any forms to complete in advance.
• Team. Dentists, hygienists and key staff, with accurate registration categories for each dentist.
• Location and contact. Address, map, directions, parking, accessibility, hours and phone number.
• Appointment request. A short form or booking tool, with a clear explanation of what happens next.
• Emergencies. What to do if a patient has a dental emergency during and outside office hours.
• Policies. Privacy notice, accessibility statement and any cancellation policy.

Details that build trust

A new patient needs reassurance that a practice is real, organized and right for them. Plain facts work better than adjectives. Show the names and photos of the people who will treat them. List languages spoken. Explain payment options and whether you bill insurance directly. Describe the building’s accessibility honestly, including where it falls short.

Be specific about who does what. In Ontario, advertising that refers to an area of dental practice must clearly disclose whether the dentist is registered as a general practitioner or a specialist, and if a specialist, in which specialty.¹ The RCDSO also says only dentists who hold a certificate of specialist registration may use the title “specialist”, and that descriptive terms like “cosmetic dentist” or “implant specialist” are not permitted because they suggest a specialty that is not recognized.² Team pages and treatment pages should reflect that.

Advertising rules shape the wording

Treat your website as advertising. In Ontario, the RCDSO lists websites among professional advertisements and requires dentists to personally control all printed and electronic material about their practice.¹ Its guidelines prohibit testimonials, superlative or comparative terms such as “state of the art” and “cutting edge”, giveaways and contests, and statements that suggest or create an expectation of favourable results.¹

Other provinces have their own regulators and standards. Before writing claims, reviews or before-and-after content, check the current rules where you practise. Our guide to dental advertising rules by province lists the regulators and the main points to check.

The appointment flow

The path from a page to a request should be short and obvious. Put one primary button in the header and repeat it at natural points, such as the end of each treatment page. Make the phone number tappable. Keep the request form to what the front desk needs to call back, and avoid asking for health details. See appointment request forms for a recommended field list.

Accessibility and speed

Ontario requires businesses and non-profits with 50 or more employees to meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA on public websites, with exceptions for live captions and pre-recorded audio descriptions.³ Even if your practice is smaller, accessible design helps patients who use screen readers, zoom their text or have limited dexterity. Check colour contrast, keyboard navigation, form labels and image descriptions.

Speed matters too. Google’s Core Web Vitals targets are a Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, an Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less and a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads.⁷

Privacy

Appointment requests contain personal information. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada lists Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act among the provincial health information laws deemed substantially similar to PIPEDA, and lists general private sector laws in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec.⁴ Alberta’s privacy commissioner also lists dentists, dental hygienists and denturists as custodians under that province’s Health Information Act.⁸ Your privacy notice should explain what the website collects, why, who sees it and how long it is kept. Your privacy advisor can confirm which law applies to your practice.

Language

If your practice operates in Quebec, the website generally needs to be available in French. Éducaloi explains that other languages are allowed as long as a French version of comparable quality is available.⁵ Practices elsewhere may still choose to offer French or other languages if their patients need them.

Canadian Dental Care Plan information

If you see patients covered by the Canadian Dental Care Plan, a short, accurate section helps them. Health Canada’s March 2025 announcement set out eligibility for adults aged 18 to 64: no access to dental insurance, an adjusted family net income below $90,000, a filed tax return and Canadian residency for tax purposes.⁶ Link to the official canada.ca pages rather than restating details that change. Our CDCP guide explains how to write this section accurately.

A quick self-check

• Can a new patient find your phone number, address and hours within five seconds on a phone?
• Does every dentist’s registration category appear accurately?
• Is there any testimonial, rating widget or superlative that your regulator would not accept?
• Does the request form ask for anything the front desk does not need?
• Is there a privacy notice and an accessibility statement?
• If you practise in Quebec, is the French version complete?

If several answers are no, a redesign may be simpler than patching. The free project planner can help you organize what you need before speaking to any designer.

Mistakes that are easy to miss

Some problems only show up when you look at the site the way a new patient does.

• Hours that disagree. The website says the practice closes at 6 p.m., the Business Profile says 5 p.m. and the voicemail says 5:30. Patients notice, and they lose confidence.
• A team page frozen in time. Dentists who left years ago, or new associates who never appear, make patients wonder what else is out of date.
• Treatment pages without a provider. A page about implants or orthodontic treatment should say who provides it and in what registration category.
• Emergency information hidden in a PDF. If a patient breaks a tooth on a Saturday, the instructions should be on a web page they can find in seconds.
• Forms that go nowhere. Test the appointment form every month. A form that silently fails can go unnoticed for weeks.
• Old promotional banners. A seasonal offer from three years ago is out of date and may not meet your regulator’s rules on incentives.

A quick monthly check of these points takes a few minutes and prevents most of them.

Frequently asked questions

What is the single most important page on a dental website?

For new patients, it is often the treatment page that matches what they need, closely followed by the contact or appointment page. For existing patients, it is the page with hours and the phone number. Make sure both are easy to reach from every page.

Do I need a blog?

No. A small set of clear, accurate treatment and information pages is worth more than a blog that is rarely updated. Add articles only when you have something useful to say and time to keep it current.

Should prices be on the website?

That is a business decision, but if you show fees, follow your regulator’s rules. In Ontario, an advertised fee is treated as the maximum fee, inclusive of all services including laboratory costs, and applies to all patients unless otherwise specified.

Sources

1. RCDSO: Advertising Guidelines Regulator
2. RCDSO: Use of qualifications, titles, and designations (26 September 2023) Regulator
3. Government of Ontario: How to make websites accessible Government
4. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: Provincial laws that may apply instead of PIPEDA Regulator
5. Éducaloi: Language legislation, does your website comply? Secondary source (legal information non-profit)
6. Health Canada: Canadian Dental Care Plan expands to include millions of new eligible Canadians (March 2025) Government
7. web.dev: Web Vitals Google developer documentation
8. Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta: Health Information Act (HIA) overview Regulator

Checked on 29 October 2026. Rules change, so confirm the current version with the regulator before you publish.