Operations
Part of Dental social media: workflows and safeguards
Dental Social Media Checklist for Prepublication Review
Use this dental social media checklist to verify claims, HIPAA authorization, rights, accessibility, owners, evidence, and approvals before publishing.
What to take away
- Run the checklist before scheduling and again on the live post.
- A named person must own every approval and reply path.
- High-risk content needs privacy, clinical, and rights evidence together.
A dental social media checklist should work as a release control, not a memory prompt. Attach it to the content record, require named reviewers, and keep the evidence behind each answer. A checked box without a source, owner, or test is not proof.
Prepublication checklist
Prepublication checklist gates
- Purpose and audience are specific
- Practice facts match source record
- Clinical and promotional claims supported
- No patient or staff info without authority
- Media ownership and rights recorded
- Accessibility and links checked
- Account roles and moderator assigned
- Purpose and audience are specific
- Practice facts match the current source record
- Clinical and promotional claims are supported and qualified
- No patient or staff information appears without the required authority
- Media ownership, license, model, and location rights are recorded
- Text, contrast, captions, transcript, and alternative text are checked
- Platform checksInstagram alt text, TikTok captions, Facebook link preview
- Links and contact routes work while signed out
- Account roles and scheduler are authorized
- Moderator, escalation path, and response hours are assigned
- Measure and decision are defined
- The published preview is approved
Print this checklist as a one-page table for each post record, or keep a fillable copy with the content record.
Use a dental policy as the floor
The American Dental Association provides social media guidance for dentists. Its Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct, especially Section 5, Veracity, is an ethical baseline for truthful communications. Also check the advertising and record-retention rules of the state dental board where the practice is licensed; those rules vary by state. Obtain professional advice for local facts. The ADA guidance is a US source.
Protect the account itself
CISA's guide to social media account protection recommends a policy, credential management, multifactor authentication, privacy settings, trusted devices, vendor vetting, threat awareness, and an incident response plan. Adapt those controls to the practice and each current platform. CISA guidance is a US source. Canadian practices should check their provincial or territorial dental regulator, such as the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario in Ontario, and applicable privacy law, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) where it applies.
| Gate | Owner | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Facts and claims | Clinical or business approver | Source and approved wording |
| Privacy and release | Privacy owner | Authorization and intended use |
| Creative rights | Producer | License and consent records |
| Accessibility | Editor and tester | Caption, alt text, and task check |
| Publishing | Account owner | Named role and approved preview |
| Response | Moderator | Decision tree and escalation |
After publication, compare the live crop, captions, link, disclosures, and account identity with the approved preview. Record the URL and time. If the platform changes the rendering, correct the post or provide an accessible alternative rather than assuming the source file is enough.
Record the gate result
The W3C Privacy Principles statement is not a social media prepublication gate. Apply it to dental social media policy only as background, then review the governing law.
For testimonials, endorsements, and influencer posts, consult the Federal Trade Commission's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, 16 CFR Part 255. Disclose material connections clearly and conspicuously, and check applicable state dental board advertising rules for the practice's licensed locations.
For every checklist item, name the owner and record pass, fail, not applicable, or accepted exception. Add the evidence location, reviewer, decision date, and next review. A checked box without proof cannot protect a release. Stop the work when a mandatory privacy, security, data-quality, accessibility, or correction condition fails, even if the remaining score looks favorable.
A completed gate row looks like this:
| Post | Owner | Evidence | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Implant offer, 12 June | Clinical approver | Signed claim source and approved wording | Pass, scheduled 14 June |
Common questions
Who signs the checklist?
Assign accountable reviewers by risk, including clinical, privacy, rights, accessibility, account, and business owners where relevant.
Does every post need legal review?
Not necessarily. Qualified advice should establish the policy and escalation triggers. Include HIPAA authorization requirements where HIPAA applies, FTC endorsement disclosure rules, and the advertising and record-retention rules of each applicable state dental board.
How long should evidence be retained?
There is no single federal retention period for every social media post or approval record. Follow the applicable state dental board advertising and patient-record rules, HIPAA retention requirements for documentation HIPAA requires, and any contractual obligations or legal holds. Set a written schedule for the source record, authorization, approval evidence, and final published version with the practice's compliance adviser.
