A New Dentist Is Joining Your Practice. Is Your Website Ready?

You’ve hired another dentist. The contracts are signed, the schedule is taking shape, and the team is making room for someone new.

Someone remembers to send a headshot to whoever handles the website.

That’s a start, but it isn’t the whole job.

A new patient might want to know whether this dentist can see their child. An existing patient might wonder if their next appointment is still with the same doctor. Someone clicking your appointment button might find that the new dentist isn’t in the scheduling system yet.

None of those questions is answered by a smiling photo and a paragraph about a passion for dentistry.

When a dentist joins your practice, the website needs to change in a few connected places. Here’s the checklist I’d use.

1. Start with the questions your front desk already gets

Before writing the announcement, ask whoever answers your phones what patients need to know.

Usually, it’s some version of:

• Who is the new dentist, and when do they start?
• Are they accepting new patients?
• Which days will they be in the office?
• Can I schedule with them specifically?
• Will they see children, or provide the service I’m looking for?
• Will my insurance work the same way?

Not every practice can answer every question with a fixed rule. That’s fine. Tell patients what you know, and give them a useful next step for the rest.

For example, if these were the actual arrangements:

Dr. Morgan Lee joins our practice on December 1. Dr. Lee will see adult new patients on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To ask about an appointment or a specific insurance plan, call our front desk.

That’s more useful than “We’re excited to welcome a wonderful addition to our dental family.” Someone can do something with it.

2. Give the dentist a real introduction, not a résumé

A team photo with a name underneath is easy to publish. It isn’t much help to someone deciding whether to make an appointment.

A good dentist page can be short. I’d aim for:

• Correct name and credentials. Verify them with the dentist.
• A current photo. Use a real photograph the dentist has approved.
• What they do at your office. Describe the services and patients they actually see.
• A few human details. How they approach a first visit, or what drew them to the practice. Ask them; don’t invent it.
• How to see them. A working call or appointment link.

Education and training matter, but don’t turn the page into a wall of credentials. A patient shouldn’t have to read twelve paragraphs before learning how to get an appointment.

Be careful with words such as specialist, board-certified, or sedation. Those are factual claims, not decoration. Have the dentist approve the copy.

Link to your existing new patient page for paperwork, directions, and the usual first-visit details.

3. Follow the appointment button all the way through

This is the update I’d check most carefully.

A site can say “Book with Dr. Lee” while the scheduler still shows only the owner dentist. Or the button leads to a general request form that never tells the front desk which doctor the patient asked for.

Check the whole path on a phone:

1. Open the new dentist’s page.
2. Tap its appointment button.
3. Confirm the destination shows the correct practice and, where applicable, the correct provider.
4. Check that the start date and available appointment types are accurate.
5. Have the office test internal routing using its approved test process, rather than submitting a real patient request.

If the office still has to confirm the time, label the button Request an appointment. If the system actually reserves a slot, Book an appointment is fair.

If patients can’t schedule with the dentist yet, say when scheduling opens and provide a working phone number. A broken button isn’t a launch plan.

4. Recheck insurance and service pages

One new provider can change answers on pages that don’t mention that provider by name.

Maybe the associate sees children and the practice hasn’t before. Maybe they’re taking new patients while the owner is booked out. Maybe certain scheduling or insurance arrangements differ.

Review the service pages, new patient instructions, insurance page, and appointment confirmations.

If the website says every patient sees the owner dentist, correct it. If a service page says something is available, make sure the practice can actually schedule it.

Avoid broad promises such as “All our dentists accept all insurance.” Plan participation and benefits require precise handling. If there’s uncertainty, explain how patients can check their specific plan with your team.

Don’t make the website more ambitious than the schedule or policies behind it.

5. Treat Google as a separate decision

Your practice’s Google Business Profile and a dentist’s individual profile are not the same thing.

Google has specific rules for individual practitioners, including dentists. Eligibility depends on the circumstances, and Google’s naming guidance distinguishes practices from individual practitioners.

“We hired a dentist” is not, by itself, an instruction to create a new listing.

First, make sure your practice profile still points to the right website, phone number, location, and booking destination. Then check whether the joining dentist already has an individual profile and whether it should be updated under Google’s rules. Don’t create duplicates just because a profile seems like another marketing opportunity.

A profile change should reflect reality. It isn’t a shortcut to better rankings.

For the practice listing itself, see the Google Business Profile guide for dentists.

6. Find the forgotten copies of your team

Old information often survives outside the Meet the Team page.

Check the homepage introduction, About page, footer, service pages, FAQs, downloadable new patient packets, and appointment tool’s provider selector. Look at confirmation emails and patient portals too.

Then check the practice’s email signatures, phone greeting if it names clinicians, and important directories where your team appears.

You don’t have to update every directory on the internet in one afternoon. Correct the places real patients are likely to encounter while trying to reach you.

If an older dentist has left, don’t simply delete their page and forget it. Patients may still have the link. Ask your website provider to redirect the old address to a useful, accurate destination.

7. Give one person the final say

This kind of update gets messy when five people each own a piece but nobody owns the patient experience.

I’d keep the handoff simple:

• The dentist approves their biography, credentials, photograph, and claims about care.
• The practice manager or front desk approves availability, insurance wording, booking routes, and what happens when someone contacts the office.
• The website person updates the pages, checks mobile links, and removes outdated information.
• One named person checks everything after it goes live.

You don’t need a launch committee. You need someone who knows when the job is actually finished.

8. Test it as a patient

Once the changes are live, don’t just admire the headshot on a desktop.

Pick up a phone and imagine you’re a new patient who heard the dentist’s name from a friend.

Can you find that person? Can you tell what they do? Can you work out whether they’re accepting patients? Can you reach the office or start an appointment request without ending up at the wrong provider?

Then try it as an existing patient who wants to know whether their usual dentist is still there.

If either path is confusing, you have a concrete fix. It may be one sentence, one link, or one setting in the scheduling system.

That is the last step of every useful website update: check the thing a patient would actually try to do.

A new face is a good reason to check the whole path

Hiring a dentist is a big change for a small practice. It deserves more care online than uploading a headshot and adding “Welcome!” to the homepage.

But it doesn’t need a campaign, a fresh website, or a month of meetings.

Get the facts from the people who know them. Put those facts where patients look. Make the appointment path tell the truth. Then test it.

At Root, ongoing website updates are part of the job, not a separate project whenever your practice changes. If your team is growing and your website has fallen behind, send me the address. I’ll tell you what I’d fix first.

Questions practices ask

When should we add the new dentist to the website?

When the dentist and practice have approved the details and the start date is reliable. You can introduce them before their first day, but clearly separate the start date from the date appointments become available.

Does the dentist need their own Google Business Profile?

Not automatically. Check Google’s individual-practitioner guidance, whether the dentist already has a profile, and who controls it.

Is a team page enough, or does every dentist need a separate page?

A small team page can work if patients can find each clinician and a clear next step. A dedicated page becomes useful when a dentist’s background, schedule, or appointment information would otherwise be hard to explain. Don’t create pages just to fill out the sitemap.