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When someone asks ChatGPT where to get their teeth cleaned, does it name your hygiene clinic?

An independent dental hygiene clinic answers patients' questions that a dental office does not: whether they need a dentist first, and what a visit without a dentist covers. Get Indexed asks AI engines about hygiene clinics in your town, shows you whether they name yours and which clinics they name, and gives you the fixes for your site. The College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario's guideline reaches down to single words, so this page sets out its rules and the regulation's, with their sources.

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Questions our scan asks about dental hygiene clinics

These are examples of the questions our scan and audit put to AI engines, written with your own service and town. They are not a claim about how patients search.

  • "Can you recommend a dental hygienist in Kingston?"
  • "I need a teeth cleaning near Napanee. Who should I see?"
  • "What should I look for when choosing a dental hygiene clinic in Kingston, and who would you suggest?"
  • "Which clinic in Kingston offers teeth cleaning without a dentist?"

What we check for dental hygiene clinics

  • In the implementation kit: Person markup for the dental hygienists named on your site, keeping the RDH your site writes after a name. A doctor title before a hygienist's name is left off, with a note saying why.
  • In the implementation kit: MedicalBusiness markup for your clinic, never Dentist, when your site or the category you saved (such as hygiene clinic) shows it is a dental hygiene practice; in our reading Dentist tells AI engines a dentist practises at your clinic. A saved category that says only dental, on a site that does not show its profession, is still typed as Dentist.

What the free scan and every paid audit read for any clinic is on our page for clinics. How we measure AI visibility.

Wording an independent hygiene clinic's site gets right

Naming a procedure. The regulation lets an advertisement refer "to a treatment or procedure" only where "the advertisement states that the member is not a specialist". A page about scaling, whitening or sealants names a procedure. The College's 2014 guideline gives no wording for that statement, so check with the College how it wants it put.

The first visit. The guideline says to avoid "dental examination" "unless there is a dentist onsite", and names "New Client Dental Hygiene Examination" and "Oral Dental Hygiene Assessment" as acceptable terms.

Describing the clinic. The guideline asks you to avoid subjective words such as "gentle", "affordable", "relaxed" and "comfortable". Say what you do, when and where: your services, your hours, your location and your fees, each fee covering the whole service.

The title. The Dental Hygiene Act protects "dental hygienist", and hygienists are not among the professions RHPA s. 33 lets use the doctor title, so a hygienist's name goes on your site without it, whatever degree they hold. The guideline adds: "In all professional advertisements, you can only use the name with which you are registered with the CDHO."

Your college's advertising rules, and how we work within them

The College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario's rules for advertising in Ontario, and the law's. Words in quotation marks are the source's own; the rest is our summary. Each links to the page it comes from.

Testimonials and endorsements

  • Section 6 (1): "An advertisement with respect to a member's practice must not contain, (a) anything that is false or misleading; (b) anything that, because of its nature, cannot be verified; … (d) an endorsement other than an endorsement by an organization that is known to have expertise relevant to the subject matter of the endorsement; (e) a testimonial by a patient or former patient or by a friend or relative of a patient or former patient; or (f) a reference to a drug used to provide health services." (Ontario e-Laws, O. Reg. 218/94, General (Dental Hygiene Act), checked on October 31, 2026)
  • Advertising "includes, but is not limited to, information posted on websites, pamphlets, promotional signs, flyers, newspaper articles or advertisements and the use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • "social media postings must comply with the same standards and guidelines as traditional advertising." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Something to Talk About: Social Media (2026), checked on October 31, 2026)

Claims and wording

Naming a procedure, and the one specialty

  • Section 6 (1) (c) bars "a reference to any area of practice or to any procedure or treatment" except as s. 6 (2) allows: for a reference to an area of practice that is not a prescribed specialty, or "to a treatment or procedure", only where "the advertisement states that the member is not a specialist". (Ontario e-Laws, O. Reg. 218/94, General (Dental Hygiene Act), checked on October 31, 2026)
  • "Do not reference areas of "specialty", e.g. specializing in the treatment of children. Currently, the only area of specialization with CDHO registration is restorative dental hygiene". (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • Professional misconduct includes "Inappropriately using a term, title or designation in respect of the member's practice.", and using one "indicating a specialization in the profession." (Ontario e-Laws, O. Reg. 218/94, General (Dental Hygiene Act), checked on October 31, 2026)

Titles and names

  • Dental Hygiene Act s. 9 (1): "No person other than a member shall use the title "dental hygienist", a variation or abbreviation or an equivalent in another language." (Ontario e-Laws, Dental Hygiene Act, 1991, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • The doctor title: the College's members are not among RHPA s. 33's exemptions, and s. 33 (1) reads: "33 (1) Except as allowed in the regulations under this Act, no person shall use the title "doctor", a variation or abbreviation or an equivalent in another language in the course of providing or offering to provide, in Ontario, health care to individuals." (Ontario e-Laws, Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • "In all professional advertisements, you can only use the name with which you are registered with the CDHO." "Do not use the CDHO's logo in your advertising." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • "Avoid the use of the term "dental examination", unless there is a dentist onsite, as this could imply that you will provide a caries diagnosis. "New Client Dental Hygiene Examination" or "Oral Dental Hygiene Assessment" would be acceptable terms to use." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • Business names "should be tasteful, reflect professionalism and not imply that one registrant is superior to another." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)

Fees, offers and photos

  • "Any photographic comparisons of "before and after" results must be accompanied by a clearly visible disclaimer that the results are not typical." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • "For clients whose treatment is paid for in whole or in part by a third party, do not charge them a different fee than clients who pay for the treatment themselves. Offering a discount may be acceptable if the discount is applied to all qualifying clients (not just those who do not have insurance) and the required co-payment is not compromised." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • "Do not provide inducements to new clients (e.g., free tooth whitening kit) … offering movie passes or gift cards to clients would be inappropriate." Gifts only of "a product of nominal value (maximum of $20)". "Do not offer loyalty programs, points or credits for dental hygiene services." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • "it would be contrary to the regulations to use an agency, e.g. Groupon, WagJag, etc., … if the agency is receiving a share of the cost of the coupon." "Paying for a referral of a client is always a conflict of interest." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • "Do not advertise "treatment packages" unless the treatment included is clearly defined". Prices "include the cost of the entire service, including any additional services or products". (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)
  • "Do not advertise services that are not within the scope of dental hygiene"; "Do not endorse products and/or reference drugs within the advertisement." (College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, Guideline: Advertising, checked on October 31, 2026)

How we work within them: the statement a page naming a procedure needs, and the words the guideline asks you to avoid, are wording a person has to read for, so with Ongoing Advisor every change to your wording comes to you to approve first. The kit drops the common claim wording it recognises (listed below), and only those.

We are not your regulator and this is not legal advice; your college's current standard is the authority.

What your site should tell patients

Facts patients need, from official pages. Words in quotation marks are the page's own; the rest is our summary.

Say on your site that a cleaning needs no dentist's order where none of the regulation's contraindications applies, that OHIP does not cover it, and whether you see patients under the Canadian Dental Care Plan.

What the kit does for dental hygiene clinics

  • No review request. The College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario's regulation says an advertisement must not contain "a testimonial by a patient or former patient", and the college counts websites and social media as advertising.
  • Rewritten titles and descriptions, FAQ markup and service names leave out the common claim wording the kit recognises, such as claims of superiority, titles the college has not authorized, offers of free services, wording that quotes patients or shows their ratings and promises of results. Some of these are the College's rules (linked above); others the kit leaves out as a caution. No word list catches every phrasing, so check the rest of the kit's wording against the College's current standard.
  • Your clinic's name, address and phone number as the kit has them, and street addresses written the usual way, are not read as claim wording. When your clinic's name itself includes a word of that kind, the kit keeps it and says so, and when it leaves out a rewritten title or description or a page of its llms.txt draft, it says how many and why.
  • Practitioner markup without the doctor title on a practitioner's name, with a note saying why.
  • The kit does not add the statement that a hygienist "is not a specialist" to a page that names a procedure, or check for it, and it does not check for "dental examination" or the subjective words the guideline lists. Read your service pages for them yourself.
  • In the kit's wording, a sentence saying a hygienist "is not a specialist" is kept, so the statement survives where your pages have it; any other sentence that uses the word is left out.

Every section of the kit, and when it appears: what is in the implementation kit. To have the fixes made for you: how the advisor works.

Three ways to work with us

Implementation kit

$950USD

One-off. No subscription.

  • Your site crawled and checked, up to 500 pages
  • An AI visibility check: up to 5 questions about a business like yours, put to every engine 3 times each, with live web search where we can switch it on (all but Gemini, for now) and from memory where the engine can answer without searching (all but Perplexity), and whether each answer named you
  • Paste-ready JSON-LD for what your pages show
  • Rewritten titles and meta descriptions where they need it
  • Priority fixes, in the order to make them
  • An llms.txt draft if yours is missing or incomplete
  • PDF export you can hand to whoever owns the site

What's included in the implementation kit

Start with the free scan

Audit + Advisor

$1,500USD

One-off. No subscription.

  • Everything in the implementation kit, AI visibility check included
  • A 45-minute call once your kit is ready, to go through it together
  • Bring whoever maintains the site
  • A re-check about 30 days later: your site audited again and the AI visibility check run again
  • A written "what changed" after the re-check: what is fixed, what is new, and what to do next

What's included in Audit + Advisor

Start with the free scan

Ongoing Advisor

$600USD / month

3-month minimum. Month to month if you bought the kit or Audit + Advisor in the last 60 days.

  • The fixes made on your website for you every month, as his own user on your site (recommended) or through a login you share with him in 1Password (changes to your wording or structured data come to you to approve first)
  • Your site re-audited every month
  • A written review each month: what changed since last month and the next three things to do
  • A 30-minute call each month
  • The Starter plan: mention tracking, your locations and the AI visibility check on your audits

For clinics that want the changes made for them, month after month. Set up by conversation, not at checkout.

What's included in Ongoing Advisor

Ask about Ongoing Advisor

Works with Wix, Squarespace and WordPress

Most fixes need no developer. The scan and the kit read your public pages, so they work whatever your site is built with. When your pages show they were made with WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or Webflow, the kit says where in that builder to paste each block of code. Or have the fixes made for you with Ongoing Advisor.

Your fixes stay yours

The work is done in your own accounts: your website and your Google Business Profile. None of it depends on us to keep working. If you stop, every fix stays where it was made, on your own site and profile.

Questions from dental hygienists

Do patients need a dentist's referral for a cleaning?

Not where no contraindication applies. The Dental Hygiene Act lets a hygienist perform scaling and root planing "on the member's own initiative, if none of the contraindications prescribed in the regulations to performing the procedure are present", or "if the procedure is ordered by a member of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario." Orthodontic and restorative procedures need a dentist's order. (Our reading of the sources on October 31, 2026. We are not your regulator and this is not legal advice; your college's current standard is the authority.)

What must our site say on a page about a cleaning or whitening?

The regulation allows a reference "to a treatment or procedure" only where "the advertisement states that the member is not a specialist". The College's guideline gives no wording for it, so check with the College. The guideline adds: "Currently, the only area of specialization with CDHO registration is restorative dental hygiene". (Our reading of the sources on October 31, 2026. We are not your regulator and this is not legal advice; your college's current standard is the authority.)

Can we call a new client's first visit a dental examination?

Not without a dentist on site. The guideline says to avoid "dental examination" "unless there is a dentist onsite, as this could imply that you will provide a caries diagnosis." It names "New Client Dental Hygiene Examination" or "Oral Dental Hygiene Assessment" as acceptable. (Our reading of the sources on October 31, 2026. We are not your regulator and this is not legal advice; your college's current standard is the authority.)

Can our site describe the clinic as "gentle" or "affordable"?

The guideline asks you to avoid them: "Avoid the use of words that are subjective as they may lead to misunderstandings, e.g. "gentle", "affordable", "relaxed", "comfortable"." State your fees instead, each covering "the cost of the entire service, including any additional services or products". (Our reading of the sources on October 31, 2026. We are not your regulator and this is not legal advice; your college's current standard is the authority.)

Can we post before and after photos of whitening?

With a disclaimer: "Any photographic comparisons of "before and after" results must be accompanied by a clearly visible disclaimer that the results are not typical." The guideline's other rules still apply: no promise of a result (its own example is whitening "20 shades brighter"), and a page about whitening names a procedure, so it needs the statement s. 6 (2) asks for. (Our reading of the sources on October 31, 2026. We are not your regulator and this is not legal advice; your college's current standard is the authority.)

Can we give new clients a whitening kit?

No. The guideline says "Do not provide inducements to new clients (e.g., free tooth whitening kit)", allows only "a product of nominal value (maximum of $20)", and says "Do not offer loyalty programs, points or credits for dental hygiene services." (Our reading of the sources on October 31, 2026. We are not your regulator and this is not legal advice; your college's current standard is the authority.)

One of our hygienists holds a PhD. Can our site call them doctor?

Not when offering care. RHPA s. 33 bars the doctor title in providing or offering health care in Ontario "Except as allowed in the regulations under this Act"; its list of exempt colleges leaves out the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, and we found no regulation under the Act that adds hygienists. The kit leaves the title off a hygienist's name in its markup and says why. (Our reading of the sources on October 31, 2026. We are not your regulator and this is not legal advice; your college's current standard is the authority.)

Does OHIP or the Canadian Dental Care Plan pay for dental hygiene?

Not OHIP: the College's page says "In Ontario, dental and dental hygiene services are not covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP)." The Canadian Dental Care Plan lists dental hygienists among the providers who can bill it, covers cleaning (scaling), and a provider who takes part bills Sun Life directly. (Our reading of the sources on October 31, 2026. We are not your regulator and this is not legal advice; your college's current standard is the authority.)

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