FTC Review Gating Rules: What Dental Practices Need to Know

In August 2024, the Federal Trade Commission finalized its rule on the use of consumer reviews and testimonials. The rule, which went into full effect in October 2024, established clear penalties for review gating — the practice of selectively soliciting reviews from satisfied customers while suppressing or discouraging reviews from dissatisfied ones.

For dental practices, the penalties are severe: up to $51,744 per violation as of 2026 (adjusted for inflation from the original $50,120 figure). If your practice sends 100 review requests a month and your process qualifies as review gating, you could be exposed to millions in potential fines.

What Is Review Gating?

Review gating occurs when a business uses a filtering mechanism to direct only positive feedback to public review platforms while preventing or discouraging negative feedback from appearing publicly.

Examples of Review Gating Violations

Explicit gating: Sending a satisfaction survey first, then only sending a Google review link to patients who gave positive ratings.

Conditional routing: Showing a "Leave us a Google review" button only to patients who selected 4 or 5 stars on an internal survey, while routing 1-3 star respondents to a private feedback form with no option to leave a public review.

Selective solicitation: Only sending review request emails to patients who you know had a positive experience based on clinical outcomes or verbal feedback.

Suppression: Offering incentives (discounts, free services) to patients who agree to remove or modify negative reviews.

What Is NOT Review Gating

Asking all patients for reviews: Sending the same review request to every patient, regardless of their likely satisfaction level, is perfectly legal.

Offering a private feedback channel alongside public reviews: As long as every patient has equal access to leave a public review, you can also offer a private feedback option. The key is that the private option cannot replace or block the public option.

Responding to negative reviews: Engaging with criticism publicly and offering to resolve issues is encouraged, not penalized.

The FTC Rule in Detail

The FTC rule on consumer reviews (16 CFR Part 465) specifically prohibits:

1. Buying or selling fake reviews — including paying for positive reviews or negative reviews of competitors
2. Review gating — using any mechanism to condition review solicitation on the anticipated sentiment of the review
3. Insider reviews — reviews by employees or their family members without clear disclosure
4. Misrepresenting reviews — cherry-picking, editing, or selectively displaying reviews to create a misleading impression
5. Review suppression — using threats, intimidation, or contracts to prevent negative reviews

Each violation can carry a civil penalty of up to $51,744 (2026 amount). The FTC has the authority to pursue both the business and any third-party service providers that facilitate the violation.

Why Dental Practices Are Especially at Risk

Dental practices face a unique combination of risk factors:

High Review Volume

Active dental practices generate dozens of patient interactions per day, each of which could be a solicitation event. Higher volume means higher potential fine exposure.

Third-Party Software

Many dental practices use reputation management software that was designed before the FTC rule. Some of these tools have review gating built into their core workflow — and the practice, not just the software vendor, is liable.

Patient Sensitivity

Dental procedures can be painful, anxiety-inducing, and expensive. The likelihood of negative feedback is higher than in many other industries, which makes the temptation to gate reviews stronger.

How to Audit Your Current Process

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Does every patient receive the same review request? If your system only sends requests to certain patients based on predicted satisfaction, that is gating.

2. Can every patient reach Google Reviews in the same number of steps? If satisfied patients get a direct link but dissatisfied patients get redirected to an internal form, that is gating.

3. Does your software show different content based on survey responses? If a patient who rates you 5 stars sees a Google review button but a patient who rates you 2 stars does not, that is gating.

4. Have you ever asked a patient to remove or modify a review? If so, and especially if you offered anything in exchange, that may constitute suppression.

The Compliant Alternative: Review Firewalls

A compliant Review Firewall works differently from review gating. Instead of blocking negative reviews, it creates two parallel paths:

Path 1: Every patient is invited to share their feedback. Those who had a positive experience are encouraged to share it on Google.

Path 2: Those who had a negative experience are offered a direct, private channel to the practice — but they are never prevented from leaving a public review.

The critical difference is that both paths are available to every patient, and no patient is ever blocked from accessing the public review option. The private channel is an addition, not a replacement.

Arck's Review Firewall is designed from the ground up to comply with the FTC rule. Every patient interaction is logged, every path is auditable, and no patient is ever prevented from leaving a public review.

Practical Steps for Compliance

1. Audit your current tools — check if your reputation management software uses any form of review gating
2. Send review requests to all patients — no filtering based on expected sentiment
3. Provide equal access to public reviews — every patient should be able to reach Google in the same number of steps
4. Document your process — the FTC values demonstrable compliance efforts
5. Train your staff — make sure front desk and administrative staff understand the rules
6. Use compliant software — choose tools that are designed for FTC compliance, not retrofitted for it

The Bottom Line

The FTC review gating rules are not suggestions — they are enforceable federal regulations with real financial consequences. Dental practices that continue to use gating mechanisms, whether knowingly or through outdated software, are taking a significant legal and financial risk.

The good news is that compliance is straightforward. Treat every patient the same, never block public reviews, and use tools that are built for the current regulatory environment.

Want to make sure your review process is FTC-compliant? See how Arck's Review Firewall works or start your free trial.