A digital visiting card for dentists, inside the dental code of ethics
The Dentists (Code of Ethics) Regulations allow a factual listing on the internet, with your treatments and their fees. A Beeps profile built from that gives a patient your registration number, recognised degrees, fees and a way to book, with a tap on your card. Here is what the code asks for, and what to leave off.
Which code applies now
The rules are still the Revised Dentists (Code of Ethics) Regulations, 2014, notified by the Dental Council of India on 27 June 2014. The Council has since been replaced by the National Dental Commission, but the new law keeps the old regulations running until the Commission writes its own.
That is section 59(2) of the National Dental Commission Act, 2023: the rules and regulations made under the Dentists Act, 1948 continue in force until new standards or requirements are specified under the new Act. On 28 September 2026 the Commission's own list of regulations showed no replacement ethics code.
The code has been amended since 2014, but not on anything this page covers. The 2018 second amendment adds one item, regulation 8.9.7, on keeping up with continuing dental education.
What makes the dental code unusual among the professions is how plainly it deals with the internet. It says outright that advertising ethics have changed over the decades, that a dentist may advertise while keeping decorum, and that a factual website can list your treatments and their fees.
What the code asks you to show, and where it goes on a profile
Six clauses of the 2014 regulations decide what a dentist's card and profile carry. Four are about identity - registration, degrees, specialty - and two about what a listing may say. None of them needs anything beyond Basic.
| Clause | What it says | On a Beeps profile |
|---|---|---|
| 3.4.1 | What it saysDisplay the registration number your State Dental Council gave you, in the clinic and on prescriptions, certificates and money receipts. | On a Beeps profileThe first line of the About section, so it matches the prescription. |
| 3.4.2 | What it saysAdd as a suffix only dental degrees the Council recognises, and qualifications conferred by recognised universities or bodies it approves. | On a Beeps profileThe profile name: Dr [your name], followed by your recognised degrees. |
| 5.7.2 | What it saysYour prescription letterhead carries your name and designation in full, your recognised degrees and your registration particulars. | On a Beeps profileThe same four items at the top of the profile, so card, profile and prescription agree. |
| 8.3.3 | What it saysNo specialist claim on the name board or on office stationery - visiting cards, letterheads - without a Council-recognised special qualification in that specialty. | On a Beeps profileThe designation line. Use a specialty only if you hold the recognised qualification; otherwise, dental surgeon. |
| 8.2.8 | What it saysA listing in telephone directories, Yellow Pages or on the internet is permitted as public information, without claims of superiority or special skill. | On a Beeps profileThe whole profile, written as plain facts. |
| 8.2.9 | What it saysA website with only factual information is not unethical, and it can list treatment facilities and their fees. | On a Beeps profileA service listing for each treatment, with the fee written in its description. |
You may put your fees on it
Yes, and the code says why. Regulation 8.2.9 says a website can carry details of treatment facilities and the fees for them, because it helps patients make informed choices. Regulation 5.7.1 adds that there is no bar on displaying fees and other charges in the clinic.
That is the opposite of the rule for chartered accountants, whose institute's website guidelines say the fee charged cannot be given. If you are comparing notes with your CA, their page shows how differently the two codes work.
A fee on the profile is a starting price, not the estimate. Regulation 5.7.1 still asks you to state the cost of the procedure and estimate all the costs likely to be incurred, and to justify any later increase. Regulation 3.8 asks you to announce fees before treatment begins, and calls a "no cure - no payment" contract unethical.
On Beeps, add each treatment as a service - scaling, a filling, root canal treatment, an extraction - and write its fee into the description, with "from" where the final cost depends on the tooth. Every item stays plain: the treatment, what it involves, and the price.
What to keep off the card and the profile
The same code that allows fees is strict about boasting. Regulation 8.2 bars any publicity that draws attention to your skill, achievements or honours for self-aggrandisement, and any report of cases or cures. A general-purpose profile, ours included, has room for all of these, so these are the parts to leave empty.
The Google review button: the code says nothing about online reviews. It does bar permitting reports of cases and cures to be published, and a review describing a treatment result sits close to that line. We would leave the button off, and ask your State Dental Council first if you want it. What the code does allow, and encourages, is sketches and diagrams (8.3.1), so the gallery can explain a procedure instead.
What a clinic pays
Everything in the table above fits on Basic, including the treatments list and appointment booking. Pro adds the UPI button, for patients who want to pay from their phone.
A clinic with several dentists can run up to 5 profiles on one Pro account, one for each dentist, each with their own registration number.
Questions from dentists
Can a dentist use a digital visiting card?
Yes. The code allows a listing on the internet as public information (8.2.8), and says a website where all the information is factual is not unethical (8.2.9). A profile that keeps to your name, recognised degrees, registration number, treatments and fees fits within both.
Which code applies now that the National Dental Commission has replaced the Dental Council?
The Revised Dentists (Code of Ethics) Regulations, 2014. The National Dental Commission Act, 2023 keeps regulations made under the old Dentists Act in force until the Commission specifies new ones (section 59(2)), and the Commission’s own regulations list, checked on 28 September 2026, shows no replacement code. Check that list for anything later.
Can I show my fees on the profile?
Yes. Regulation 8.2.9 says a website can carry details of treatment facilities and their fees, and 5.7.1 says there is no bar on displaying fees in the clinic. You still owe the patient an estimate of all likely costs before treatment, and have to justify any later increase.
Can I call myself an orthodontist or an implantologist on my card?
Only if you hold a special qualification in that specialty which the Council recognises. Regulation 8.3.3 names visiting cards and letterheads specifically. You may still practise every branch of dentistry you are qualified, competent and trained in; you just may not claim to be a specialist in it.
Should my registration number be on the profile?
Regulation 3.4.1 asks you to display your State Dental Council registration number in the clinic and on prescriptions, certificates and money receipts. Putting the same number on the profile lets a patient check it against the prescription.
Can I post before-and-after photos?
Leave them off. Regulation 8.2 says a dentist shall not boast of cases, operations, cures or remedies, or permit reports of them to be published through any mode. Sketches, diagrams and pictures of the human system are allowed (8.3.1), so a diagram explaining a procedure is fine.
Can I hand out cards at a dental camp in a school?
Not as promotion. Regulation 8.1.2 calls camps and promotional activity in schools, colleges and old age homes, and handbills and claim vouchers, unethical when they cold-target vulnerable groups. Registered charities giving fully free care are exempt. Handing your card to a patient who asks for it is a different thing.
Do patients need an app?
No. A tap on the NFC card opens the profile in the phone’s browser, and the patient can save your name, phone and email to their contacts in one tap.
This page explains the published code. It is not legal advice, and your State Dental Council has the final word on how it applies to you.
Also for regulated professions: doctors and the medical ethics code, chartered accountants and ICAI's guidelines and advocates and Bar Council Rule 36.
Sources
The code and the Act are quoted from the copies on the National Dental Commission's website. Each was read on the date shown.
- Dental Council of India (now the National Dental Commission), Revised Dentists (Code of Ethics) Regulations, 2014 - Notification No. DE-97-2014, 27 June 2014. Checked .
- Dental Council of India (now the National Dental Commission), Revised Dentists (Code of Ethics) (2nd Amendment) Regulations, 2018 - Notification No. DE-97(2)-2018, 5 September 2018. Checked .
- National Dental Commission, The National Dental Commission Act, 2023 (No. 21 of 2023). Checked .
- National Dental Commission, Download Regulations. Checked .
A card that says what the code allows,
fees included.
One tap shares your registration number, recognised degrees, treatments and fees, and a way to book. From ₹199/year.