Search for dental Reels and the before and after comes up first. It is easy to see why. A crooked smile becomes a straight one in the time it takes to scroll past, the video explains itself, and you do not have to say anything to camera.
Two things get in the way before you film one. Your regulator has something to say about showing treatment results in advertising, and what it says depends on the country where you are registered. And during the appointment your gloves are on and your eyes are in someone's mouth, so there is nobody free to press record.
The rule that sits on top of the before and after
A rule exists, and it is not the same in every country. In the UK, for example, the ASA treats before-and-after photos like testimonials, and its dental advice says they must be genuine and representative, with signed and dated proof held by the advertiser. Consent is a separate requirement: the GDC's social media guidance and standard 4.2.3 of its Standards for the Dental Team say you must not publish anything that could identify a patient without their explicit consent.
Read what your own regulator published rather than what a colleague passed on in a group. This is the kind of rule that gets updated, and what people repeat from memory can be the version before last. If you are unsure after reading it, write to them and ask before the first video goes out.
While you wait for the answer, record the case anyway, with the patient's consent. The consent form, the first photo and the middle stages cannot be recreated once the treatment is finished. You can decide later whether the video is published. You cannot decide later to have filmed it.
What makes a before and after readable
Two photos of the same mouth are not automatically a comparison. If the second one is closer, or brighter, or taken with a retractor when the first was not, the person watching sees two different pictures and stops trying.
- Same angle, same distance, same light. Mark where you stand. Tape on the floor is enough.
- Retractor in both, or in neither. A cheek retractor changes the shape of the whole face.
- Film the before on the day the person arrives, before you touch anything. There is no second chance at this one.
- Say what the treatment was, in the words the patient used when they booked. Someone searching for the same problem needs to recognise it.
- Keep the video short. The comparison is the whole point, and everything before it makes people scroll away.
Reels you can film without a patient's mouth
These are the ones that fill the weeks between cases, and the ones you can publish while you are still waiting on an answer from your council.
| What to film | Where it comes from | Why people watch it |
|---|---|---|
| The question you answered today | Whatever a patient asked you in the chair this morning | Someone else is at home wondering the same thing and has not booked yet |
| The instrument nobody recognises | Ten seconds of your tray, naming one thing and what it does | People are afraid of what they cannot name |
| What the first appointment looks like | The door, the chair, the paperwork, how long it takes | People put off calling when they do not know what will happen |
| The thing patients do wrong at home | Brushing straight after something acidic, flossing once and giving up, the rinse that replaced brushing | They can fix it tonight, so they save the video |
| Your empty room, filmed slowly | Thirty seconds before the first patient arrives | Someone choosing a practice wants to see the place before they walk in |
If you want the full list for your profession rather than the reasoning behind it, we keep one: Instagram for dentists covers what a dental profile needs to show, and what to write in your Instagram bio as a dentist covers the few lines under your username.
A test before you publish: would this video still make sense to someone who has never been to your practice and does not know what the words mean? If it only makes sense to another dentist, it is a video for your colleagues, and your colleagues are not booking appointments.
ZapPost's reference base of dental carousels went through the same test. Of the 14 posts with 10 or more comments we reviewed by hand on 5 August 2026, 9 were left out because they spoke to dentists: 5 sell services to practices and 4 are technical content for colleagues. Among the ten posts in the base with saved numbers, the most liked one (814 likes, 69 comments) shows no patient and no before and after: it is a statement the audience is asked to comment on, from @erttyortodontia, published on 16 July 2026.
Trends, and how much they are worth to a dental practice
Trending audio has a short life. By the time a trend reaches you through a colleague or a repost, it has already been going a while, and copying it late looks like copying it late.
You do not need to be early. What people send each other in dentistry is the answer to something they are quietly worried about: whether it hurts, what it costs, whether they can eat afterwards, whether the tooth can be saved. A plain video answering one of those outlives any audio.
When a trend does fit, the test is whether it survives being about teeth. If the joke only works when a dentist does it, use it. If you are dancing next to a caption about root canals because the sound was popular, the video says nothing about your practice and the sound stops working soon after.
Filming when both your hands are busy
This is where it stops for a lot of dentists, and the reason has nothing to do with ideas. If the patient will be in the frame, get their written consent before you press record.
- Frame the shot before you glove up. Phone on a stand, angle set, record running. You are not going to touch it again until the appointment ends, and you do not need to.
- Ask the person working alongside you to press record, if someone does. One tap at the start of the step you want and one at the end.
- Film the room, add your voice later. The visual can be the empty chair, the model, the tray. Record the audio in the car afterwards, when you still remember what you wanted to say.
- Use the ten seconds after the appointment ends. The patient has gone, the chair is still set up, and you have the case fresh in your head.
Publishing every day sounds like the answer and it is the thing that breaks first in a full week. If you want the version of this that survives a week of emergencies, we wrote about it: how to post every day on Instagram.
What to write under the video
People arrive at a dental Reel from a search, not from your profile. They have no idea who you are, where you work or whether you take their insurance.
Put the treatment in the first line, in the words a patient would use. Put the city in the caption, because a dental video without a location is a video nobody can act on. And end with something that is possible from the phone they are holding: a question they can answer in the comments, or the address of your practice.
Avoid promising an outcome. Every mouth is different, and the same treatment gives different results in different people. In the UK, the GDC's advertising guidance asks you to avoid claims likely to create an unjustified expectation about results, and the ASA says before-and-after photos should not exaggerate what the treatment does.
Where this leaves you
Check what your regulator allows you to show, record every case with the patient's consent, and fill the gaps with the questions patients ask you in the chair. That gives you video for the weeks when there is no case to show.
ZapPost delivers the carousel, the Reels script and the caption ready to go. No writing prompts, no Canva, no new tool to learn. You review and publish.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need written consent to put a patient in a Reel?
Assume yes, and get it in writing before you film rather than after. In the UK, the GDC requires explicit consent before you publish anything that could identify a patient, and it asks you to tell the patient how, why and where the image will be used. Consent for the treatment record is not the same as consent to publish. Your regulator will tell you what the form has to say where you practise.
How long should a dental Reel be?
Short enough that the point arrives before anyone decides to scroll. For a before and after, that means the comparison in the first seconds and the explanation after it. For a question from a patient, it means the answer first and the reasoning second.
Is trending audio worth chasing?
Only when the trend still works once it is about teeth. Chasing sounds costs you the time you would have spent filming a case, and the sound stops working soon after. A video answering what patients actually ask keeps bringing people in long after that.
What do I film in a week with no case I can show?
The question a patient asked you in the chair, the instrument people are afraid of, what the first appointment is like, or your room before anyone arrives. None of those need a patient in frame, and all of them answer something someone is searching for tonight.