Start here: clinic advertising is strictly regulated, so which pages can you build?

0.1 How to use this book: it only covers where dental differs from the General Edition

What you'll do in this section: know which General Edition sections to read first for each chapter, and the only things the dental edition adds; lay out the calendar in the 90-day order; remember the values already decided for dental's ten axes, so you do not have to judge them yourself again; know what each of the two legs (ChatGPT and AI Mode) cites in dental and what to feed each one.

The dental edition does not rewrite the mechanisms, methods or general writing rules; it only gives dental's values, bans, replacement wording and local lists. At the start of each chapter, first read the General Edition sections it links to:

Why the order cannot be swapped: freezing the baseline after the door is already fixed freezes a shelf you have already changed yourself, so before and after cannot be compared; for the mechanism, see → General Edition 0.1 The book in one sentence, and the 90-day reading order. For the day-by-day plan for week one, see 2.1. The day you fix the door is recorded as the split day: W1 counts from that day, and the before-and-after comparison at the week 13 settlement also uses it as the dividing line.

For how to judge the ten axes and why each one moves rankings, see → General Edition 8.3 The ten axes (1): page types, containers, anchors, regulation, question shapes and → General Edition 8.4 The ten axes (2): decision-makers, capacity, attribution, half-life, language. These values hold only for dental and aesthetics. Page-type mix is an industry variable, so do not apply another industry's values here; the shelf shares come from deltaV's page-type statistics by industry (the healthcare row).

Three things the figure cannot show: the main front is off-site work plus self-built price pages, and the first page to build is the tiered itemised fixed-price page; dental's one net advantage is that the official registration number gives you the strongest anchor for free; the step where you get stuck most often is "are you on the few pages AI fetched this time?" A site self-built on a traditional CMS gets stuck here most easily; acceptance is measured as "on the list and cited X/20".

The two legs' citation shares have different denominators — read only "who cites what", not which number is bigger. The "who's best" row rests on a sample of just 1 question, so treat it as directional only. For the mechanism behind the two legs, see → General Edition 1.2 Two legs: ChatGPT looks for the source, AI Mode for second-hand summaries. Why the official benchmark must sit in a section of its own, with no mention of your own price inside it, falls under the non-negotiable writing rules — see 1.3.

"Consumer" in this book refers only to content form, never to a regulatory side: cross-industry research finds that professional services win on educational content, while consumer services win on review volume; dental and aesthetics fall under the consumer form (the research did not include Singapore; 75% confidence; evidence in → General Edition A.2 Evidence for picking targets, writing pages, off-site and retests). But in dental, the review-volume finding cannot be turned into "go and ask for reviews": the main effort goes into price pages, facts about devices and processes, and the completeness of the five business profiles — reviews are only recorded as a passive observation.

0.2 You are on the strict side: the three essentials, the switches and three start gates

What you'll do in this section: on the day you start, fill in the three essentials — the regulator, the advertising regulations, the official register lookup — in full, and go through the six switches one by one, ticking each one that applies; ask the three start-gate questions face to face (side, fixed price, letter of appointment), and if any one fails, downgrade or do not take the job.

Dental and aesthetic clinics need to hold an MOH healthcare services licence, and prices can only be written as a fixed final price, never as a range — by the second question in the figure above, that already puts you on the strictly regulated side (the strict side); on the fourth question, peer comparison is banned, so switch E (peer comparison banned) is on as well. Checking against the three criteria in → General Edition 8.2 Five steps to decide the side, and three criteria gives the same result: there is a dedicated advertising regulation, the rule text spells out penalties, and the rule text names the party publishing on the client's behalf as a liable party. All three are met. Going tactic by tactic through → General Edition 8.6 Seven tactics: how regulated and unregulated sides differ, and why each moves rankings, dental and aesthetics has four tactics ruled out — the most of any industry. Wherever you are unsure, default to the strict side.

The exact URLs of the SDC and SMC registers are still to be verified — check and fill them in on the spot the first time you use them (3.4).

The consequence of switch A (agency liability) being on: only the licensee or a person it authorises may advertise a healthcare service; when we publish on the client's behalf, we become that authorised person and are jointly liable with the clinic — none of the clinic's own liability is reduced. The penalty is a fine of up to S$20,000, up to 12 months' imprisonment, or both, plus up to S$1,000 a day for a continuing offence (Statute text, HCSA s 31(2), 31(3); see Appendix A.1). So without a letter of appointment, no material goes out under any name — that is the third gate below.

Why compliance is our job, in one sentence: compliance decides the boxes themselves — whether the price table has a "range" column, whether the page has a box for a promotions banner; and the penalty also falls on whoever publishes on the client's behalf, so we cannot dodge it. It is not because we understand dental better than the clinic does.

Switch C (regulated products) is only on when the clinic also sells supplements, medicines, medical devices or cosmetics (including skincare): copy for these products falls under HSA (Statute text, MOH FAQ; see Appendix A.3), must not claim to prevent, relieve or cure a regulated disease (Conservative line (not statute text); see Appendix A.3), and false advertising carries a fine of up to S$5,000 or up to 2 years' imprisonment (Original text not obtained; see Appendix A.3). Write the product page as the product detail page from → General Edition 5.20 Entity anchor pages: three subtypes, and the product detail page (pt09); the whole site is still run on the strict side.

Switch B (legally required fields) is not ticked: no rule was found for dental saying "a missing field is presumed a breach". The items that still need to be written in full — what's included in the price, the byline on medical pages — are given page by page in 1.2 and 5.2. Switch E (peer comparison banned) is on but needs no extra action, because the strict-side base layer already bans all peer numbers and peer comparisons (Statute text; see Appendix A.1, A.2).

The three gates are questions 2, 3 and 4 of the twelve pre-start questions, asked face to face; the other nine are asked in 2.1. The second gate asks "can you give a fixed final price", not "are you willing to publish a price range" — a range is simply not compliant on this side, and using "willing to publish a range" as the threshold would wrongly screen out a client who is actually compliant but just cannot write prices in the old template. If they can give one, the price page goes first, because price questions have the highest AI coverage of any question type.

0.3 Which of the 46 page types dental can build

What you'll do in this section: check your own build list against this four-tier table, circle what you can build directly first, then give every page type you cannot build a stand-in of the same intent; do not start work straight from the General Edition's table of 46 types — dental has its own four tiers.

Where the 31 open-to-self-build types go:

Of these, 8 types do not look, at first glance, like something a clinic could build: ⑩ ⑱ ⑲ ㉑ ㉓ ㉖ ㉛ ㉟. They are still open, just with narrower wording — ⑩ ㉓ ㉖ are built only as downstream pages of "verbatim quote + link back + check date"; ⑲ is built only when you have your own clinical data; ㉑ ㉛ ㉟ appear as equivalents (privacy policy page, visit process how-to page, partners page). Write the subsidy and limit rules page (⑰) as two sections: one is the clinic's own final tax-inclusive price, the other is the official limit as a separate fact — different tables, not adjacent (5.6).

Why each one is not built, in one sentence each:

• ③ Official pricing page: no bundle cards or recommended ranking [Conservative line (not statute text)] — write prices instead as ① item by item (5.5).
• ⑤ List page: cannot be self-built [Conservative line (not statute text); ranking is itself comparison, hitting the Statute text of SDC 5.4.2/5.4.6(g), so no sign-off can release a publishable version]; the clinic's own pages never quote any ranking or rating [Statute text, Reg 13, Reg 14; for these and the rules above, see Appendix A.1, A.2], and we neither contribute to a list nor pay for a spot on it.
• ㉔ Third-party single-business review: the reviewer's verdict is itself a comparison of organisations [Conservative line (not statute text)].
• ㉘ Review aggregate page: a rating is itself a testimonial [Statute text, SDC 5.4.6(f), Reg 14; see Appendix A.1, A.2].
• ㉙ Self-built reputation and credentials page: do not write a success rate [Conservative line (not statute text)] or superlatives, and do not post testimonials or star ratings [Statute text, SDC 5.4.6(f); see Appendix A.2; the HCSA regulations themselves conditionally allow reviews that patients give directly to the clinic (Reg 14(2)), but for dental clinics we follow SDC's stricter rule].
• ㊱ Case-law page: there is no case law in healthcare; the equivalent is ㉜ the regulatory documents page.
• ㊲ Category list page: do not list peers or lay out categories side by side [Conservative line (not statute text)]; the clinic's own services are instead covered by its own service catalogue and the price guide page.
• ㊶ Verdict-first page: a verdict is itself comparison and recommendation, and cross-channel price comparison also counts as price advertising in healthcare [Conservative line (not statute text)].
• ㊷ Time-limited promotion page: a discounted price with an expiry date is a breach [Statute text, SDC 5.4.6(e), Reg 5(1)(g); see Appendix A.1, A.2].
• ㊻ Market observation page: the clinic has no market data, so writing one would be empty theorising that easily slides into promotion.

This figure rests on a sample of just 1 question, so treat it as directional only.

0.4 What to tell the client: say up front what you will not do

What you'll do in this section: on the day you start, tell the client "we do not ask for reviews, do not buy list spots, do not write a 'from' price" and why the price page has no range; and separate which materials and numbers are internal only and must never go into any external material.

Say the first line in full: "I have chosen not to do these three things (not actively requesting reviews, not buying Best / Top N list spots, not writing a 'from' price), because doing them would be a breach." Then add one more sentence: this is an explanation, not a release from liability — the liability was never transferable in the first place.

The price sentence: the first line you say to the client — even if you don't publish a price, AI quotes one for you anyway — is in → General Edition B.2 Approved wording and scripts. Dental follows with a second sentence: "The regulator only allows one fixed figure, so the price page will have no range and no 'from'." (Statute text; see Appendix A.1). Stop there — add no third sentence.

The reason behind the "weakened" row: a number with a denominator, a year and a stated basis is both what the strict-side rules require and the form AI is most willing to copy.

Use this exact script overall: "We didn't set these rules — the HCSA and SDC ECEG 5.4.6 did. We just translate them into a layout: which box can exist, and what can go inside it. Your compliance officer crosses out what should not appear; we do the other half — filling that box back in with whatever Statute text allows. A page that only deletes and never fills back in is safe, but it will bring you nothing. The final call is always your compliance officer's; we only guarantee that the draft they receive is not a blank page." The final call belongs to the compliance officer, but a written sign-off resolves only the three stop-and-escalate situations; it never turns something banned as Statute text into something publishable (see 1.1).

Two kinds of material stay internal. The first is comparison material that contains peer names or counts about peers: under the HCSA, this runs into the advertising regulations' provisions on comparison and disparagement, and the bar for a named peer to complain in Singapore is low, so every example in the main text is anonymised ("a certain clinic"), and real names and URLs never go out with the deliverables. The second is scouting numbers: figures from a one-off run on a generic search API, with the region not locked and a single engine. These are used only to order your own build sequence and must never be stated externally as the client's current position; to use them externally, first lock the region and retest against your own frozen question pool, mark the retest date and engine, and cite only your own post-retest numbers — if any one condition is missing, treat it as banned.