Badge Usage Guidelines

1Who Gets a Badge

Any practice that meets our selection criteria for a given city and year earns a designation and may display that year's badge free of charge. You do not have to buy anything. Purchasing a Featured Listing affects your position and presentation on the Site, not whether you are designated or what score you receive.

2What You Receive

• A digital badge stamped with your city and the year earned
• An award asset showing your practice name, city, year, and score
• A web version sized for site headers, footers, and sidebars

Featured Listing customers also receive a physical front desk recognition stand and a press release.

3Where You Can Use It

Use the badge and award assets to promote the designated practice on:

• Your practice website
• Social media profiles and posts
• Email signatures and newsletters
• Print materials, brochures, and mailers
• In-office signage and displays
• Paid advertising for the practice

4The Rules

Do not alter the artwork. The city, year, score, wording, colors, proportions, and design must stay as provided. Do not crop out the year, recolor the badge, add your own text inside it, or rebuild it.

Display only years you earned. If you were designated in 2026, you may display the 2026 badge. You may not display a badge for a year or city in which you were not designated.

Do not present an old badge as current. Badges are year-stamped, so you may keep displaying any year you earned, indefinitely, including after a Featured Listing ends. What you may not do is imply a prior-year badge represents your current standing. If your website says “Top Rated Dentist” with no year while your badge says 2026 and it is now 2029, that is a problem.

One practice, one location. A badge belongs to the designated practice at the designated location. Do not use it for other locations, other practices in a group, or providers who were not part of the designation, unless each earned its own.

Describe it accurately. The designation is a directory recognition based on public review data. It is not certification, accreditation, board certification, specialty status, licensure, a clinical quality rating, or an endorsement of any treatment. Do not describe it as any of those.

Do not imply affiliation. You may say you were named a Top Rated Dentist by TopRatedDentist.com. You may not suggest partnership, sponsorship, membership, or that we vet or endorse your clinical care.

Follow your state's advertising rules. Some state dental boards restrict superlative claims, comparative claims, and the use of awards in advertising. You are responsible for confirming that your use of the badge and any accompanying language is permitted where you practice. We cannot advise you on this.

Keep patients out of it. Do not combine the badge with patient photos, identifiable patient information, or testimonials in any way that violates HIPAA or your state's rules.

5Suggested Wording

Safe to use:

• “Named a Top Rated Dentist in [City] for [Year] by TopRatedDentist.com”
• “[Year] Top Rated Dentist, [City]”
• “Recognized by TopRatedDentist.com based on patient review data”

Avoid:

• “Certified Top Rated Dentist”
• “Accredited by TopRatedDentist.com”
• “The best dentist in [City]” presented as our finding
• Any phrasing that drops the year while implying current recognition

6Linking

If you display the badge on your website, we ask that you link it to your profile page on TopRatedDentist.com. This is a request, not a requirement. It helps patients verify the designation is real.

7Practice Changes

Sale or ownership change. The designation stays with the practice location and name it was awarded to. If the practice is sold and keeps operating under the same name at the same location, the badge may continue to be displayed for the year earned. If the practice rebrands, merges, or relocates, email us and we will confirm what can still be used.

Closure or provider departure. If the designated provider leaves, that provider may not carry the badge to a new practice. The designation was awarded to the practice.

8Withdrawal

We may withdraw a designation and ask that a badge be taken down if the designation was issued in error, the underlying data turns out to be inaccurate or manipulated, the badge is being used in violation of these guidelines, or the practice loses its license or ceases operating. We will notify you and give you a reasonable period to comply.

Manipulating reviews to qualify, including incentivized, purchased, or fabricated reviews, results in immediate withdrawal and permanent ineligibility.

9Reporting Misuse

If you see a badge being misused, email [email protected] with the practice name and a link or photo.

10Questions