Moroccan dental websites: what the rules allow

Every Moroccan dentist asks the same first question: “Am I even allowed to have a website?”

Yes. But the Moroccan code of ethics tightly restricts what you may put on it, and a large share of the dental sites I see in Morocco are non-compliant — usually because whoever built them copied a French template without checking Moroccan law.

I’m not a lawyer. For a specific case, your regional council of the Ordre is the authority to ask.

The governing texts

The reference text is decree no. 2-96-989 of 5 January 1999, the code of ethics for Morocco’s dental practitioners. The profession is further governed by Law 07-05 on the national order of dental practitioners.

Two clarifications that matter, because both cause real confusion:

“MOHAP compliance” is not a Moroccan concept. MOHAP is the health ministry of the United Arab Emirates. It has no authority in Morocco. If a vendor offers you a “MOHAP-compliant” dental website, they don’t know your regulatory environment.

French liberalisation does not apply here. You’ll find many French articles announcing the end of the advertising ban for dentists — accurate for France, via decree 2020-1658, following a Court of Justice of the EU ruling. Moroccan law has not followed. The prohibition regime still applies.

What is prohibited

Article 11 sets the principle: dentistry “must not be practised as a commerce,” and prohibits “all direct or indirect methods of advertising or publicity.” Article 19 reinforces this, barring “all advertising, all personal promotion or promotion benefiting a third party or any firm.”

In website terms, that rules out:

• Promotions, discounts, special offers
• Patient testimonials and reviews displayed on the site
• Before/after photos of your patients
• Superlatives: “best clinic in Marrakech,” “leading smile specialist”
• Comparisons with colleagues
• Interior or team photography used as a selling device
• Paid search placement designed to rank you preferentially

That last point is live: in 2025 the national council publicly warned practitioners over promotional social media content, with the threat of referral to the public prosecutor.

What is permitted

Article 12 lists the permitted mentions on professional materials:

1. Name, address, telephone and fax numbers, consultation days and hours
2. Titles recognised by the national council of the Ordre
3. Honorary distinctions recognised by the Kingdom

Deliberately narrow. But between “bare minimum” and “prohibited advertising” lies a large and underused space: patient information.

The code bans promotion, not education. A site that clearly explains how a treatment proceeds, what recovery looks like, and what a given condition actually is provides genuine value without promoting the practitioner. That is where a well-built Moroccan dental site earns its keep.

A site structure that works within the rules

Home — Practice name, address, hours, phone, directions. Factual. A visible, tappable phone number is what converts on mobile.

Practical information — What a first visit involves, what to bring, AMO/CNSS coverage, parking and access. Answers real questions, promotes nothing.

Treatment pages written as information, not as sales copy — One page per treatment explaining the condition, the indication, the procedure, the aftercare. “Wisdom tooth extraction: when it’s needed and how it works” rather than “Our pain-free extractions.” Same underlying substance, different register — and only the second is sanctionable.

Emergencies — What to do for acute pain, a broken tooth, an abscess, plus your availability. Emergency dental searches are high-volume, mobile, and often late at night. This is usually the most useful page on the site.

Qualifications — Strictly those recognised by the national council. Article 15 penalises false titles and misleading abbreviations.

SEO then rests on informational queries — “pain after wisdom tooth extraction,” “dental crown price Morocco,” “emergency dentist Marrakech” — rather than commercial slogans. That is both compliant and more effective: higher volume, less competition.

Patient data: Law 09-08

The most commonly missed obligation, and entirely separate from professional ethics.

Law 09-08 on the protection of individuals with regard to personal data processing requires a prior formality with the CNDP before any processing of personal data.

Health data is classified as sensitive and carries a heavier regime: processing health-related data requires a specific authorisation from the commission rather than a simple declaration. Filings go through the CNDP’s online portal.

On a practice website, the trigger is:

• A booking form collecting name, phone and reason for visit
• An online appointment module
• Any patient records stored online

Penalties are not nominal — processing sensitive data without authorisation exposes you to fines in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dirhams, with custodial sentences available in some cases.

The practical architectural consequence: I advise dental practices not to collect medical data through a web form at all. A phone button and a WhatsApp button handle booking, create no data file, and dramatically reduce your obligations. If a form is essential, limit it to name and phone — never the medical reason — with an accessible privacy policy and an unticked consent box.

This is a design decision driven directly by law, and one that most dental website templates sold in Morocco ignore completely.

Google Business Profile

Your Google listing is the strongest local visibility lever, and reviews make it ethically delicate.

The cautious position, and the one I recommend: populate it with Article 12 information only — name, address, phone, hours. Don’t solicit reviews, don’t organise their collection, don’t republish them on your site. You cannot control spontaneous reviews, and the Ordre generally distinguishes what a practitioner causes from what they merely receive. Republishing them on your own site is an active choice, and therefore promotion.

A properly completed listing with accurate hours and a link to your site delivers most of the benefit at no risk.

Summary

Morocco’s framework is stricter than France’s current rules and far stricter than most templates assume. But it leaves ample room for a genuinely useful site: informative, fast, with immediate phone access — which is exactly what converts best in this sector anyway.

For any specific content question, your regional council of the Ordre is the only source that binds you.

See also: the dentist website page for the practical version, and how much a dental practice website costs.