Oral Surgery Marketing Built on Three Lead Sources

Oral surgery marketing has three jobs: keep referring dentists sending patients, show up for the patients who search on their own and make sure the front desk books both. Each one needs its own system, and working only one leaves the other two to chance.

That matters most for the patients who find you on Google, because they never pass through a referring dentist.

Below is how I'd set up each source, the Florida rules that touch them and a short list to check this week.

• Oral surgery patients come from referring dentists, Google searches and word of mouth.
• Florida's kickback law, Fla. Stat. 456.054, rules out anything of value paid for referrals.
• A referral program needs a one-page sheet, a named coordinator and a report back on every patient.
• Run wisdom teeth, implants and general "oral surgeon near me" searches as separate campaigns.
• Florida requires every party's consent to record a call, so announce the recording up front.

What are the three lead sources in oral surgery marketing?

A general dentist sent the patient, the patient searched Google or someone they know gave them a name. You can build systems around the first two. The third follows from doing the first two well.

Source	What the patient did	What has to be true
Referring dentist	Was told "you need to see Dr. X"	The dentist thinks of you first and the handoff is easy
Direct search	Typed "oral surgeon near me" or "wisdom teeth removal cost"	You show up, answer the question and the phone gets picked up
Word of mouth	Asked a friend	The last patient had a good visit and was asked to share it

The front desk sits under all three. A referral the patient never calls about isn't a patient. Neither is a Google click that reaches voicemail.

How do you get more referrals from general dentists?

Make it easier to refer to you than to anyone else, and report back on every patient. Lunches and gift baskets don't do that.

Gifts tied to referrals are also a legal problem in Florida. Fla. Stat. 456.054 makes it unlawful for a health care provider to offer or receive a kickback, in cash or in kind, for referring patients. Keep the value in the service.

A referral program dentists will use has five parts:

• A one-page referral sheet with your phone, fax, a QR code to an online referral form and the procedures you want (wisdom teeth, implants, extractions, pathology, jaw surgery).
• One named person at your office who handles referrals, whose name and direct line the referring office knows.
• A same-day acknowledgment: "We received the referral for your patient and will call them today."
• A report after the consult and after surgery, in the format the dentist wants.
• A quarterly visit from the surgeon or the referral coordinator. Skip the lunch-and-learn slides and have a short conversation about what's working.

1. 01Referral inSheet, fax or QR form reaches one named referral coordinator
2. 02Same dayAcknowledge the referral and call the patient today
3. 03Report backSend the dentist a report after the consult and again after surgery
4. 04Every quarterSurgeon or coordinator visits to ask what's working

The report-back is the step that gets skipped. It's also what dentists remember when they decide who gets the next patient.

A free 15-minute call with Blake by phone or Zoom. You get a written Method Plan for the cases you want, with the first fixes in order. It's yours to keep whether we work together or not.

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What should an oral surgeon run on Google Ads?

Run separate search campaigns for wisdom teeth and implants, with general "oral surgeon near me" traffic in a third. They're different patients with different questions, so the ads and landing pages answer them separately.

The demand is there. Semrush's US database shows "oral surgeon near me" at 49,500 searches a month, "wisdom teeth removal near me" at 33,100, "wisdom teeth removal cost" at 14,800 and "dental implants near me" at 135,000. Those are national figures. Your share depends on your metro.

National Semrush figures. Your share depends on your metro.

Source: Semrush US database, retrieved 2026-10-14

Settings I'd insist on:

• Location targeting set to Presence, so ads reach people who are physically in your area. Google's location targeting help page names Presence as the option to consider for sensitive verticals.
• Call reporting on, with a Google forwarding number, so calls of a set length count as conversions.
• No remarketing lists. Google's personalized advertising policy puts health in its sensitive categories and doesn't allow advertiser-curated audiences for it.
• An ad schedule matched to when the phone is answered.

What should the wisdom teeth page and ad say?

The wisdom teeth page should answer cost, because people search for it. If you can't put a number on the page, explain what the number depends on and what a consult costs.

If you do state a fee, Fla. Stat. 466.019(3)(g) requires the ad to say the fee is a minimum only. The Board's fee-advertising rule, Rule 64B5-4.003, adds its own conditions, so read it before you publish a price. The dental implant marketing post walks through a cost page in detail.

The rest of 466.019(3) applies to every ad and landing page: nothing laudatory ("top-rated," "gentle," "painless"), no comparisons to other practices, no unjustified results and nothing that appeals mainly to fear. A search ad that stays inside those lines describes the service and stops:

Headline: Wisdom Teeth Removal in [City] | Consults With Dr. [Full Name], DDS | Cost and Insurance Questions

Description: See what a wisdom teeth consult includes, what affects the cost and how to book a time.

The Board of Dentistry's advertising rule, Rule 64B5-4.002, sets how the licensee's name appears in the ad, and its text has changed, so check the current version. I'm not a lawyer. Have your compliance person read the current rule before the first ad runs.

Campaign setup and tracking are covered in the Google Ads for dentists post, and they carry over to an oral surgery office as is.

Why does the front desk decide whether oral surgery marketing works?

Every lead becomes a call or a form, and someone at the desk decides what happens next. I've watched practices spend on ads and referral outreach, then lose the patient at the handoff.

Referred and direct patients need different handling:

• A referred patient already trusts the recommendation. Schedule the consult fast and confirm with the referring office.
• A direct patient is comparing. Answer the cost and insurance questions without a sales pitch, then offer a consult date.

I've been a surgical patient myself. I had double jaw surgery, so I know the patient's side: the consults, the planning, the scans and how much it matters to find a team you trust. Assume a referred patient looks you up before calling, and check what they find: whether the website explains the procedure in words a patient can follow, says anything about cost and insurance and shows the actual office and team.

Then the phone call has to hold up. A referral gets a patient to look you up. The website and the first call decide whether they book.

Record and review calls. Florida requires all parties to consent to recording under Fla. Stat. 934.03(2)(d), so the announcement at the start of the call isn't optional. Five calls reviewed each week show you what a dashboard can't, and the dental call tracking post explains what to listen for.

What to do next

In the Double Jaw Method™, the top jaw is thinking: name the patient you want more of. The bottom jaw is action: attract them and wow them. For a surgical practice, the referring dentist and the patient who searches on their own each need both jaws. A Method Review applies both jaws to your practice.

1. Count referrals per office over the last 90 days. Call the top 10 offices and ask what would make referring to you easier.
2. Write the one-page referral sheet and name the referral coordinator on it.
3. Search "oral surgeon near me" and "wisdom teeth removal cost" on your phone from your parking lot. Note who shows up and whether your page answers the question.
4. Call your own office as a new patient at 12:15 p.m. and again at 4:45 p.m. Write down what happened.

The oral surgeon page explains how we run the three sources together.

FAQ

Can an oral surgeon pay dentists for referrals?

Not in Florida. Fla. Stat. 456.054 prohibits a health care provider from offering, paying, soliciting or receiving a kickback for referring patients. Check your own state's rules with your attorney before offering anything of value to a referring office.

How much does Google Ads cost for an oral surgeon?

It varies by metro and procedure. LocaliQ's 2026 search advertising benchmarks put the average cost per click for dentists and dental services at $8.00 and the average cost per lead at $72.97, and implant terms can run higher: Semrush shows "dental implants near me" at a $17.88 average cost per click (US data).

Should implants and wisdom teeth share one campaign?

No. Mixing them blurs the ad copy and makes the data hard to read, so each gets its own campaign, ads and landing page.

Do Florida dental advertising rules apply to a practice website?

Yes. Fla. Stat. 466.019(1) defines an advertisement as a representation disseminated in any manner to solicit patients and names websites and social media specifically.

Book a Method Review

Book a Method Review: a free 15-minute call with Blake by phone or Zoom about your referral program, your search presence and your front desk. You get a written Method Plan with the first fixes in order, yours to keep whether we work together or not.