Geistlich Campus: How Instagram helps grow dental practices

Dental Tribune International

Wed. 30. September 2026

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A webinar to be hosted by Geistlich Campus on 7 October will explore how Instagram can support the growth of a dental practice. Drawing on the success of a German dental practice whose Instagram presence was developed well before it opened, the webinar will show how building digital visibility early can help a practice establish itself and attract both employees and patients.

The webinar will be presented by Dr Thomas Martensen, a German dentist whose areas of clinical focus include periodontics, implantology and digital prosthetics. Together with his wife, dentist Dr Corinna Martensen, he began building an Instagram presence in 2023, well before they opened their dental practice in Überlingen. They used the account to introduce their plans for the practice and its culture and later found it particularly valuable for staff recruitment. Their experience forms the case study for the webinar.

Dr Thomas Martensen runs a practice together with his wife, dentist Dr Corinna Martensen.

Drawing on his experience, Dr Martensen will discuss suitable social media content for dental practices, the importance of authenticity and the use of Instagram to reach prospective employees and patients. Participants will also learn about how to select appropriate formats for their posts and how to incorporate content creation into their day-to-day work and use it as an opportunity for team building.

Staff recruitment was one of the main reasons the couple began building their Instagram presence before opening their practice. Dr Martensen told Dental Tribune International that they had repeatedly heard from colleagues about the difficulty of finding dental staff in Germany. “At some point, we noticed that practices which came across as cool, likeable employers just had a much easier time finding people. So, we thought, why not start working on that early?” he explained. He added that this early investment in social media was evident during recruitment: every applicant was already familiar with the couple and their plans for the practice through Instagram. “We’re just as honest in the videos as we are in real life, so they already knew our standards and what kind of practice we were building.”

In his webinar, Dr Thomas Martensen will share his experiences with patient acquisition through social media.

When asked whether the increasing amount of content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) had influenced the way dental professionals need to communicate online, Dr Martensen told Dental Tribune International: “I think the more AI-generated and overly polished content floods the feed, the more real, imperfect authenticity actually stands out—and the more people value it. Patients and future employees often can’t even tell any more whether something is real or AI-made, so trust becomes the real currency, not just reach.” He argued that, as AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, practices can distinguish themselves by showing real people and actual patient cases and giving genuine glimpses into the practice.

The webinar, titled “Start-up dentistry: Building a practice from scratch with the power of social media”, will be broadcast on 7 October at 7 p.m. CEST. Registration is free of charge. Participants can obtain 0.5 continuing education credits by watching the webinar and completing a quiz afterwards. More information can be found at campus.geistlich.com.