TikTok, launched in September 2016, is the latest social media platform to take the world by storm. Figure 1 shows TikTok’s growth since its inception. Its downloads surpassed Instagram, especially during the pandemic. Figure 2 shows the growth of app downloads since the beginning of 2017, and figure 3 compares it to Instagram app downloads.
If you’ve already downloaded the app and looked at some of the content, you may be saying to yourself, “There’s nothing but a bunch of teenagers doing stupid dances on this app. How am I supposed to use this to promote my dental practice?"
When new digital marketing platforms are introduced, it’s a mystery how to use them for marketing purposes. Applying new digital marketing techniques to a highly specific industry such as dentistry is even more complicated. But there are pioneers and early adopters who figure out effective ways to use these new marketing opportunities, and once there are examples the process and techniques can be replicated by others. TikTok is being used by early adopter dentists to promote their practices in effective and creative ways. There is still plenty of time to build your channel and see huge benefits.
Why start a dental TikTok account now?
Imagine 2005 when Facebook was just starting, and you implemented an awesome Facebook marketing strategy. You would have been like my good friend Anissa Holmes and her practice, JCDS. She consistently generated 25 to 50 new patients a month from Facebook marketing. She was an early adopter of the platform and figured out how to leverage social media to significantly reduce her marketing expenses.
You may not remember this, but Facebook marketing was pretty much free for the first 10 years or so. After they went public in 2012, they launched their advertising platform. But prior to that, Facebook was virtually free to market and advertise. Now you can take advantage of TikTok’s marketing potential. You just have to understand how to do it. If you decide to include TikTok in your dental marketing, take advantage of the e-book TikTok and Instagram Reels eBook for Dentists, which gives you effective tips on how to get started.
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If you’re familiar with TikTok, move to the part of the article about the channels I recommend you follow. If you’re not familiar with TikTok, it’s helpful to compare it to Instagram for context. If you don’t know anything about Instagram, you’re about seven years behind the rest of the industry and you probably need professional training and support.
Instagram began as a square photo sharing app but through the years has added tons of functions. If you download the app today, you’ll find that Instagram is a massive visual software platform that allows for creating and sharing images, stories, short-form video (reels), long-form videos (IGTV), streaming capabilities, carousels, and more. It has wide ranging functionality and has become an effective marketing channel for all types of businesses. When it comes to dentistry, Instagram is an especially effective dental influencer marketing platform.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a mobile vertical format, short-form video channel. That’s it! No photos, no stories, no long-form video, no carousels. When the app first launched, the videos could only be 15 seconds or less. But recently TikTok began to allow stringing four 15-second videos together to create a one-minute video.
You should use both TikTok and Instagram in your marketing campaigns but realize that the tone and intent of your content will be different for each one. TikTok focuses on giving users simple and creative ways to make entertaining videos, whereas Instagram has more functionality. If you’re interested in learning more about Instagram, check out the articles Instagram for dentists and Social media content for dentists.
Let’s look at how forward-thinking dentists are using TikTok to educate and promote their dental practices.
Dentist TikTok accounts for inspiration
@doctorgraves
Check out one of Dr. William Graves’ TikTok video here. This one has received more than 13.9 million views. But it’s not just the few videos that go super-viral that you should pay attention to. As you watch his videos, you'll see just how effectively Dr. Graves uses his TikTok channel to promote his oral surgery practice.
Here are links to Dr. Graves TikTok account and the full list of TikTok dentists to follow.
@thebentist
The Bentist is one of the most popular channels on TikTok with more than 11 million followers. His dental videos are entertaining, fast-paced, and educational. Here is an example of a creative educational video on his channel. Notice how he uses the TikTok video editor to speed up the content, condensing the video to short, quick, bite-sized pieces of content. If you’re completely new to mobile video creation, watch these 10 dental video ideas you can do today. Here’s the link to the Bentist TikTok account.
@juliedavisdds
Dr. Davis’ channel is a fantastic example of how to use TikTok to promote a specialty practice. She’s extremely effective as she cleverly uses the applications functionality to create educational videos.
How to get more information
Hopefully, the dental TikTok accounts we’ve recommended will inspire you to set up your own channel and start creating content. For those of you who want more help, subscribe to our dental marketing blog and receive ideas and suggestions for free.
Writing great social media captions is not easy and takes up precious time. Here is our complimentary list of the top 101 dental social media captions. All you have to do is download, copy, and paste!
Sometimes all you need is to see how other practices are using social media to know exactly what to do. Download the Ten awesome dental social media success stories eBook and be inspired. Give us a call at (877) 316-7516 or request a complimentary social media strategy call. My Social Practice has helped more than 6,000 dental practices implement effective and inexpensive dental social media marketing campaigns.
Author’s note: This article is a shortened version or a blog post that I published titled 13 awesome TikTok dentist accounts to follow. Please visit if you’re interested in seeing all the dental TikTok accounts we recommend to follow.
