Last updated: September 2026
Your privacy matters to us
We are Ruh Dental. This privacy notice relates to personal data used by Ruh Dental (KBH) Limited (registered company number 15751992), Ruh Dental (Fleet Street) Limited (registered company number 09473949), Ruh Dental (Notting Hill Gate) Limited (registered company number 10288078) and Ruh Dental (Manchester) Limited (registered company number 11669648).
We provide dentistry services and aesthetic treatments. We are registered with the UK data protection regulator under the following registration numbers: Ruh Dental (Fleet Street) Limited: ZA208919; Ruh Dental (KBH) Limited: ZB747454; Ruh Dental (Manchester) Limited: ZA56377; and Ruh Dental (Notting Hill Gate) Limited: ZA263053.
We are the data controller for the personal data we process about our patients, enquirers, subscribers, job applicants, employees, contractors and website users. This privacy notice explains how we collect, use and store your personal data.
Our privacy promise to you
Transparency
We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We will always tell you what data we are collecting about you and how we use it, and will never ask for more information than we need. We will not share your data with any third parties unless you have consented to this, they are a trusted partner working on our behalf, or the law allows us to. We will never sell your data.
Security
We are committed to following industry best practice to ensure your data is stored safely and securely. We will protect the information we process about you from accidental or unlawful access, disclosure, loss, damage or destruction.
Control
We will always give you control over the communications you receive from us. You can tell us you no longer wish to receive these at any time by emailing compliance@ruhdental.com.
How we obtain your personal data
Personal data means any information that can be used to identify you directly or indirectly, for example your name, an identification number, your location data, an online identifier, or factors relating to your physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.
Most of the personal data we process is provided to us directly by you, for example when you:
- make an enquiry about our services through social media, our website, by telephone or by email
- book or change an appointment with us
- attend an appointment
- provide us with feedback
- purchase our treatments, services or products
- sign up to receive information about our services, special offers and promotions (subscribers)
We may also collect personal information about you indirectly, for example through:
- friend referrals
- your use of our website
What information we collect and why
Enquiries
When you contact us to enquire about our products or services, we may ask for your name, email address, telephone number and the nature of your enquiry. We need this information so we can respond to your enquiry and keep a record of our communications with you. When you make an enquiry, we will contact you by telephone, email and WhatsApp. If we do not receive a reply, we will try to contact you the following day, and again a week later. If you do not reply at that point, we will no longer attempt to contact you.
Booking an appointment
When you book an appointment with us, you will be asked to provide your name, email address, date of birth and details of the treatment or procedure you would like. We also ask what you hope to achieve from your appointment or treatment plan, and whether there is anything we can do to make your appointments more comfortable, such as providing a blanket or playing your preferred music. We need this information to arrange your appointment, send you the appropriate consent forms and appointment reminders, and verify your age.
The chatbot on our website allows you to make enquiries and book appointments at any time of day. Because the chatbot sometimes lets you type your own responses, we ask that you only provide the information necessary for your enquiry or booking.
We do not provide treatments or procedures to children under 18 years old without parental or guardian consent. Patients who are under 25 years old may be asked to verify their age when they attend the clinic by showing identification, such as a driving licence, birth certificate or passport. These documents will only be viewed by our staff for age verification; we will not take a copy of or store this information.
When booking your appointment, you are asked to pay a £50 deposit, which is redeemable against your consultation or treatment fee. We do not receive or store your card payment details. All payments online and in clinic are made through our patient management system, Dentally, using Stripe Payments Europe Limited (SPEL). For more information on our data processors, please see ‘Where we store your data’ below.
If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, please contact us as early as possible. For full details of our cancellation and no-show policy, please see our terms and conditions.
For our legitimate business interests, and to ensure our online advertisements reach the most relevant audience, we ask Meta to show our advertisements to social media accounts of people who are similar to our existing customers. To do this, we share the email addresses and phone numbers of our customers with Meta so it can identify their accounts and show our advertisements to similar accounts on Meta platforms. You can opt out of this at any time by emailing compliance@ruhdental.com.
Attending an appointment
Medical questionnaires and consent forms
Before your appointment, you will be required to complete a medical questionnaire and a consent to treatment form. We need to know about your health and medical history so we can assess whether a treatment or procedure is suitable for you, tailor it to your health and wellbeing needs, and deliver it safely. At least once a year, you will be asked to confirm that your medical history form is accurate. After reviewing your answers, we may decline treatment if it is not considered to be in your best interests. If you do not provide health and medical information, your treatment or procedure may be cancelled, as we cannot perform these services without it.
You will also be asked to provide the contact details of an emergency contact. We will only use these details if you are involved in an emergency.
X-rays, photographs and videos
During your treatment it may be necessary to take x-ray images so we can assess your dental health and recommend the appropriate course of treatment. We may also need to take photographs or videos of your teeth, mouth and face so we can deliver the most appropriate treatment and ensure you receive the best possible results. Where photographs are required to deliver your treatment, you will be informed during your appointment.
We sometimes take photographs and videos of patients before, during and after treatments and procedures, to show them their results and to help us evidence, train, evaluate and, where necessary, improve the effectiveness of our treatments and services.
We are proud of the results we achieve and may ask for your permission to display your before and after photographs and/or videos in our promotional materials or on our social media channels. We respect your right to privacy and understand you may not be comfortable sharing your image publicly. We will always ask for your explicit consent before using your before and after photographs or videos in this way.
CCTV
Closed circuit television (CCTV) operates at all of our sites for the prevention and detection of crime, in line with our legitimate business interests. We keep CCTV images for at least 3 months. Where a legal reason is identified to keep them for longer, images will be retained until they are no longer needed.
Use of dental labs
If you have opted for a treatment that involves fitting a crown, bridge or other synthetic dental material, we will appoint a specialist dental laboratory to create this for you. Similarly, if you opt for removable aligners, your personal data will be shared with the aligner provider so they can create them for you. The personal data we share with these providers is kept to a minimum. Please see ‘Where we store your data’ below for more information on the specific third parties we work with.
After your appointment
Purchases
During your appointment you may choose to buy Ruh Dental products available exclusively in our clinics. If you make a purchase, we will collect your name and payment details to complete the sale.
Feedback
After your visit, we will email you to thank you for attending and to ask for feedback about your experience. This helps us evaluate our services and keep improving the patient experience. Your feedback may be shared with your dentist and the team working with you for their personal development, and any specific requests you make for future treatments or procedures may be added to your file so we can tailor your next appointment.
Aftercare instructions
After your appointment, we will email you aftercare instructions to help you get the best results from your treatment and avoid any activity that could affect the final result. Having a copy by email means you can revisit the guidance whenever you need to. If you have visited us for a dental check-up, we will contact you at regular intervals to remind you when your next check-up is due. You can unsubscribe from these emails at any time.
Patient file
Your patient file contains the information we hold about you. This includes your name, the contact details you have shared with us and a record of our communications with you. It also contains information about your treatment, including your answers to our medical questionnaires, copies of the consent you have given, details of the treatment provided, and your before and after photographs. To give you a more personalised experience, we also note any other information we consider relevant to your treatment or patient experience.
Friend referrals
We sometimes run promotions encouraging patients to refer friends. Patients are asked to provide their friend’s name so we can recognise them when they book. Please make sure you have your friend’s consent before sharing their name with us.
Using our website
When you visit our website, cookies are used to help you navigate the site and to tell us how well it is performing. Cookies are small text files placed on the devices of website visitors. They improve your experience and help us and other third parties understand how the website is used. Please see our Cookie Policy for full details.
Subscribers
Ruh Dental may use your email address, postal address or telephone number to send you information about our special offers, promotions, products or services. We will only send you these marketing communications if you have consented (opted in) to us using your contact details for this purpose. You can stop receiving them at any time by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any email or by emailing compliance@ruhdental.com.
Who we share information with
Your personal data may be shared with other healthcare professionals who need to be involved in your care.
We respect your privacy and confidentiality and will not share your personal data with third parties unless you have consented, the recipient is a trusted partner working on our behalf (a data processor), or UK law allows us to.
Where we use data processors to help us manage and store patient data, we have Data Processing Agreements in place to protect any personal data they may access on our behalf. To find out who our data processors are, see ‘Where we store your data’ below.
Our data processors only act on our instructions and are carefully selected to ensure they have robust security measures in place and comply with UK data protection law.
There may be times when we need to disclose personal data to other data controllers, for example:
- if you suffer a medical issue and it is in your vital interests for us to share your information
- if we sell our company or its assets
- if you give us your consent
- if we are under a duty to disclose your personal data, for example in response to a court order or a request from law enforcement agencies
- to enforce or apply our terms and conditions and other agreements
- to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our employees, our customers or others, including exchanging information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection
We will never sell your personal data or share it in ways you would not reasonably expect.
Our lawful basis and data retention
When we collect, use and retain personal data, data protection law requires us to have a valid lawful basis for doing so. These are set out in Article 6 of the UK GDPR and cover consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public task and legitimate interests. When we process more sensitive information (special category data), such as health information, we also need an additional condition under Article 9 of the UK GDPR.
The table below sets out the lawful bases we rely on and how long we keep your information.
| Category of data | Lawful basis | Retention period |
|---|---|---|
| General enquiries: name, email address, telephone number, nature of enquiry | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) | 1 year for enquiries that do not lead to a consultation or treatment. Where an enquiry leads to a consultation or treatment, it forms part of your patient file and is kept for 11 years after your last treatment. |
| Appointment bookings: name, email address, date of birth, treatment/treatment plan | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) | 11 years after your last treatment. |
| Attending an appointment: dental records, including medical questionnaire and consent form | Contract (Article 6(1)(b)) Defence of legal claims (Article 9(2)(f)) |
11 years after your last treatment. |
| Photographs and videos before, during and after treatment for clinical purposes | Contract (Article 6(1)(b)) Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) Defence of legal claims (Article 9(2)(f)) |
11 years after your last treatment or, if the patient was under 18 at the time of treatment, until the patient’s 25th birthday. |
| Photographs and videos before, during and after treatment for promotional purposes (where the patient is identifiable) | Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) Explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)) |
For the duration of our business operations or until consent is withdrawn. |
| After appointments: purchase information, address and payment details | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) | 11 years after your last treatment. |
| Feedback emails | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) | For the duration of our business operations. |
| Aftercare instructions | Contract (Article 6(1)(b)) | 11 years after your last treatment. |
| Patient file | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) Defence of legal claims (Article 9(2)(f)) |
11 years after your last treatment. |
| Subscribers: name, email address | Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) | Until you unsubscribe, the email address becomes invalid, or we no longer believe you want to hear from us. We keep the contact details of people who have unsubscribed indefinitely, so we know not to contact them again. |
| Friend referrals: name | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) | See ‘Subscribers’. |
| Using our website: referral source, parts of the page clicked, number of pages visited and time spent on each page | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) | See our Cookie Policy for specific retention periods. |
Where we store your data
We store your data in the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA). Some of our service providers may store personal data outside these areas. Where this is the case, we have UK International Data Transfer Agreements (or equivalent safeguards) in place to ensure they process our data securely and in line with UK data protection law.
We work with the following service providers on a regular basis:
Google
We use Google Workspace for email and business productivity. More information about Google Workspace security is available on Google’s website.
Dentally (patient platform and dental software provider)
The information you provide to us is securely stored in our patient management system, Dentally. For more information, visit www.dentally.com.
Pipedrive (patient relationship management platform)
Your contact details and our communications with you are stored in our patient relationship management platform, Pipedrive. For more information, visit www.pipedrive.com.
Better Proposals (email generation tool)
We use Better Proposals to create some of the email communications we send you. For more information, visit www.betterproposals.com.
Intercom (website chatbot)
Our website has a live chat feature provided by Intercom. The chatbot lets you find out more about specific treatments and which treatments best suit your concerns. Information you give the chatbot is passed to our reception team. For more information, visit www.intercom.com.
Meta (WhatsApp and advertising)
We use WhatsApp to respond to enquiries, and we share limited customer contact details with Meta for advertising purposes as described above. For more information, see Meta’s privacy policy.
Stripe Payments Europe Limited (payment services provider)
We use Stripe Payments Europe Limited to process payments on our behalf. For more information, see Stripe’s privacy policy.
Align Technology
We use Align Technology to provide Invisalign treatment. Align Technology provides the devices we use to take high-resolution images of your teeth, as well as the aligner trays needed for treatment. If you are receiving Invisalign treatment from us, you can find out more at www.aligntech.com.
For a full list of our sub-processors, please email compliance@ruhdental.com.
How we protect your data
We take our security responsibilities very seriously and have robust measures in place to protect our data and our customers’ personal data from accidental or unlawful access, disclosure, loss, damage or destruction. For example:
- Data is held on encrypted servers. Where personal data is stored outside the UK or EEA, International Data Transfer Agreements are in place to ensure it is protected in line with the UK GDPR.
- Access to our data and systems is on a strict need-to-know basis, and our employees and contractors are bound by confidentiality obligations.
- Employees receive mandatory data protection training and sign up to our Data Protection Policy.
- We have robust procedures to manage and report personal data breaches, in the unlikely event one occurs.
- We carry out due diligence on companies that process personal data on our behalf and have written contracts (Data Processing Agreements) requiring them to handle personal data in line with UK data protection law.
- We use up-to-date virus and malware protection and encryption, and we back up data regularly.
Your data protection rights
You have the following rights under data protection law:
Right to be informed
You have the right to be told how your personal data is being processed. This privacy notice explains how we handle your personal data.
Right of access
You have the right to ask us for a copy of your personal data.
Right to rectification
You have the right to ask us to correct information you think is inaccurate, and to complete information you think is incomplete.
Right to erasure
You have the right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction of processing
You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
Right to object to processing
You have the right to object to us processing your personal data where we rely on our legitimate interests or those of a third party. You can object to direct marketing at any time.
Right to data portability
You have the right to ask for personal data you have given us to be transferred to another organisation or to you. This applies where we process your information based on your consent or for contractual purposes and the processing is automated.
Right to withdraw consent
Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This does not affect processing carried out before you withdrew it.
To exercise any of these rights, please email compliance@ruhdental.com. You do not usually need to pay a fee, and you can expect a response within one calendar month.
How to make a complaint
We work to high standards when handling your personal data. If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, you have the right to complain to us directly. Please email compliance@ruhdental.com with details of your concern. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, investigate it without undue delay, and keep you updated on our progress and the outcome.
If you remain dissatisfied, you also have the right to complain to the UK data protection regulator, the Information Commission (formerly the Information Commissioner’s Office). Further information about your rights and how to complain is available at ico.org.uk.
Changes to this notice
We review this privacy notice regularly and will update it when our practices or the law change. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.
Contact us
If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the services we offer, please email us at compliance@ruhdental.com.
