Guide

HIPAA-compliant dental texting.

Texting patients from personal phones is the most common HIPAA violation we see in dental — here is the compliant alternative.

Minimum requirements

Signed Business Associate Agreement with your vendor, encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, audit logging, and workforce training.

DDSText includes a BAA on every paid plan with no upcharge. Details on /hipaa-baa and /security.

What not to do

Do not use iMessage, WhatsApp personal, or staff cell cameras for clinical photos. Do not paste PHI into consumer AI chatbots.

Audit preparation

Compliance officers should export a sample audit log, verify BAA countersign dates, and confirm sub-processor list matches /hipaa-baa before an OCR review.

Our 2026 benchmark reports 41% of surveyed practices still use personal phones for patient texts — see /guides/dental-texting-benchmark-2026 for methodology.

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