Key takeaways
- Every advertisement for a licensed clinic beyond its licensed name and address requires prior approval of the text, sound and images from the licensing authority, under Section 38 of the Sanatorium Act B.E. 2541 (1998).
- Certain words are refused outright: stem cell, cell therapy, anti-ageing, IV drip, NAD+, exosome, growth factor and chelation all appear on the DHSS refusal list.
- Advertising without approval carries a fine of up to THB 20,000; false or exaggerated advertising carries up to one year's imprisonment and/or a fine of up to THB 20,000. Defying a written suspension order adds up to THB 10,000 per day.
- The advertising doctor's licence is separately at risk: six months' suspension for a first advertising breach, two years for a second, revocation from the third.
- Since 3 July 2026, a physician advertising aesthetic services must state his or her real name and surname together with the medical licence number in the advertisement itself.
In the first half of the current fiscal year, the Department of Health Service Support (DHSS) reviewed 4,521 clinic advertising posts and found 2,433 of them unlawful, involving 89 clinics. By its own April 2026 statement, the DHSS now coordinates removals with Facebook, TikTok and the major Thai booking platforms. For a clinic, the question is no longer whether anyone is watching. It is whether your advertising would survive the watch.
Approval comes before the advertisement, whoever places it
Section 38 of the Sanatorium Act B.E. 2541 (1998), as amended in 2016, is broader than most operators expect. Any person who wishes to advertise or announce anything about the operation of a licensed clinic, beyond the clinic's licensed name and address, must first obtain approval of the exact text, sound and images from the licensing authority. The rule binds "any person": the operating company, its offshore parent, a marketing agency, an influencer paid to post.
The mechanics sit in a DHSS notification of B.E. 2562 (2019). Applications are filed at the DHSS One Stop Service Centre in Nonthaburi. The fee is THB 500 per A4 page of written material and THB 50 per second of audio or video. The authority must decide within 30 days of a complete application, extendable once by up to a further 30 days with written reasons. An approval number is issued and must be displayed in the advertisement. Advertisements in a foreign language must be filed with a certified Thai translation.
The words themselves are refused
Approval is not a formality, because the DHSS approval centre publishes a guideline of words it will not approve. The current edition, revised in February 2026, refuses advertising for treatments that the Medical Council has not recognised as professional standard, and it names them: stem cell, cell therapy, growth factor and PRP, anti-ageing in all its Thai variants, IV drips, exosomes and chelation therapy. NAD+ is refused on a different ground: the product lacks Thai FDA authorisation for the advertised use.
The guideline also offers the approved vocabulary. A clinic may describe itself as caring for or promoting health and beauty. A drip service may be advertised as a drip programme with a named vitamin. The list is expressly illustrative rather than exhaustive: wording that points at a prohibited treatment is treated as the prohibited claim.
Truth does not cure absence of approval
Section 38 contains two separate prohibitions, and clinics regularly confuse them. Advertising without approval is an offence even if every word is true, with a fine of up to THB 20,000 under Section 68. False or exaggerated advertising is the more serious offence: imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to THB 20,000, or both.
The daily fine is widely misquoted. The further fine of up to THB 10,000 per day does not run automatically while an unapproved ad stays online. It runs from the day the advertiser defies a written suspension order issued under Section 39, and continues until the advertisement stops. In practice the DHSS settles first offences at a fraction of the maximum fine and escalates for repeat offenders, and violations are counted per channel: the same post on a website, a Facebook page and a TikTok account is three violations.
The doctor's license is on the line, not only the company's fine
Since July 2024, the Medical Council's announcement on aesthetic advertising (No. 39/2567, as amended) has defined advertising to cover every channel, expressly including online media and specific-group media, meaning closed or members-only groups. A members-only LINE group or a private Facebook community is not a safe harbour. A physician may state his or her actual qualifications but may not claim to be skilled, experienced or expert in aesthetic medicine, and the Council operates a voluntary pre-clearance channel for doctors who want certainty before posting.
The sanctions ladder is published. For advertising offences, a first breach costs six months' suspension of the medical licence, a second costs two years, and a third results in revocation. Mitigation is possible, but not below half the tariff.
Since 3 July 2026, an amendment adds a further requirement: a physician advertising aesthetic services must state his or her real name and surname together with the medical licence number. A nickname may appear only alongside the real name, in the same format, size and colour.
Directors are personally exposed
Where the advertiser is a company, Section 74 of the Sanatorium Act extends liability to any director, manager or person responsible for the company's operations whose order, act, or failure to act caused the offence. The standard is fault-based, but for a managing director who approved the marketing plan, or received the suspension order and did nothing, the exposure is personal and criminal.
From our practice The pattern we see most often is not a clinic that set out to break the rules. It is a clinic that launched with compliant materials, then let outside agencies and platforms generate content without anyone refiling for approval. When the takedown letter arrives, it lists every post on every channel separately, and the doctor named in the posts discovers that the medical licence, not the company's marketing budget, is the asset at risk.
What to do now
Audit every live channel this month: website, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, LINE Official Account, and every listing on booking platforms, against the current DHSS guideline. Withdraw or refile anything using a refused term, and replace it with the approved vocabulary. Diarise the approval numbers you hold and what they cover; anything outside them needs a new filing. If a suspension order arrives, stop the advertisement the same day, because the daily fine runs from defiance, not from the original post. And because the real-name rule is already in force, check every live campaign naming a doctor: the advertisement must carry the real name, surname and licence number in the required form.
How Dej-Udom & Associates can help
Our Corporate & Commercial team advises clinic operators and investors on advertising approval filings, wording reviews against the DHSS guideline, responses to suspension orders, and the licensing framework for medical and wellness facilities in Thailand.