Last updated: October 2026
No. Before/after treatment photography for aesthetic procedures is restricted under the KKM/MOH Aesthetic Medical Practice Guidelines in Malaysia, regardless of framing or caption. It's 1 of 9 rules the free KKM Ad Checker screens for — use educational visuals, practitioner credentials or clinic environment shots instead.
Why before/after photos are restricted
The restriction sits under the KKM/MOH Aesthetic Medical Practice Guidelines, alongside the Medicines (Advertisement & Sale) Act 1956 and Malaysian Dental Council guidance for dental practices.
The underlying principle is the same one that shows up across every market we work in — Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan all restrict before/after comparisons in medical advertising too, though each sits under its own distinct law.
Paired outcome photography implies a guaranteed or typical result, which a clinical decision that varies per patient cannot honestly promise in advertising.
What to use instead
Educational or process visuals — what the treatment actually involves, not its outcome. Practitioner credentials and qualifications. Clinic environment and technology shots.
None of these carry the same restriction, because none of them make an implicit outcome claim. This is exactly the substitution our free KKM Ad Checker suggests for every flagged before/after item, and the same logic our aesthetic clinic marketing programme builds creative around from the start.
Does this differ for dental clinics?
Dental clinics are covered too: the Medicine Advertisements Board's policy decision MAB 2/2019 says an advertisement should not contain 'before' and 'after' pictures, and posting them anyway is one of the most common violations MDC-regulated practices make.
See the free MDC Ad Checker for the dental-specific version of this check, and our full guide to advertising a dental clinic legally for the broader picture.
What happens if you use them anyway
See the companion guide, what happens if you breach KKM advertising rules, for the real, structural consequences — platform-level ad rejection, professional-conduct exposure, and statutory risk under the Act.
How this compares across markets
Malaysia is not unusual here — before/after imagery is restricted or prohibited in every market our checkers cover. See the full cross-market breakdown in our medical advertising rules comparison.
Check your own ad copy before it goes live.
Free self-check against 9 rules drawn from KKM/MOH guidelines — flags before/after imagery and 8 other common issues.
- Cite this
- shakalakaa (Plixitt Solutions). “Can I Use Before/After Photos in Ads in Malaysia?”
- https://shakalakaa.my/resources/can-i-use-before-and-after-photos-in-ads-malaysia · Updated 2026-10-18
- Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
shakalakaa (Plixitt Solutions). "Can I Use Before/After Photos in Ads in Malaysia?" https://shakalakaa.my/resources/can-i-use-before-and-after-photos-in-ads-malaysia. Updated 2026-10-18. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.