Dental recalls are an important part of maintaining good oral health and preventing the development of oral and dental disease.
Recalls must be based on individual patient risk factors, this includes not only their oral and dental health, but lifestyle and systemic factors which may affect behaviours which in turn affect their oral and dental health.
The focus on compelling dentists to “reduce clinically unnecessary checkups” is patronising and risks endangering patients’ health based on no data and with no consideration given to the non-dental factors affecting a patient’s health.
Clinicians must be trusted to work with patients to generate appropriate recalls, and not be set targets or other generalised expectations which may contradict their clinical responsibility to their patient.
The drive to try to force longer intervals between checkups ignores the other benefits of routine access to healthcare.
Forcing longer recalls to increase capacity is unethical and a response to a failure to properly invest in NHS dental services.
The 2025 dental consultation on quality improvement states a desire to reduce “clinically unnecessary” recalls in order to create more space for complex treatments.
There is no evidence that patients are being recalled “inappropriately”, nor is it clear what this means.
There is no such thing as unnecessary checkup as good oral health advice cannot be given too often, and patient risk factors change as a result of non-dental factors, such as exposure to UV, increased stress, lifestyle changes etc.
The NICE guidance states that “Recall intervals for patients who have repeatedly demonstrated that they can maintain oral health and who are not considered to be at risk of or from oral disease may be extended over time up to an interval of 24 months” and “For someone with low disease activity, it may be possible to gradually extend the interval towards the 24‑month maximum period – once the patient and the dental team are confident that this is satisfactory.” These are requirements unlikely to be met by much of the population.
