“Yes, everything looks fine, we’ll see you again in six months”
Does this sound familiar?
Does that phrase often come immediately after a cursory look around your mouth lasting no more than 60 seconds?
Have you been seeing your dentist twice a year for years and never need anything doing?
Has all this left you asking do I really need to see my dentist twice a year?
Short answer: No, how often you see your dentist should be based on your risk of having dental problems.
Of course, we don’t want to jinx it if you've not had any problems, and we do love seeing you and catching up. A lot can change in six months, however, from a dental health perspective, if you've kept up with twice daily cleaning and cleaning in every gap every day with floss or an interdental brush (see my Do I really need to floss? blog) then your risk of having any dental problems is probably really low.
The most recent guidance from NICE recommends that the number of dental checks needed should be tailored to each individual, with the shortest recall being every 3 months, all the way up to 24 months for those at the lowest risk of developing dental problems (such as patients who wear full dentures). It's quite common at Smiles in Tandem for us to only see a lot of our patients once a year, particularly those who've reached their twenties and thirties with at most one or two fillings in their mouths.
Why do we need to get our teeth checked regularly?
Keeping up with your dental appointments is of course very important. The main aim of a dental check is to help make sure we're preventing any problems from starting in the first place, and if we happen to find something that needs a little attention, we're catching it early, before it becomes a bigger issue, ideally before you experience any problems yourself.
This small hole on the top image on the right would have been much easier to fix than the big hole on the bottom image. It takes 6-12 months for a cavity to grow this much.
There is evidence that decay can happen more quickly in younger patients and we also want to make sure we're setting everybody up with the best possible oral health regime to maintain healthy teeth for life, which is why we see most under 18s at 6 monthly intervals at most.
A proper dental check isn't just about checking for tooth decay though.
Our Dental Health Reviews include:
Checking for any problems you've reported to us
Reviewing any medical factors that can affect your dental health
Reviewing any dietary factors that can affect your dental health
Checking you're happy with the function of your teeth
Checking you're happy with the appearance of your teeth
Checking the jaw joint and the chewing muscles
Checking your lymph nodes, salivary glands, thyroid
Completing a thorough oral cancer check including your lips, roof and floor of the mouth and your tongue
Checking the level of tooth wear and any changes since your last visit
Checking the health of the gums
Assessing the effectiveness of your home oral hygiene measures
Checking the health of your teeth (yes, all the way down at step 12!)
Checking the stability of your fillings and crowns
Checking for any habits such as tooth grinding
Taking x-rays to check the health of your teeth and bone
Calculating your risk of having problems with tooth decay, gum health, tooth wear and oral cancer and deciding an appropriate time for your next dental health review.
And all of this is before we even begin to think the benefits of seeing one of our wonderful hygienists!
As you can see, there's a lot more to our dental health reviews than you might think. There are a lot of factors that go into establishing your risk of having dental problems and these will guide us as to how often you need to see your dentist.
Do you have a question you'd like to be answered? Get in touch at hello@smilesintandem.com
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