Dental check-up recall intervals

The NICE dental checks: intervals between oral health reviews guidance covers assigning recall intervals between oral health reviews that are appropriate to the needs of individual patients and sets out a series of recommendations for dentists. Adherence to the guidelines enables dental teams to tackle health inequalities, reducing clinically unnecessary check-ups for those with lower oral health risk and focuses resources on providing care for those with more complex dental care needs and supporting increased access for new patients.

Communications materials are available for dental and ICB commissioning teams explain check-up recall intervals to patients and public. The communications toolkit is available to download from the Campaigns Resource Centre and includes posters and a leaflet, which is available in easy read and translated into a range of different languages, to help raise awareness that people with good oral and dental health may not need a check-up every six months. There is also suggested bulletin copy, social media posts and case studies.