USA Catching Up with UK Recall Changes
- Details
- Published: Monday, 15 September 2025 07:49
- Written by Peter Ingle
- Hits: 373
Many dental innovations, whether in technique or materials have crossed the Atlantic from west to east on their way to UK practices. But it is not an entirely one way traffic, as shown by a recent article in the Los Angeles Times.
The story related to dental examination frequency, and asked what for many of its readers will have been a novel question: Is Six Months Still the Standard?
As the articles author Kevin Famuyiro put it: “For so long, it’s just been the rule. Six months. Like clockwork. You go, we clean, we check. Rinse and repeat. But lately, we’ve had to ask ourselves: Why six months? Is it actually...necessary for everyone? Because, honestly, the more we dig into the research, the less clear that ‘standard’ really looks.”
The question was posed, were readers about to see, “The End of the Universal Timeline”?
Reference was made to two main papers supporting this, a suggestion that many Americans might regard as heretical. One was the British Dental Journal review of 2003 which observed that the traditional six-month dental check-up interval lacks strong scientific backing, and had stated that no high-quality evidence supported or refuted it.
Another later blow to the status of the six month interval was the 2020 Cochrane review, which found no significant difference in oral health outcomes between patients receiving their examinations at risk-based intervals, versus those on a set six-month routine.
In the author’s experience: “We’ve always been taught this blanket approach. Everyone. Twice a year.” But the Cochrane review, had followed patients over four years. Some had their exams every six months whilst others attended at times that were set based upon their risk. There was little difference between the two groups when it came to the two major dental diseases. Even quality of life measurements were similar.
Further papers were referred to, but most were published within the last decade with only one, limited to caries in Finnish adolescents, predating the seminal BDJ piece.
The author’s conclusion: “It’s a bit uncomfortable, isn’t it? To realize how much of what we do is based on... tradition. Not hard science.”
The point was made that dental visits remained important. Particularly for younger patients, regular visits when they included tooth brushing instruction could delay or prevent major treatments. But even here the evidence supporting a rigid interval was weak.
When the first high speed handpieces were produced in the USA nearly 70 years ago, it did not take European dentists long to adopt them. Now, the concept of risk based recalls is slowly making its journey the other way.
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report
My comments