How Often Should You Really Have a Check Up

The honest answer is that it depends on your risk rather than the calendar. Here is what dentists look at when they set the interval.

Every six months is a habit rather than a rule. Current guidance in the United Kingdom is that the interval between check ups should be set by your dentist, based on your own risk of dental disease, and that it can be considerably shorter or considerably longer than six months.

In practice that means some people are seen every few months and some are safely left a year or more. Both can be correct. What matters is that somebody has looked at your mouth and made a decision, rather than the diary defaulting to a number that was never based on evidence in the first place.

What the interval is actually for

A check up is a screening appointment. The point is to catch things while they are small: early decay, gum inflammation that is starting to affect the bone, a cracked filling, a change in the soft tissues that is worth watching. Almost all of these are painless at the stage where they are easiest to deal with.

That is the whole logic of the interval. It should be short enough that nothing has time to become a serious problem between visits, and no shorter than that. Coming more often than you need to does not make your teeth healthier.

The examination is also about the parts of the mouth people do not think of as dental. We check the tongue, the cheeks, the floor of the mouth and the throat, because that screening is quick and is one of the genuinely valuable things about attending regularly even when nothing hurts.

What raises your risk

Several things tend to shorten the interval a dentist will recommend. A history of frequent decay or new cavities in recent years. Gum disease, particularly where bone has already been lost. Smoking. A diet with frequent sugary food or drink, where the frequency matters more than the total amount.

Dry mouth also raises risk, because saliva is one of the main things protecting your teeth, and it can be reduced by a number of common medicines. So can extensive dental work: someone with many crowns, bridges or large fillings simply has more surfaces and margins that need watching. Patients midway through orthodontic treatment usually need closer monitoring too.

Age plays a part at both ends. Young children have newly erupted teeth that are more vulnerable while the enamel matures, and older adults often have receding gums exposing root surfaces, which decay more readily than enamel does. Neither is a problem in itself, but both are reasons to be seen a little more often.

What lowers it

The opposite picture is a mouth with little or no history of decay, healthy gums that do not bleed, good daily cleaning, no smoking, and a diet where sugar is occasional rather than constant. Somebody in that position may safely be seen much less often.

Risk is not fixed for life. It moves. A change in medication, a stressful year where cleaning slips, pregnancy, a new health condition or simply getting older can all shift it in either direction, which is why the interval is reviewed at each visit rather than set once.

Check ups and hygiene visits are not the same thing

People often use the two interchangeably. A check up is an examination by the dentist. A hygiene visit is cleaning and coaching, usually with a hygienist, aimed at the deposits you cannot remove at home and at the technique you use every day.

They are scheduled separately and for different reasons. Somebody with healthy teeth but a tendency to build up tartar might be examined once a year and cleaned more often. Somebody else might be the other way round.

What to do between appointments

The interval only works if the daily routine is doing its job. Brushing twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste, cleaning between the teeth, and not rinsing the toothpaste away immediately after brushing so the fluoride has time to act. That is most of it.

The other half is not waiting for your appointment if something changes. A tooth that becomes sensitive, a gum that bleeds persistently, a lump or an ulcer that has not settled within a few weeks: none of those should wait for the diary. Ring us.

If you are not sure when you were last seen, that is a reasonable moment to book. We will examine you, tell you what interval we think makes sense for your mouth and explain why we have arrived at it.

If a longer interval is recommended, it is not a brush off, and if a shorter one is, it is not a way of selling appointments. Ask why, and you should get a specific answer about your own mouth rather than a general statement about dental health. That question is a reasonable one and a good practice will welcome it.

Related treatments

Related treatments

General Dentistry

Everyday dental care for the whole family.