- 1Update medical, dental & social history — changes in health, medications and habits (tobacco/alcohol); refresh the risk assessment.
- 2Review since the last visit — new symptoms or pain, and any problems with restorations, prostheses or appliances.
- 3Soft-tissue & oral-cancer screening — re-examine all oral mucosal surfaces and the neck / lymph nodes; investigate any new or non-healing lesion.
TIP · Continue oral-mucosal cancer screening at every recall — examine all mucosal surfaces and investigate any new or non-healing lesion; a suspicious lesion warrants biopsy or specialist referral rather than an adjunctive device.
- 4Periodontal screening — BPE/PSR (or full charting where indicated): bleeding on probing, probing depths and plaque; compare with the baseline record.
- 5Dental / hard-tissue check — caries (visual–tactile on clean, dry, well-lit teeth), existing restorations and tooth wear; chart any change.
- 6Radiographs — take recall bitewings (and other views) only where caries risk and clinical findings justify them.
TIP · Recall radiographs (e.g. bitewings) are prescribed on the basis of caries risk and clinical findings — not at a fixed routine interval; follow patient-selection criteria and weigh benefit against radiation.
- 7Prevention & next recall — reinforce oral hygiene, diet and fluoride; agree the next recall interval from the patient's caries and periodontal risk.
TIP · Set the recall interval from the patient's disease risk. In regularly-attending adults, high-certainty evidence found little to no difference between risk-based and 6-monthly recall (caries, gingival bleeding, oral-health-related quality of life) over 4 years, and the INTERVAL RCT found no oral-health difference between risk-based, 6-monthly and 24-monthly recall.