Optimal recall intervals in child dental care.
A favorite quote from John Fowles can be applied to the debate over the optimal recall intervals for children: "Total sight or all else is desolation." Piecemeal considerations such as the patient's caries prevalence or the rate of progression of a carious lesion, on their own, are insufficient to determine the optimal time for a recall examination. Only a regular, comprehensive examination permits the dentist to understand and apply the ecological model--how best to reduce the incidence of a oral disease and how best to care for or alleviate a disease process. This knowledge permits a practitioner to customize, to individualize his decisions with respect to frequency of examination, and when and where to apply preventive and/or treatment regimens. This applies to the management of dental caries, periodontal conditions, and growth and development problems of the dental/oral-facial complex. A practitioner can only manage the whole patient-as opposed to just the disease entity-by individualizing the frequency of recall examinations. Similarly, we can only implement optimal preventive measures-and ethically postpone invasive procedures-by individualizing recall examinations.
Nikiforuk
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Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003190:Comprehensive Dental Care; D004245:DMF Index; D019140:Dental Care for Children; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D018450:Disease Progression; D004990:Ethics, Dental; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008445:Maxillofacial Development; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D011313:Preventive Dentistry; D013997:Time Factors; D014076:Tooth Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy