How often should I really have a check-up?

Every six months for most adults, which is a compromise between how fast plaque hardens and how early a problem can be caught while it is still cheap to fix. Three to four months is better if you smoke, have gum disease, wear braces, or have a dry mouth from medication. Going to twelve months is a reasonable choice for a stable, low-risk mouth, as long as you accept that anything new gets a year to grow.

Is a check-up and clean covered by health insurance?

Almost always, if you hold extras cover. Preventive dental is the item funds cover most generously, and most policies include two visits per calendar year. Several major funds have no-gap arrangements that cover the appointment in full at this practice. We claim through HICAPS on the spot, so you pay the difference rather than the whole amount and wait for a refund.

Does a scale and clean hurt?

For most people it is closer to uncomfortable than painful — a cold spray, some vibration, and tenderness where gums are already inflamed. The more calculus there is, the more the gums complain, which is the argument for not leaving it three years. If your teeth are sensitive, say so at the start: we can use a desensitising paste first, work in shorter passes, or numb a quadrant if that is what makes the appointment bearable.

Check-up and clean

What does check-up and clean involve?

A standard check-up and clean takes 45 minutes and covers a full examination, a scale and polish, fluoride and two small x-rays. Most Australian health funds include two preventive visits a year in extras cover, several with no gap, and we claim through HICAPS while you are at the desk.

From $199 — exam, scale and clean, fluoride and two x-rays

At a glance

Appointment length: 45 minutes
From: $199 for examination, scale and clean, fluoride and two x-rays
No gap: Available with several major funds on preventive extras cover
Recall interval: Six months for most adults, three to four if gums need watching
Health funds: HICAPS claimed at the front desk before you leave

What happens in the 45 minutes

The appointment starts with the parts of your mouth that are not teeth: gums, tongue, cheeks and the soft tissue under it all, checked for anything that has changed since last time. Then every tooth surface, and two small bitewing x-rays if your last set is more than two years old.

Scaling lifts the hardened calculus that a toothbrush cannot shift, above and just below the gumline, using an ultrasonic tip and fine hand instruments where the ultrasonic cannot reach. A polish then takes off the surface staining that tea, coffee, red wine and cigarettes leave behind. We finish with fluoride, and with a short list of the specific surfaces you are missing — usually the inside of the lower front teeth and the back of the upper molars.

Six months, or three

Six months suits most adults because that is roughly how long plaque takes to rebuild into calculus in the places a brush misses. It is a default, not a rule. If you smoke, live with diabetes, wear braces or a plate, take medication that dries your mouth, are pregnant, or have had gum treatment in the past, three or four months is the safer interval and we will say so. Equally, if your mouth has been stable for years, we are not going to invent a reason to see you more often.

Claiming at the front desk

We are a HICAPS practice, so your fund is claimed while you stand there and you pay only the difference. Preventive visits are the best-covered item in most extras policies: with several of the larger funds the two annual visits carry no gap, and with the rest the gap is usually small. If you are not in a fund, the same appointment is a flat fee, quoted when you book rather than at the end.

What a healthy mouth gets told

If nothing needs doing, the recommendation is to come back in six months. We do not photograph every tooth to build a treatment plan you did not ask for, and we do not rename a normal clean as something more expensive. When we do find something — an early crack, a shadow on an x-ray, a gum pocket that has deepened — you will be shown it on the screen and given the option of watching it rather than treating it, where watching is genuinely reasonable.