Patient Recall Calculator

This calculator adds three 1-to-3 risk ratings -- Periodontal Risk, Caries Risk, and Compliance History -- into a single Combined Risk Score from 3 to 9, then reads that score against four tiers to set Recall Interval: 12 months at a score of 3 to 4, 6 months at 5 to 6, 4 months at 7 to 8, and 3 months above 8. Periodontal Risk and Caries Risk carry identical weight in that sum, so raising either one by a point moves Combined Risk Score by exactly the same amount as raising the other. Compliance History carries the same base weight, but it is not purely additive: when Compliance History is set to Poor and the tiered interval Combined Risk Score would otherwise produce is longer than 4 months, an extra rule shortens it by 2 more months, never below a 3-month floor. That second rule means Compliance History's real effect on Recall Interval depends on what Periodontal Risk and Caries Risk are already doing -- at this calculator's defaults, Poor compliance moves the interval further than either of the other two factors moved on its own, but once Periodontal Risk or Caries Risk is already at High, that factor can end up mattering more for the interval instead. Visits per Year is simply 12 divided by Recall Interval, rounded to a whole number of appointments a schedule could actually book.

These tier boundaries are consistent with NICE CG19 (a UK guideline allowing a 3-24 month adult recall range) and the ADA position that intervals should be individualised to risk, but that source is explicitly graded a "good practice point" (expert consensus), not a specific clinical trial. The best available trial evidence (Cochrane, Fee PA et al. 2020, CD004346.pub5) found little to no difference between risk-based and fixed 6-month recall for caries, gingival bleeding, and oral-health-related quality of life over 4 years -- and no trial in that review measured periodontitis outcomes at all, despite Periodontal Risk being this calculator's headline input. Treat this as a documentation aid consistent with published guidance, not a clinically validated schedule with trial evidence behind its specific tiers.