Looking and seeing

Questions are still asked, but are rarely answered satisfactorily about how frequently dentists should recall patients. The guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence was supposed to provide definitive answers, but it was so woolly that it can mean anything you like. To paraphrase the words that Lewis Carroll put into Humpty Dumpty’s mouth: 'When I issue a report, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more or less.'

My mind went back to this issue when I read an ‘evidence summary’ in the British Dental Journal (yes – we all have to do our CPD and even Apolline is moved to read scientific articles occasionally). It posed the question: ‘does routine scaling have any beneficial effects or is it a waste of time?’ It is a topical theme as this procedure has become an endangered species under the new National Health Service contract, although it is alive and well in the private sector.