---
title: "What Is Recall? Dental Practice Glossary | Copeland Consulting Services"
description: "Recall is the system a practice uses to bring patients back at set times for exams, cleanings and other follow-up care, sometimes called recare."
url: https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/recall
publisher: Copeland Consulting Services
email: drcopeland@joncopelanddds.com
contact: https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/contact
---

Practice management

# Recall

Recall is the system a practice uses to bring patients back at set times for exams, cleanings and other follow-up care, sometimes called recare.

The ADA calls these visits recare appointments and says they are essential to maintaining and monitoring patients' oral health. It advises contacting patients to schedule recare appointments at the appropriate intervals. A systematic review in the Journal of the American Dental Association found weak evidence for a one-recall-interval-fits-all protocol and said clinicians may wish to consider assigning intervals on the basis of each patient's risk of developing caries. Offices track recall with software reports of overdue patients. The most common type is the [hygiene recall](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/hygiene-recall). A steady recall system also supports [patient retention](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/patient-retention).

[Next stepPractice consulting with Dr. Copeland](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/contact?topic=consulting)

## Related terms

-   [Hygiene recall](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/hygiene-recall)
-   [Patient retention](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/patient-retention)
-   [No-show](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/no-show)
-   [Practice systems](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/practice-systems)

## Sources

1.  [ADA, Recare Appointments](https://www.ada.org/resources/practice/practice-management/recare-appointments)
2.  [JADA, A Systematic Review of Dental Recall Intervals and Incidence of Dental Caries](https://jada.ada.org/article/S0002-8177(14)61526-9/abstract)

## Talk with Dr. Copeland

[Contact Dr. Copeland](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/contact)[Email](mailto:drcopeland@joncopelanddds.com)