NICE says recall intervals should be risk-based. Your system says 6 months for everyone. That's wrong.
NICE Clinical Guideline 19 moved away from fixed 6-month dental recalls in 2004, recommending risk-based intervals of 3 to 24 months based on individual patient risk factors — periodontal status, caries history, smoking status, diet, fluoride exposure. Over twenty years later, most dental practices still recall everyone at 6 months because their practice management system doesn't support anything else. Meanwhile, an estimated 20-30% of registered patients are overdue for recall at any time — lapsed patients who haven't been actively reactivated. Your recall agent manages risk-based intervals per NICE guidelines, adjusts recall periods as risk factors change, and runs multi-step reactivation campaigns for lapsed patients.
What Your Agent Actually Does
Your agent manages NICE-compliant risk-based recall intervals and reactivates lapsed patients — so you stop over-recalling low-risk patients and start recovering the ones you've lost.
Sets recall intervals based on clinical risk
Healthy patient with no caries history and good oral hygiene? 12-24 months. High caries risk with active periodontal disease? 3 months. Your agent calculates recall intervals based on NICE CG19 risk factors from the clinical record, not a blanket 6-month cycle.
Adjusts intervals as risk factors change
A patient who was low-risk last year but now has new caries and has started smoking should be on a shorter recall. Your agent monitors clinical record updates and adjusts the recall interval accordingly — the interval is dynamic, not fixed at registration.
Runs multi-step reactivation for lapsed patients
Patients who haven't attended in 12+ months get a structured reactivation sequence: SMS, then email, then letter, then a phone task for reception. Messaging is tailored to likely lapse reasons — anxious patients get different messages than those who simply forgot.
Differentiates between NHS and private recall
NHS recall patients are booked against UDA capacity. Private recall patients may need different messaging, pricing information, or booking pathways. Your agent handles both streams with appropriate messaging and scheduling logic.
Reports on recall effectiveness
Monthly reporting: recall compliance rate, lapsed patient count, reactivation success rate, and the financial impact of recovered patients. You can see whether your recall system is actually working or just sending texts into the void.
The real numbers.
| Receptionist time managing recall lists | £2,000–£5,000/year |
| Lost revenue from lapsed patients (at 20% lapse rate) | £5,000–£15,000/year |
| Over-recalling low-risk patients (wasted appointments) | £1,000–£3,000/year |
| Realistic annual cost | £5,000–£12,000 |
| Agent build (one-off, configured to your patient base) | £3,000–£5,000 |
| Monthly running costs (hosting + AI usage + messaging) | £120–£200/month |
| Realistic first-year total | £4,440–£7,400 |
The irony of the 6-month recall is that you're over-recalling patients who don't need it and under-recalling patients who do. The low-risk patient who comes every 6 months doesn't need to — that's an appointment slot that could go to someone with active disease. And the high-risk patient who should be coming every 3 months isn't, because the system treats everyone the same.
NICE said this twenty years ago. Your agent finally makes it practical.
Good fit / not a fit.
This works brilliantly for:
- Any dental practice still using fixed 6-month recall intervals
- Practices with a significant number of lapsed patients they'd like to reactivate
- Mixed NHS/private practices wanting to optimise recall across both patient streams
- Practices that want to comply with NICE CG19 but find risk-based recall impractical to manage manually
This probably isn't for you if:
- Your practice already implements risk-based recall effectively with your current system
- You have a very small patient base where manual recall management works fine
- Your practice management system has built-in risk-based recall that you're satisfied with
Let's talk.
We'll start with your current recall system — how you set intervals, how you manage lapsed patients, what your compliance rate looks like, and what your PMS can and can't do. Usually a 10-minute conversation.
hello@nimblecroft.com