What Is a Dental Health Check-Up?
Dental health check-ups in London cover a wide range of depths when it comes to looking after your overall dental health. This article explains the various steps involved in the matrix of dental health tests included in our consultation process. Contact us at Marylebone Smile Clinic to find out more.
A dental health check-up is a routine examination of the dental hard and soft tissues from an aesthetic, functional and health standpoint. It normally occurs every 6 to 24 months. This is a wide range, and it is typically dictated by the guidelines available to dentists, based on risk factors and your attendance pattern.
What you can expect from a private health check-up, an NHS check-up in London and a cosmetic comprehensive health check-up is vastly different.
Why a Routine Dental Health Check-Up Matters
Detecting health issues early is the cornerstone to maintaining good oral health long-term. The dental field has evolved over hundreds of years to prevent issues from causing pain and tooth loss by early detection. Routine health checks are designed to do just this.
NHS, Private and Comprehensive Check-Ups
NHS check-up
An NHS check-up will typically be booked as a 10 to 15 minute appointment. In this time you will have a basic periodontal examination, a caries screen for tooth decay and an oral cancer screen. There is typically no wider discussion, although you would often have x-rays taken at certain intervals.
This is the minimum standard expected in order to render health. However, it does not address certain aspects of the smile, which we come to below.
Private health check-up
A private health check-up looks closely at your overall tooth structure, your existing fillings and their condition, as well as all the basic gum and health indices described above.
Cosmetic or comprehensive dental health check
This is a much more detailed process, in which we go through an over 20 point system. It covers the areas below.
The Comprehensive Dental Health Check
Dental history and the jaw joint
We start with your previous dental history, then look at how the TMJ (jaw joint) is sitting and at the muscles of mastication. We check whether there is any clicking in your jaw joint that requires investigation, and what your Piper classification is. This is a risk factor for osteoarthritis in the jaw joint and tells us whether your click is in a safe or dangerous position.
Occlusion
We then look at your occlusion, or bite position, in dynamic motion. We assess anterior guidance and lateral guidance, and look for interferences. This indicates whether there is a risk of tooth wear that is accelerated or within physiological limits.
We then give our occlusal recommendations. These could include various ways to adjust the bite or provide force-balancing appliances, all of which is a critical de-ageing process for your teeth.
Biological health
The biological aspect is addressed by investigating your oral hygiene regime, looking at your plaque level, the risk factors for clinical caries, and the gum health scoring that is used across all three levels of dental health check.
Oral Cancer Soft tissues
We look at the soft tissues, meaning the gums, lips, floor of the mouth and tongue, for any indication of oral medicine type conditions.
Biomechanical issues
Orthodontic indices involve looking at how your teeth are positioned in terms of their malocclusion. Are the teeth straight? Are they overlapping correctly in terms of overbite and overjet? Is there a crossbite? All of these indicate the level of risk your teeth are under biomechanically, from a cleaning point of view and from an aesthetic point of view.
Gums
When it comes to the gums, we look at a closer series of tests. Have you had any bone loss? Is your gum thickness thin or thick? How much keratinised tissue do you have, which is a type of defence against oral hygiene methods. Do you have any gum recession, and are you accelerating it through something you do at home or a lifestyle factor? We also look at black triangles that may have developed with time.
Aesthetics and phonetics
Finally, we may look at how you speak, and at the phonetic aspects, such as how much of the incisor you show at rest. This tells us whether your teeth are in the right position for your smile.
We look at your lip line, smile line and midline, and whether it is shifted or canted. We look at your facial form and your strong and weak side, which tell us the width of your smile and whether it suits your jawline. We also look at how you make certain sounds. S, E, F and V are sounds dictated by how the top teeth sit against the lip and tongue.
We combine all of these factors to paint a very detailed picture of the form, function, aesthetics and health of the overall mouth system and the teeth themselves. Based on this, we discuss your goals in more detail and then discuss whether there are any further treatments for you.
How Often Should You Get a Dental Check-Up?
At a minimum, every 2 years, if you are someone who is very low risk. Every 12 months is right for most of the population, and every 6 months for those who are at high risk of tooth decay or who are simply struggling to maintain their teeth.
Dental Health Check-Up Pricing and Fees
Pricing varies from an NHS Band 1 treatment all the way up to £250 or more for specialist-led dental health screenings. This is a large range, and the difference lies in what is assessed in an NHS, private and comprehensive health check, as described above.
Our team at Marylebone Smile Clinic offers comprehensive dental health consultations at £150, which is a redeemable fee against any treatment you have. This allows you to access our care and knowledge with a minimum of risk to your finances, as it will be credited back to you if and when you go ahead with treatment.
Contact us to book your consultation.
How Much Does a Dental Check-Up Cost in London?
| Service Type | Estimated London Cost Range |
|---|---|
| Routine Examination | £150 |
| New Patient Consultation | £150 |
| Digital X-Rays (per intraoral film) | £0 |
| Scale & Polish (Hygienist Visit) | £150 |
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Choose the Best Dentist in London?
Location & Accessibility: Is it in Central London or close to transport links?
GDC Registration: Ensure all clinicians are registered with the General Dental Council and qualified in advanced techniques that may be relevant to you.
Patient Reviews: Look for consistently high ratings on Google and Trustpilot.
Range of Services: Do they offer cosmetic, tooth replacement and emergency treatments under one roof?
How do I book a routine dental health check-up in London?
You can search online for the best dentist in London for a health check-up, which will lead you to local dental clinics in your area. Alternatively, you can contact us at Marylebone Smile Clinic. We would be happy to help.
Do you accept emergency check-ups or same-day appointments?
Yes. If you are experiencing tooth pain, bleeding or structural damage, we can see you at short notice to address your concerns immediately.
How long does a routine dental health check-up take?
This can vary from 15 minutes up to 1 hour. Our health check-up and consultation process takes approximately 1 hour. Once you are a known patient of ours, subsequent check-ups take 30 minutes.
Is a dental health check-up painful?
No. We are only examining the tissues involved and having a conversation, so there is no pain involved. We appreciate that seeing a dentist can cause some anxiety in general, but remember that we are not doing any treatment at all. We are just having a look and having a conversation.
Why do we visit the dentist?
Seeing a dentist regularly is important as they will carry out routine checks such as caries screening (look for decay), check your gum health and carry out an oral cancer screening.
Your dentist will also check for wear on your teeth. For example, if you are a grinder/clencher, the likelihood of you having wear is relatively high, so your dentist can advise wearing a night guard to protect your teeth from damage/further damage.
During your gum health check, your dentist will take a BPE (Basic Periodontal Examination). Depending on the outcome of the BPE, your dentist will be able to inform you on oral hygiene instructions, along with how frequently you should visit the hygienist.
Here are the 8 general steps your dentist will take when carrying out an oral cancer screening. It may not necessarily be in this order, but we aim to check all your soft tissue areas in your mouth for oral cancer.
What are the preventive dental treatments?
Preventive dental treatments are recommended to you, by your dentist, to help you keep good oral health. This mainly means lowering your risk of tooth decay or gum disease. Here are the main preventive dental treatments:
Why is it so important to visit a hygienist? The simple answer is to lower the risk of plaque bacteria build up in your mouth. Even though you may brush your teeth twice daily, there are some areas which your toothbrush cannot reach, or can be very tricky to reach. Plaque bacteria that are left can turn hard, also known as tartar. Once this happens, the only way to remove it is by using professional instruments that your hygienist uses on a day-to-day basis.
Orthodontics
Preventive orthodontics is great at stepping in and helping with teeth to be guided into the correct position. This prevents the risk of over crowding or spacing. The main problem with crowded teeth is that it makes it very hard for you to clean them, hence the risk is higher for poor oral hygiene.
Fluoride Exposure
Fluoride prevents tooth decay, and this is due to the protection it gives your teeth against things such as sugar and acidic drinks or food. Whilst there is modernly a debate on the benefits of the use of fluoride, generally your dentist will always recommend the use of fluoride, daily!
Should we all see the dentist?
Yes, it’s commonly advised that you should see a dentist twice yearly. However, your dentist may recommend a different frequency period depending on your oral health and risk factors. A note to remember, your dentist checks for decay, gum health, oral cancer and tooth wear, so it is important to see a dentist at some point. For those patients who do not have teeth (edentulous), it is still just as important to see a dentist, as they will still check your gum health and carry out an oral cancer screening.
How often should I see a dentist?
Read the NICE guideline on intervals between oral health reviews.
This is the guidance provided to dentists by NICE.
NICE is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care in England.
When summarising on the guidance, NICE recommend that the interval between oral health reviews should be determined specifically for each patient and tailored to their needs. This is based on an assessment of disease levels, and risk of or from dental disease. The shortest interval between oral health reviews for all patients should be 3 months and the longest interval between oral health reviews for patients aged 18 years and older should be 24 months.
Take a look at Marylebone Smile Clinic’s very own Dr Sahil Patel discussing this in his latest podcast!
How can I check my risk level for needing a check-up?
Here is how a dentist checks your risk level when recommending the frequency of your check-ups: Checklist as part of a risk assessment for each patient:
- Identification (identifying the risk and protective factors present in each patient)
- Evaluation (evaluating the impact of these factors in the context of the patient’s past and current disease experience)
- Prediction (using all this information to predict the potential future occurrence of disease in the patient and to assign an appropriate recall interval)
Can seeing a dentist too much be a bad thing?
Seeing a dentist too much will never be a bad thing for you as the patient. The main concern to consider is the risk of putting strain on public funded services if the dental visit is unnecessary.
Dentist at Marylebone Smile Clinic and an Accredited member of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.
GDC number: 258353. Last reviewed: 9 November 2026