Don’t Forget Your Dental Checkup! 3 Tips for Making & Keeping Appointments

Just like how your car needs periodic tune-ups to make sure it keeps running smoothly, it’s important to get two dental checkups every year to ensure your smile stays healthy! Regularly visiting your dentist helps them spot oral health issues as early as possible and treat them while they’re still small. However, even though you know dental cleanings and checkups are important, it’s not always easy to remember these appointments. Here are three practical tips for making and keeping your dental checkups.  

Tip #1: Set Physical or Digital Reminders

Six months is a long time to remember you have an appointment coming up. You may not leave room in your schedule for your next dental visit, or you may forget to schedule it altogether. One easy way to avoid this is to set a reminder about it as soon as you schedule it and leave it somewhere you’ll see a week or two beforehand. This way, you can plan your upcoming activities around your visit or reschedule it if you need to. You can leave yourself a note on the bathroom mirror or by the front door, mark it down in your calendar or planner, or use digital reminders and alerts on your smartphone.

Tip #2: Make Your Next Appointment Before You Leave the Office

There’s no need to wait six months before scheduling your next appointment! Before you leave your dentist’s office, talk to the team at the front desk. They’ll help your next visit in six months so you won’t have to remember on your own. Even if you don’t know what your schedule will look like in half a year, it’s a good idea to have an appointment on the books. As long as you keep track of your appointment reminder card, you should be able to schedule your upcoming events around your visit, or reschedule it if needed.

Tip #3: Make Dental Checkups a Yearly Habit

If you can schedule your dental checkups and cleanings for the same time every year, such as every January and June, or every March and August, they can become part of your yearly habits. If you stay consistent, you’ll start to naturally associate your appointments with yearly occurrences, such as the start of the new year, changing of the seasons, or other annual events in your life.

It’s time to take charge of your oral health! Use these simple tips to help make and keep your dental checkups for years to come.

About the Author

Dr. Mark Stapleton of White Oak Dental has been serving smiles of all ages in Chaska and the surrounding communities for nearly a decade. As an alumnus of the world-renowned Dawson Academy and current member of the American Dental Association, he has completed expensive training in a wide variety of advanced topics. Whether you need a simple cleaning or a more complex treatment, he and his team always go above and beyond to make every visit as pleasant as possible. To schedule your next dental checkup, he can be contacted via his website or at (952) 448-2868.