Two samples, one year
Sample a signal twice a year and there's a large class of things you simply cannot see: when a change started, how fast it moved, whether it's still moving, and what you were doing at the time.
A hygienist can tell you what your mouth looks like today, with far more precision than any photograph. What neither of you has is the middle.
What the middle contains
- The moment a routine change started working — typically week two, which is after most people have stopped.
- Whether a decline is new or has been going for five months.
- Which side, which region, and since when.
- Whether the thing you bought in March did anything by May.
- The reversion rate after a professional clean, which tells you your own real interval.
The appointment gets better, not redundant
Walking in with a timeline changes what the twenty minutes are spent on. Instead of reconstructing six months from memory, you're pointing at when something changed and asking a specific question.
That's a better use of a professional than an apology about flossing — and it's the only role a tracking app should be claiming.
Where this stops
Everything below the gum line, inside a tooth, or on a surface a camera can't reach is invisible to this entire approach. That includes most of what an examination exists to find.
So: keep the interval you were given. The app fills the 363 days in between, and occasionally tells you to book sooner.