That paper only looks at the effects on gum health, not cavities.

Dental calculus also seems unrelated to cavities. It may even have a (slight) protective effect.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4950958/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9776022/

The first one is about just 1 tooth they found in a pool of 1000 extracted teeth. The second one says "there was a high association between gingivitis and plaque status with calculus accumulation" in the abstract, thus contradicting your earlier comment.

The one from my earlier comment is a meta study, so it bears more weight.

Over 2-3 years, which isn't insignificant, and does suggest cleanings can be done less frequently, but it isn't particularly long term.

I'm curious if that still holds over say 5 years. And how does it intersect with other practices. For example are people who don't floss religiously more likely to benefit from more frequent cleanings, etc.

From personal experience I need a regular cleaning every year and since I'm not cheaping out anymore on this as I did as student my teeth related health problems went to 0. I think it is useful if you aren't that disciplined with taking care of it yourself. I forget to floss every other time or simply forget to brush at times when I sit at a longer coding session and might eat during it but then forget to brush teeth afterwards. Procedure always removes plenty of scale/tartar.