diff --git a/modules/comment/comment.install b/modules/comment/comment.install
index 7959e79..73fb8a7 100644
--- a/modules/comment/comment.install
+++ b/modules/comment/comment.install
@@ -338,6 +338,13 @@ function comment_update_7006(&$sandbox) {
 }
 
 /**
+ * Add an index to the created column.
+ */
+function comment_update_7007() {
+  db_add_index('comment', 'comment_created', array('created'));
+}
+
+/**
  * @} End of "addtogroup updates-6.x-to-7.x"
  */
 
@@ -442,6 +449,7 @@ function comment_schema() {
       'comment_num_new' => array('nid', 'status', 'created', 'cid', 'thread'),
       'comment_uid' => array('uid'),
       'comment_nid_language' => array('nid', 'language'),
+      'comment_created' => array('created'),
     ),
     'primary key' => array('cid'),
     'foreign keys' => array(
diff --git a/modules/comment/comment.module b/modules/comment/comment.module
index c295179..88e9048 100644
--- a/modules/comment/comment.module
+++ b/modules/comment/comment.module
@@ -495,6 +495,7 @@ function comment_permalink($cid) {
  *
  * @param integer $number
  *   (optional) The maximum number of comments to find. Defaults to 10.
+ *
  * @return
  *   An array of comment objects or an empty array if there are no recent
  *   comments visible to the current user.
@@ -502,15 +503,12 @@ function comment_permalink($cid) {
 function comment_get_recent($number = 10) {
   $query = db_select('comment', 'c');
   $query->innerJoin('node', 'n', 'n.nid = c.nid');
-  $query->innerJoin('node_comment_statistics', 'ncs', 'ncs.nid = c.nid');
   $query->addTag('node_access');
   $comments = $query
     ->fields('c')
-    ->condition('ncs.comment_count', 0, '>')
     ->condition('c.status', COMMENT_PUBLISHED)
     ->condition('n.status', NODE_PUBLISHED)
-    ->orderBy('ncs.last_comment_timestamp', 'DESC')
-    ->orderBy('c.cid', 'DESC')
+    ->orderBy('c.created', 'DESC')
     ->range(0, $number)
     ->execute()
     ->fetchAll();