diff --git a/utf8.c b/utf8.c
index 24900b94c5..4328db534f 100644
--- a/utf8.c
+++ b/utf8.c
@@ -957,7 +957,7 @@ Perl_utf8_to_uvchr(pTHX_ const U8 *s, STRLEN *retlen)
 {
     PERL_ARGS_ASSERT_UTF8_TO_UVCHR;
 
-    return valid_utf8_to_uvchr(s, retlen);
+    return utf8_to_uvchr_buf(s, s + UTF8_MAXBYTES, retlen);
 }
 
 /*