Check if user has access to route

[KrisGHE]

I'm using routeNeedsPermission in my routes.php file, which is very convenient.

In my navigation I would only like to show items that the current user has access to. How can I check if a user has access to a specific route?

I'm worried that routeNeedsPermission only interrupts routing if the route is requested, but doesn't really work like a "setting" that can be checked even if the route doesn't get called. Is that the case?