Calculus, sometimes its math problem for Cady Heron sometimes its a bit more…dental.

Calculus, or tartar as its sometimes know can be a tricky subject for some Hygienists and I know some Hygienists that ban the word completely, but it is a really common complaint and something we get asked to ‘remove’ daily from Dentists and you guys alike so I thought I would tell you what the craic really is with calculus and what we can do about it.

First of all what in the heck is it? Well my friends, to understand calculus, we’ve really gotta start with plaque. Now if have a whole blog post on plaque if you so desire here, but if not we’ll quickly go over the basics. Plaque is the nasty stuff that you really should be getting off with your toothbrush, but if you don’t, and it hangs around for long enough it will start to eat through your tooth causing a cavity or it will start to cause you gum problems, in other words, causing havoc, plaque is…a bit of a hallion.

Now, lets go back in time waaaayyy waaaaayyy back to ancient man (and woman - this is an equal opportunities blog). In ancient times, the to do list of ancient man basically read, eat, sleep, procreate, sleep until the ripe old age of 40 if you were lucky, avoiding death by bears, other ancient men, illness and natural disasters where possible. Although admittedly they probably had to deal with less plaque because their diets were super different to what ours are like today, they were still dealing with plaque. Sadly they couldn’t give there teeth a good brush before bed as (hopefully) we’re all doing now so the human body had to adapt to this havoc causing hallion plaque in the quickest way possible before ancient man got an infection, died and couldn’t add his genes to the gene pool of the future.

Ingeniously, the human body developed calculus (or tartar as lots of people still call it). This calculus is essentially entombed infection causing bacteria that is present in plaque and believe it or not it is here to help you. I kind of think of it as Winifred Saunderson at the end of Hocus Pocus - spoiler alert she aint causing no more trouble. By fossilising the plaque the bacteria can no longer move around and cause an infection, keeping ancient man alive to eat sleep rave repeat for another day. These days, the risk of dying of a dental infection is massively lower than it was in ancient times because of modern dental treatments and antibiotics but the potential is still there and even though we need it a lot less than we might’ve done in the past calculus is still there to this day helping us out and keeping that plaque bacteria in check.

Calculus will form at different rates in different areas of your mouth and from person to person, this is because:

a) Everyone’s saliva is different which means that the amount of plaque and tartar that forms will vary.

b) Everyone’s diets are different, eg if you eat more sugar you will produce more plaque and logically then more tartar.

c) Certain areas of your mouth are more high risk than others eg any areas close to a salivary gland are the highway to hell for your body, because if plaque bacteria got in here it would cause chaos. This is why you get calculus or tartar building up around your upper back molars and the tongue side of your lower front teeth because you’ve got a couple of big salivary glands in those areas.

So now we know what it is, lets get down to what can we do about it.

Calculus is hands down one of the biggest things that I hear patients complaining about, but I would far rather look inside one of my patients mouths and see wall to wall calculus rather than soft plaque. Calculus increases the surface area of your mouth so more plaque can piggy back on top of it and sometimes it can become heavily stained and this is ultimately why we get rid of this. Aside from this is actually not doing you much harm and as long as you keep it clean, it won’t cause you too many problems other than being a bit unsightly.

Calculus build up is also nearly 100% preventable if you are:

Using something to clean in between your teeth daily - you can find out more about this here.
Brushing with either an electric and soft manual toothbrush twice a day for 2 minutes using the correct technique - you can find out more about this here
Using a fluoride toothpaste that meets your needs - you can find out more about some of my favourite toothpastes either here or on my YouTube channel.

Calculus won’t cause a cavity and it won’t directly cause gum problems, but plaque will. This is why it is so so important to remove it at home everyday. The tricky thing is though, once plaque turns into calculus its there for the long hall and it won’t be removed by your toothbrush, for that you’re going to need to see me or your own Dental Hygienist. Leave that to the professionals.

Hopefully this has answered some of your calculus or tartar questions and you’ll see now that its not as bad as it looks - literally. So next time you’re at your appointment and you mention the build up on your lower teeth, I want you to think of plaque as the bad guy , not the calculus and focus on your oral hygiene routine at home and listen to the tips we’re giving you so it doesn’t form in the first place.

Thankyou so much for reading :) any questions please comment below or send me a DM to my Instagram account.