If you read health blogs or articles, you might’ve heard about words like Calculus, Tartar or Plaque and you had no idea what they were talking about. You might’ve also heard these words from your dentist, telling you that he needs to remove tartar or calculus deposits from your teeth. Plenty of people will use these words without knowing exactly what they mean. Here I’ll try to explain what these words mean and how they affect you and the health of your teeth.
Plaque
A thin film which is composed of sticky bacteria, plaque appears on your tongue, gums and teeth. It’s quite sticky and it has different bacteria types in it. A simple proper use of a toothbrush will get rid of the plaque from your teeth, gums and tongue. Plaque starts to appear around 12 hours after you brushed, so that’s why you need to brush at least twice each day. The plaque is bad for you because the bacteria contained inside will cause gingivitis and tooth decay.
Plaque removal is done with a simple tooth brush, which should be used on a regular basis.
Tartar (Calculus)
If you don’t remove plaque when it appears, in time it will harden and become a mineralized mass which is known as Tartar or Calculus. It shows up as yellow deposits below or above the gums, on the outer and inner surface of the teeth. These deposits can be removed by an oral hygienist or a dentist. The speed at which tartar appears depends on each person. For some, it shows up harder, while others are more susceptible to it.
Tartar Removal
Those of us that have problems with Tartar can use a toothpaste specialized on tartar control. Before this, the dentist used hand scalers to remove the tartar, which was time consuming and quite tedious. Tartar removal is easier now than it was in the past, since there are automatic machines that make it all easier.
