A sticky substance called plaque builds up on your teeth on regular basis. But, it’s removed when you brush your teeth. If not removed regularly, it hardens over time and develops into dental calculus which is a non-sticky and hard porous material.
You can clean plaque with flossing or brushing, but once tartar or dental Calculus bridge is developed, you can’t brush it off. Dental calculus is hard to remove through brushing the teeth because it’s strongly bonded to teeth enamel. It requires professional help to remove dental calculus and its removal is crucial as well. Because it causes stains on your teeth, gum diseases, bad breath, and ultimately tooth decay.
If you don’t want your teeth to undergo dental treatments, you must prevent the build-up of dental calculus on your teeth. And for its prevention, you must know what its causes are.
Causes of Dental Calculus
The root cause of the build-up of dental calculus is the unremoved plaque on your teeth. And, plaque can still be there on your teeth even if you brush them on regular basis. Because there are still bacteria in your mouth. After some time when you’ve eaten, this bacteria mixes with the sugary or starchy food debris in your mouth. This way a sticky substance, which is plaque, is developed on your teeth.
NOTE: For more information on the difference between plaque and dental calculus, you can visit Healthyell.
The development of plaque is normal for everyone’s teeth. But, you’re prone to plaque development if you:
- Eat carbohydrate-rich foods such as cookies, popcorn, spaghetti, potato chips, pasta, and bread, etc.
- Eat sugar-rich foods and drink soft drinks.
- Chew or smoke tobacco
- Have dry mouth because of taking certain medications or simply because of not drinking enough water.
So, if consuming beverages and carbohydrate-rich as well as sugary foods is a major part of your eating routine, you give your mouth bacteria more sugars to feed on. As a result, acids are produced in your mouth that leads to bad oral health conditions such as cavities and gingivitis. Therefore, the major cause of dental calculus is intense plaque development.
How bad Dental Calculus can be?
Dental calculus indeed leads to tooth decay, but there’s more to the story. Dental calculus leads to the formation of a calculus bridge, which ultimately and severely damages the oral cavity. When you don’t even remove dental calculus, it starts coating your multiple teeth and even inside the gumlines. Therefore, you can see a brown border on your teeth surfaces and a bridge of calculus or tartar is formed.
Prevention
Though you can’t completely avoid plaque formation, you can prevent your teeth from severe plaque build-up that eventually leads to dental calculus which ultimately causes calculus bridge. So, for preventing your oral cavity from all that, you should brush two times a day and for two minutes. You should cut down on the high intake of sugar and carbohydrates. You should use fluoride toothpaste and also change your toothbrush after every 15 days at least. Moreover, you should visit a dentist every 6 months to check whether everything is okay with your oral cavity or not.
Also Read: