How to Stop Tartar from Building Up

Tartar makes it harder to brush and floss and can lead to cavities, gingivitis, and bad breath. If you allow tartar to build up, you may eventually need to have your teeth capped or even removed. Here is everything you need to know about how to get rid of tartar as well as tartar causes and prevention – best recommendations from dentist in Bolton.

What is Tartar?

Our mouths have bacteria. When the bacteria mix with proteins and food by-products, they form dental plaque. Dental plaque is a sticky film that coats the teeth, gets under the gum line, and sticks to fillings and other dental works. When plaque accumulates on the teeth, it hardens into tartar. Tartar, also called calculus, forms along the gum line (called supragingival) and within the narrow sulcus between the teeth and the gingiva (called subgingival).

How Tartar Affects Teeth and Gums

You should go for tarter removal because of its devastating effects on teeth and gums. Removing tartar is important because:

What Causes Tartar Build-Up?

Tartar builds up due to the precipitation of minerals from gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and saliva in dental plaque. The precipitation process kills the bacterial cells within the plaque, but it causes a hardened, rough surface that is the ideal surface for further plaque formation. Note some tartar can form even without plaque deposits by the process of direct mineralization of the pellicle.

Supragingival tartar formation is most common on the upper jaw (maxillary) molars and the lower jaw (mandibular) incisors because these areas experience high salivary flow due to their proximity to the sublingual and parotid salivary glands. On the other hand, Subgingival tartar forms below the gum line and is typically darker in colour due to the presence of black-pigmented bacteria whose cells have a layer of iron from heme which they get during gingival bleeding.

How to Stop Tartar from Building Up

Preventing plaque and tartar build-up saves your teeth and reduces visits to the dentist’s office. Proven tips to prevent and reduce tartar build-up include:

Removing Tartar at Home

If you already have tartar, the good news is that you can get rid of it from the comfort of your home. Below are proven tips on how to remove tartar at home:

How a Dentist Can Help to Remove Tartar

If you have a bad tartar problem, you will need to see a dental hygienist. Professional tartar removal techniques include:

  1. Hand instruments: Dental hygienists use specially designed tools to remove plaque and tartar. These tools include chisels, sickle scalers, universals and area-specific curettes, files, jaquettes, and hoes.
  2. Ultrasonic scalers: Ultrasonic or power scalers are effective in plaque, tartar, and stain removal. These scalers are used for root planing, surgical debridement, and curettage. There are piezoelectric and magnetostrictive ultrasonic scalers – both types using oscillating materials vibrating at high speeds (between 18,000 and 50,000 hertz) in different vibration patterns.
  3. Near-ultraviolet and near-infrared lasers: Lasers like Er, Cr: YSGG get into hard-to-reach areas where traditional hand instrumentation cannot get. They work quickly without affecting the underlying healthy tooth structure.

At Smiles on Queen Dentistry, our experienced and well-equipped team will not only help you in cleaning tartar off teeth, but we will also educate you on how to prevent tartar formation and how to get rid of tartar at home. We take the safety of our Bolton, ON clients seriously and only use the highest quality products and procedures.

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