Tartar Removal

Dental tartar (also known as calculus) must be removed regularly to maintain dental health.  Every dentist and dental hygienist practices tartar removal, as it is the key to keeping gums healthy and to preventing the advancement of periodontal disease.

Tartar, above and below the gum line, is comprised primarily of calcium phosphate salts, saliva, debris and other minerals. Visually, the structure of tartar is that of millions of fossilized bacteria bound together in tens of thousands of layers. Up until now, tartar has been universally understood to be inert - so hard that only mechanical scraping with steel dental instruments and other abrasive techniques could remove it. Living within this porous material are fresh bacteria that ferment infection after infection. This tartar-bacteria connection is the true nature of periodontal disease.

The tools dental professionals use include steel hand scaling tools, lasers and ultrasonic devices.  The vast majority of tartar removal below the gum line is performed “blind,” with the clinician guessing where the tartar is and going at it as best they can.  This blind scaling technique is often called “deep cleaning.”

An innovative approach for the dental professional is the addition of a periodontal endoscope, sometimes called a Perioscope, which is a tiny camera inserted under the gum line which allows the clinician to see tartar formations and more effectively remove them.  This important innovation has been available for a number of years, but is seldom available for patients.
  
Periodontists on the other hand, gain visual access to tartar by splaying the gums open with a scalpel.  Once exposed, tartar is removed by scraping with scaling and planing tools.  After tartar is removed, the gums are stitched back together.  There is considerable post-operative discomfort with the scaling and root planing procedures, so these are performed only one section of the mouth at a time, usually months apart, so the patient is still able to eat.
 
Periogen® takes a completely different and painless approach to the same tartar removal problem.  Periogen® works by exploiting a weakness discovered The Periogen® Company in the fundamental structure of oral tartar. 

Periogen® dissolves layer after layer of tartar with each application. The number of Periogen® applications necessary to remove all tartar depends directly on the thickness of deposits. 

Periogen® does not dissolve the hardened tartar directly, but acts to dissolve the binding agents – the “cement” which holds fossilized bacteria and debris together. Microscopic study of Periogen® in action shows that thousands of individual fossilized bacteria disconnect and float free from cemented-together tartar “communities” with each application. Each application is as effective as the last, until tartar is dissolved into its most fundamental microscopic components.