Facts and Myths about Scaling of Teeth

Do you know that 98% of India?s adult population suffers from gum disease in one form or the other ? Yes, this is a fact & root cause of every gum disease is the bacterial plaque which when not removed properly hardens to form calculus . The more calculus you have, the more your gums and bone underneath recede from the teeth leaving them weak.

Bacterial plaque is the root cause of most dental problems. This is a filmy coating made up of  millions of bacteria which collect around your gum line & between your teeth. You can temporarily get rid of this furry coating by brushing, but the bacteria begin growing again almost the moment you finish brushing . If neglected , bacterial plaque attacks your gums, leading to inflammation and bleeding. This condition is called gingivitis. Bleeding gums are a warning that plaque is weakening the tissue between your gums & teeth & the bone supporting your teeth. 

Bacterial plaque that is not removed , begins absorbing your salivary salts, particularly calcium & phosphate and hardens to form tartar/calculus. When calculus settles between your gums & teeth, it forces your gums to recede from your teeth exposing the roots. This

makes your nerves vulnerable to extreme temperature and /or sweet and sour food.  The bone also recedes in the same fashion as gums, which causes mobility of teeth & ultimately leads to tooth loss.

To summarise, it is the presence of deposits that leads to weakening of teeth and not the process of removing the deposits. The age old wrong notion that the process of scaling causes weakening of teeth is absolutely  baseless. And in scaling, dentist removes the calcified deposits from the teeth and not the enamel, as is wrongly believed.

May be if the deposits are removed too late, at a stage when most of the bone is lost and teeth are temporarily cemented together with hard calculus , tooth may move after scaling. Hence scaling does not make teeth loose, they have already become loose due to calculus. Only the removal of patch of calculus has set in the mobility. This happens at a very late stage. 

Scaling if done at a proper time ie. every six months to remove calculus, the cycle of gum disease is broken & the onset of gum disease is prevented.

REST ASSURED SCALING WILL NOT WEAKEN YOUR TEETH RATHER IT WILL MAKE THEM STRONGER.