Getting rid of dental calculus.

[YoungDude]

I had a question for you dental gurus... what are a few examples of different techniques for getting rid of dental calculus?

The most common technique that I have had used on me during my dental appointments is just to take a sharp tool and scrape the tartar off directly.

But... dental calculus is just a hodge-podge matrix of calcium phosphate salts (if I was understanding correctly), surely there exists methods to cause the tartar to react with another chemical to turn it into a liquid that you can just spit out into a sink. Of course, you would need a chemical that won't cause the minerals in your teeth to come apart, because that would be... unpleasant. My question to you is, are you aware of chemicals that are safe to use, like this that can do this?

I have read about one product that can supposedly do almost precisely what I have described above, it is called Periogen. Here is the website:
http://periogen.com/buy_periogen.html

Is this legitimate? Or are they selling dental snake-oil?

 

[Fredde B]

Nobody here can say for sure. Google the name at this and other forums to see if it comes up in anyone's reviews. If it's BS, somebody's probably written about it somewhere online, ditto if it's great. But don't trust any testimonial you read on the same site that sells the product, ever!

 

[LADentalclinic]

Definitely dental snake-oil. Dental calculus must be manually removed with special instruments because it is extremely hard. It can be prevented by frequent brushing and flossing. Plaque is soft and easy to remove but when it is not removed it hardens into calculus.