i’ve been watching a lot of dentist videos and the hygienists/dental practitioners keep mentioning that the calculus has/will cause severe bone loss.
google hasn’t been super helpful in explaining how exactly the bone is destroyed by the calculus, one dentist said ‘the bone doesn’t like the calculus so it moves away from it, causing loss’ but that doesn’t make too much sense to me either.
thanks in advance!
In: 5
The answer is inflammation, and the disease is called periodontitis.
Calculus induces inflammation on its own in the gums, which has recently been shown in studies with animals. On top of that it also creates a super-nice environment for bacteria to thrive in.
We have bacteria in our mouths, but things like calculus changes the types of bacteria, making some more inflammatory bacteria more common.
The inflammation is our bodys signal to protect itself. It causes swelling, increased blood flow and attracts our fighter cells – the neutrophils. Your gums get swollen, red and starts to bleed when you brush. The inflammation also triggers the breakdown of the bone, causing it to “retreat”. An infection in the soft tissues is bad, but manageable. Additional defensive cells can be called to action through the circulatory system. An infection in the bone would be worse and harder for the body to handle.
Edit:spelling, grammar and such
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