Is the yellow and smelly stuff on teeth tartar?

Many people usually find that there are always some yellow and smelly things on their teeth because they don’t brush their teeth in time or don’t pay attention to cleaning their mouths. They are sticky and cream-like secretions. This is tartar. At first, the teeth are soft and have some odorous plaques, which gradually form hard things and need to be removed by teeth cleaning. Therefore, everyone must take good care of them in daily life.

Disease symptoms Symptoms of dental tartar: The formation of dental tartar is affected by many factors, such as the amount of saliva, saliva composition, diet and oral hygiene habits. The amount formed varies in different parts of the oral cavity. It is deposited and replaced on the tooth surface opposite to the opening of the salivary gland duct, on the lingual side of the lower front teeth, and on the buccal side of the upper molars. Its formation is affected by saliva composition, eating habits and oral hygiene habits, and can be formed as early as 48 hours after teeth cleaning. Its appearance is brown or black. Mild calculus is attached to the neck of the tooth, while severe calculus covers the entire tooth surface.

Causes

The mechanism by which mineral salts are deposited in plaque is not fully understood, but there are several possible explanations:

1) Alkalinity of the environment

Saliva: Saliva contains soluble acidic calcium phosphate and acidic calcium carbonate. When saliva is secreted into the mouth, carbon dioxide escapes and the saliva becomes alkaline. The environment around plaque and soft scale becomes alkaline. When the pH rises, the soluble calcium salts become insoluble calcium salts and are deposited.

Bacteria: Bacteria in plaque and scale can decompose urea in saliva into ammonia, making saliva alkaline, increasing the pH and making calcium salts easily deposited.

2) Increased phosphatase: Normal gingival tissue contains phosphatase. During inflammation or trauma, the enzyme content increases. Dental plaque and desquamated epithelial cells can also release phosphatase, causing the deposition of phosphates in saliva. There is also a carbonic anhydrase that causes saliva to release carbon dioxide, promoting the deposition of insoluble calcium salts.

3) Escape of colloid protein: Saliva contains a colloid protein that can bind calcium and phosphorus ions, keeping the phosphate in the saliva in a supersaturated state. When the saliva stagnates on the tooth surface, the colloid settles, the supersaturated state cannot be maintained, and calcium phosphate is deposited.

4) Mineralized core: Mineral deposition must have a calcified core, and bacteria, epithelial cells and intercellular matrix in the plaque may become the main core materials. The matrix between plaque cells is mainly a proteoglycan complex, which can complex calcium salts from saliva to become calcification centers. The bacteria in the plaque are themselves a kind of matrix, such as Ciliate and Actinomycetes, which can form an organic scaffold and adsorb minerals and deposit them on the tooth surface.