Introduction
Regular and adequate oral hygiene forms the basis of dental and oral health. Deposits in the form of plaque (soft plaque) or tartar (hard plaque) can sooner or later have an extremely bad influence on the tooth substance, gums and jawbone. Plaque generally forms a tough bio-film that consists of waste products of bacterial metabolism on the one hand and food residues on the other.
This soft plaque adheres to the finest grooves of the tooth surface and in many cases even penetrates to below the gumline. There it settles on and around the tooth root cell and sometimes causes deep gum pockets. If these soft deposits are not or only insufficiently removed over a longer period of time, they harden and become tartar.
Tartar is a solid deposit on the tooth surface. They can neither be removed by using rinsing solutions nor by brushing the teeth. These solid deposits are created by the accumulation of special inorganic ingredients of saliva, which are mixed with soft plaque.
Especially in the area of the salivary gland ducts (sublingual and parotid glands), tartar accumulates. In dentistry one speaks of so-called predilection sites. These sites include the inner side of the lower front teeth (incisors) and the outer side of the upper molars (molars).
Since especially the subsidence of solid plaque under the gumline can lead to the development of inflammatory processes and cause lasting damage to both the gums (resulting in gingivitis, gingival recession) and the jawbone (resulting in bone resorption), extensive oral hygiene is essential. However, the use of a toothbrush alone is generally not sufficient to remove all plaque from the tooth surface. The reason for this is that the bristles of the toothbrush can hardly or not at all reach some areas.
Pronounced tooth misalignments and/or crowns and bridges exacerbate this problem. For this reason, in addition to “normal” oral hygiene, the interdental space brush (interdental space brush) or dental floss should be used at least once a day (preferably in the evening). By using these aids, difficult to access narrow areas, interdental spaces and crown or bridge margins can be adequately cleaned.
