Abstract

Chronic inflammatory periodontal diseases i.e., gingivitis and periodontitis are one of the most common afflictions faced by the human beings. They are considered to be infectious in nature having polymicrobial etiology. Dental plaque, which is a pool of these disease causing microorganisms has been the focus of researchers for the long time, and is considered to be the primary etiologic agent in disease etiopathogenesis. However, dental calculus which is a mineralized product of this plaque remains ignored and is considered merely as an ash heap of minor significance in etiopathogenesis of disease. Even though, there literature evidences of presence of intact and viable bacteria within the non- mineralized channels and islands in supragingival calculus from various studies. However, viability of bacteria in dental calculus and their role in disease pathogenesis still remained obscure. Therefore, this review intends to collate all the available literature and present the studies related to etiologic significance of dental calculus and investigation of the viability of bacteria in dental calculus along with their identification at one place and provide a way forward towards better understanding on etiopathogenesis and treatment of periodontal diseases.

Keywords: Dental Plaque; Dental Calculus; Etiopathogenesis; Gingivitis; Periodontitis Periodontal Diseases; Viable Bacteria

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Citation

Citation: Ramakant Gupta., et al. “Dental Calculus – Mere Ash Heap or Still A Mystery: A Review of Literature on Etiologic Significance of Dental Calculus”. Acta Scientific Dental Sciences 5.1 (2021): 100-109.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Ramakant Gupta., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.