Concomitant Calculus and Caries

¹ Eastman Dental Dispensary, Rochester, New York

As a preliminary to a detailed laboratory study of calculus, 1,144 consecutive patients ranging in age from five to eighty were examined for dental calculus in the Eastman Dental Dispensary Prophylaxis Clinic by a dentist. Of these, 295 subjects (25 per cent) had deposits confirmed as calculus in the laboratory by radio-opacity to soft X-ray. Clinically, 91 per cent of the calculus subjects had supragingival deposits. Of these, 34.6 per cent had subgingival deposits either combined with the supragingival or on other teeth. The proportion of calculus subjects with mixed calculus increased significantly with the age of the subject. The occurrence of slight, moderate, or severe amounts in those subjects with supragingival calculus alone did not vary with age, but the proportion of subjects in the groups decreased.

However, the proportion of subjects and amount of supragingival deposits increased significantly with age when subjects with both mixed and supragingival calculus were considered.

A simple classification of the caries showed that, among calculus subjects, at least 69 per cent of each age group was affected by active caries, but the proportion affected after forty years of age decreased significantly. However, increasing amounts of either supra- or subgingival calculus had no effect on caries activity of the calculus producers. In fact, 89 people (30.3 per cent) had supragingival calculus on carious teeth, 87 per cent of which fell in the classification of active lesions. Of the abnormally heavy calculus producers, 69 per cent had active lesions. The lesions of calculus producers cited and another group of non-producers showed a similar pH response to a glucose rinse.