The buildup on your teeth is either plaque, tartar, or both, and the approach for removing each one is different. Plaque is a soft, sticky film that forms daily and comes off with proper brushing and flossing. Tartar is hardened plaque that feels like a rough shell bonded to your teeth, and no amount of brushing will remove it. Only a dental professional can take tartar off safely.
Plaque vs. Tartar: Know What You’re Dealing With
Plaque develops when bacteria in your mouth feed on sugars from the food you eat. It’s yellowish, feels fuzzy against your tongue, and builds up continuously throughout the day. If you run your tongue along your teeth and feel a slippery film, that’s plaque, and it’s the easier problem to solve at home.
When plaque sits on your teeth long enough, minerals in your saliva cause it to harden into tartar. This can happen in as little as 24 to 72 hours. Tartar starts out yellowish but can darken over time, especially along the gumline and behind the lower front teeth. It bonds to enamel so firmly that brushing and flossing can’t break it loose. People whose saliva is naturally more alkaline tend to form tartar faster, because a higher pH accelerates the mineral deposits that turn soft plaque into hard calculus.
Removing Soft Plaque at Home
Since plaque reforms constantly, removing it is a daily commitment rather than a one-time fix. Brushing twice a day for two full minutes covers the outer, inner, and chewing surfaces. Angle your bristles toward the gumline at about 45 degrees and use short, gentle strokes rather than scrubbing side to side, which can wear down enamel over time.
Power toothbrushes with oscillating-rotating heads remove significantly more plaque than manual brushes. In one clinical study, plaque scores dropped to about 20 with a power brush after six weeks compared to roughly 44 with a manual brush, nearly cutting the remaining plaque in half. If you’re seeing visible buildup despite regular brushing, switching to an electric brush is one of the simplest upgrades you can make.
Cleaning Between Teeth
A toothbrush alone misses the surfaces where your teeth touch each other, which is exactly where buildup tends to accumulate most. Flossing helps, but interdental brushes (the small, bottle-brush-shaped picks sized to fit between your teeth) are even more effective. A crossover study comparing both tools found that using interdental brushes with a toothbrush reduced plaque scores to 1.22, compared to 1.71 with floss and 2.32 with brushing alone. If you have gaps between your teeth large enough to fit an interdental brush without forcing it, that’s the better tool for the job. For tighter contacts, traditional floss still works well.
Tartar Control Toothpaste: What It Actually Does
Tartar control toothpastes don’t remove existing tartar. What they do is slow down the process of new plaque hardening into tartar. They work through ingredients that interfere with mineral crystal formation on your teeth.
Zinc salts, particularly zinc citrate, block crystal growth and have been shown in clinical trials to significantly reduce new tartar compared to regular toothpaste. Pyrophosphates work similarly by inhibiting mineralization. One ingredient, sodium hexametaphosphate, has demonstrated up to 55% greater tartar reduction compared to a standard toothpaste. If you’re someone who builds up tartar quickly between dental visits, using a toothpaste with one of these active ingredients can meaningfully slow the process down. Check the label for “tartar control” or “anti-calculus” claims, and look for zinc citrate or pyrophosphates in the ingredient list.
Why You Shouldn’t Scrape Tartar Off Yourself
Metal dental scrapers are widely sold online, and it’s tempting to try removing visible tartar at home. This is genuinely risky. Without training, you can scratch your enamel, which causes permanent sensitivity. You can cut or tear gum tissue, leading to recession that exposes the roots of your teeth. Perhaps most concerning, you can accidentally push tartar beneath the gumline, where it can trigger infections or gum abscesses. You can also injure your cheeks, tongue, and other soft tissue in the process. The money saved isn’t worth the potential damage.
What Happens During Professional Removal
A standard dental cleaning removes tartar above the gumline using hand scrapers or ultrasonic instruments that vibrate at high frequency to break the deposits loose. This is painless for most people and takes 30 to 60 minutes.
If tartar has built up below the gumline and caused gum inflammation, your dentist may recommend a deeper procedure called scaling and root planing. For this, your gums are numbed with local anesthesia. The hygienist or dentist removes tartar from both above and below the gumline, then smooths the root surfaces so your gums can reattach more tightly to the teeth. Sometimes antibiotics are placed directly around the roots or prescribed afterward to clear any lingering infection. The procedure is typically done in two visits, one side of the mouth at a time, and your gums may feel tender for a few days afterward.
Slowing Down Future Buildup
Some factors that speed up tartar formation are within your control. Sugary and starchy foods feed the bacteria that produce plaque, so reducing snacking between meals gives plaque less fuel to work with. Staying hydrated helps maintain saliva flow, which naturally rinses bacteria off your teeth. Smoking and tobacco use accelerate buildup and make gum disease more likely.
Other factors are harder to change. Your saliva chemistry plays a significant role: people with higher calcium concentrations in their saliva provide more raw material for mineralization, meaning plaque hardens faster regardless of hygiene habits. If you’ve always been told you have “a lot of tartar” despite brushing well, your saliva composition is likely a contributing factor. In that case, tartar control toothpaste, an electric brush, interdental cleaning, and more frequent professional cleanings (every four to six months rather than once a year) are your best combination for keeping buildup manageable.