Tartar is hardened dental plaque, a crusty mineral deposit that forms on your teeth when soft, sticky plaque isn’t removed in time. It’s roughly 70 to 80 percent inorganic mineral salts, primarily calcium and phosphorus, and once it solidifies, no amount of brushing or flossing will get it off. Only a dental professional can remove it.
Understanding what tartar is, how fast it forms, and why it matters can help you prevent it from building up in the first place.
How Tartar Forms
It starts with plaque, the thin film of bacteria that coats your teeth throughout the day. When you eat or drink, bacteria in plaque feed on sugars and starches, producing acids that attack tooth enamel. If plaque sits undisturbed, minerals from your saliva begin to crystallize within it. This process, called mineralization, can begin in as little as four to eight hours, though it typically takes 10 to 12 days for plaque to fully harden into tartar.
Once formed, tartar is a rock-hard deposit made of the same mineral crystals found in bone and teeth. Its mineral phase is about one-third hydroxyapatite, one-third whitlockite, and one-third octacalcium phosphate. The surface of tartar is rough and porous, which makes it an ideal landing pad for even more plaque. That’s the core problem: tartar accelerates the cycle of buildup, making it harder and harder to keep your teeth clean.
What Tartar Looks Like
Tartar usually starts out off-white or yellow and feels like a hard, chalky ridge along the gumline, especially behind your lower front teeth and on the outer surfaces of your upper molars. These spots are closest to your saliva glands, which supply the minerals that drive calcification.
Over time, tartar can darken to brown, gray, or even black. Darker colors often signal that the deposit has been absorbing pigments from foods, drinks, or tobacco, or that it has formed below the gumline where it picks up color from blood in inflamed gum tissue. If you notice a dark line along or just under your gums, that’s likely subgingival tartar, and it needs professional attention.
Two Types of Tartar
Dentists classify tartar by where it sits relative to the gumline.
- Supragingival tartar forms above the gumline, where you can see it. Its minerals come from saliva. It’s the yellowish or off-white buildup you might spot on the backs of your lower front teeth.
- Subgingival tartar forms below the gumline, hidden inside the pocket between tooth and gum. Its minerals come from the fluid that seeps out of inflamed gum tissue rather than from saliva. It tends to be darker, denser, and more strongly attached to the tooth root.
Subgingival tartar is the bigger concern. A two-year longitudinal study of early gum disease in adolescents found that the presence of subgingival tartar was the factor most strongly associated with subsequent loss of gum attachment, a finding that held up at the five-year follow-up as well. Because it’s hidden from view, it often goes undetected until gum disease has already progressed.
Why Tartar Is Harmful
Tartar itself doesn’t directly destroy tissue, but it creates the conditions for bacteria to thrive. Its rough, porous surface is always coated with a living layer of unmineralized plaque, and because tartar can’t be brushed away, that bacterial layer stays in constant contact with your gums.
The progression typically follows a predictable path. First, gums become inflamed and bleed easily, a stage called gingivitis. If the tartar isn’t removed, the inflammation worsens. Deep pockets form between the gums and teeth, filling with more plaque, tartar, and bacteria. Over time, this leads to periodontitis: the destruction of the bone and connective tissue that hold your teeth in place. Left untreated, teeth loosen and can eventually be lost.
The damage may not stop at your mouth. Periodontitis generates chronic, low-grade inflammation throughout the body. People with the condition tend to have higher circulating levels of inflammatory markers. When inflamed gum tissue bleeds, bacteria from periodontal pockets can enter the bloodstream. DNA from oral bacteria has been detected in arterial plaque samples. The American Heart Association has noted a growing body of research linking periodontal disease with cardiovascular disease, though a direct cause-and-effect relationship hasn’t been proven. Still, reducing chronic oral inflammation is considered broadly beneficial.
Why You Can’t Remove Tartar at Home
Tartar bonds tightly to enamel and root surfaces. Brushing and flossing can remove soft plaque before it mineralizes, but once it hardens, household tools simply aren’t up to the job. Some people turn to metal dental scrapers sold online, but using these without training carries real risks. You can gouge your enamel, creating scratches that increase tooth sensitivity and give plaque new grooves to cling to. You can also puncture or tear gum tissue, which is painful in the moment and can lead to gum recession, permanently exposing the sensitive root surfaces of your teeth.
How Dentists Remove It
Professional removal is straightforward and usually done during a routine cleaning. Your hygienist uses hand scalers or ultrasonic instruments to chip and vibrate tartar off the tooth surfaces above the gumline. For supragingival tartar only, the process is quick and typically painless.
If tartar has built up below the gumline, you may need a deeper procedure called scaling and root planing. Your gums are numbed with a local anesthetic, and your provider removes tartar from the tooth roots inside the periodontal pockets. After scaling, the root surfaces are smoothed so gum tissue can reattach more cleanly. Antibiotics may be placed around the roots or prescribed afterward to control infection. Most people feel some gum tenderness for a few days, but the pockets gradually tighten as inflammation resolves.
Preventing Tartar Buildup
Since tartar is just mineralized plaque, prevention comes down to removing plaque before it has a chance to harden. Brush twice a day for two minutes, paying extra attention to the gumline and the areas behind your lower front teeth. Floss daily to clear plaque from the tight spaces between teeth where bristles can’t reach.
Tartar-control toothpastes contain active ingredients designed to slow the crystallization process. Zinc salts inhibit crystal formation and have been shown in clinical trials to significantly reduce tartar compared to regular toothpaste. Pyrophosphates work by blocking mineral deposits from forming on tooth surfaces. One compound, sodium hexametaphosphate, has demonstrated up to 55 percent greater tartar reduction compared to a standard toothpaste in clinical studies. These products won’t remove existing tartar, but they can meaningfully slow new buildup between cleanings.
Regular dental cleanings, typically every six months, catch tartar before it causes lasting damage. If you’re prone to heavy buildup, your dentist may recommend more frequent visits. People who form tartar quickly often have more mineral-rich saliva, which is actually protective against cavities but means mineralization of plaque happens faster.