Calculus builds up in layers and hardens with age. Old calculus is very tenacious. The amount of calculus the depends on oral hygiene habits ie how well is the plaque removed daily and the pH of the saliva. Calcium enters the mouth via the saliva, it is in solution....when it enters the atmosphere of the mouth it will stay in solution if the patients saliva is acidic and the more basic the saliva the more the calcium will crystallize. The calcium crystals need the plaque matrix or rough tooth surface to attach. Patients pH fluctuates between basic and acidic. They have no control of this fluctuation. I have cleaned the same patients teeth for 17 years every six mouths...every couple years there is change...more calculus less calculus. Since I believe oral hygiene stays the same or gets better...the time they are forming more calculus is their" basic stage" and I tell them to be patient it will pass in a couple years. Calculus formation tells you where the patient habitually misses....like posterior interproximal, gumline mandibular anterior, distal posterior 2nd molars etc.
VERY IMPORTANT TIDBIT OF INFORMATION: When you remove the newer layer of calculus...leaving older calculus exposed....it softens. Two weeks later what you couldn't remove two weeks prior will now come off. This affects how I do my SRPs.
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