# Anyone else get pieces of calculus coming thru their gums? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 25, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-pieces-of-calculus-coming-thru-their-gums/805268 "2017-12-25T15:19:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-pieces-of-calculus-coming-thru-their-gums/805268/21 "2017-12-27T12:04:41Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I had this as well. 4 years after post-wisdom-tooth dry sockets. I went to a periodontist who told me this would keep happening forever if I didn’t get a surgery for it. I got the surgery and congratulated myself for only waiting 4 years to fix a serious gum problem. Funny. I remember casually dismissing dry socket after wisdom teeth (and a few other) extractions as just some funny name for a condition someone else got. Pre-internet of course, and the biggest warning was “don’t smoke or drink alcohol”. Yeah right. But since I have developed liver cirrhosis in the intervening years, I think you still got the better end of the deal. ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-pieces-of-calculus-coming-thru-their-gums/805268/22 "2017-12-27T23:49:01Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > A calculus is a small rock. That’s still what it means in medicine: Small rocks like kidney stones or tartar or other hard mineral deposits in the body. (They’re not _like_ rocks, they _are_ rocks. A concretion of tartar is a rock.) This is related to math in that people used small rocks to count with, before the invention of the abacus, or the portable rocks-on-sand device. From there, we get the mathematical meaning of the term, as (integral and differential) calculus is “advanced counting” as a professor of mine used to say, and the origin of calculation is even more obvious. Thank you for this. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-pieces-of-calculus-coming-thru-their-gums/805268/23 "2017-12-28T02:18:20Z")
> [@Karen\_Lingel](#): > > Thank you for this. No problem. Huh. I haven’t seen one of your posts in years, I’m sure, and now you pop back up on my radar to thank me for a post. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-pieces-of-calculus-coming-thru-their-gums/805268/24 "2017-12-28T11:57:53Z")
No offense taken at the joke, because, yeah, I went back to the google to check the spelling. But it’s calculus as derleth advises. It’s still there, and it’s abscessed so the doc told me to keep my damn dirty hands out of my mouth (paraphrasing) until he can extract it. Salt water gargles and rinses for now. And I spend 20 minutes a day on my teeth. Flossing, gum stimulation inside and outer jaws, peroxide rinse, Listerine rinse and then right before bed chlorohexidine. I have shitty teeth, always have, but google this for yourself, it is not preposterous at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-pieces-of-calculus-coming-thru-their-gums/805268.md?page=1)