This patient lost all of his molars in the 4th quadrant a lonnnnnng time ago so this is what we see today in the uper one.
Initially they looked to me kike fillings (cements), but eventually I realized its calculus
yes, i remember the first time i came across somethign like this. i thought they were fillings as well. this calculus can be surprisingly tough to remove.
Damn right!
One more thing Iobserved and not just with this patient, is that calculus worked as a filling thou. I colored the tooth for decay identification and it was positive. Thou when i started to prep the cavity the decay afected only the enamel. Too bad i didn't picture that one!
calculus actually sucks up flouride and holds it against the tooth. there was some lit i saw back in dental school that showed how calculus actually strengthens the enamel on teeth. the bad part is the irregularity it creates on the root promotes perio but otherwise if you examine tooth structure that was covered by calculus vs tooth structure not covered by calculus, the structure that was covered is "better" and "stronger"....
you will see a cavity on a smooth surface of a root but you have never seen a cavity because of a piece of calclus on a root........at least i have not.....
Ocluzal Calculus 
