If your gums bleed easily when you brush or floss, you may not feel it’s a big deal. But this is a sign that you have periodontal or gum disease, which can lead to other very serious health issues. This first stage is called Acute Necrotizing Ulcerative Gingivitis, a mouthful that means a bacterial infection is killing the cells in your gums in the area where there is bleeding. ANUG is usually just called gingivitis and other symptoms might be red, puffy, or sore gums, tooth sensitivity, or persistent bad breath.
This usually occurs because of inadequate brushing and flossing. It could be due to not spending a full two minutes brushing after breakfast and brushing and flossing before bedtime. Often it is just because of a need to get better at both techniques and your dental hygienist can show you the right ways. About a third of us have this early form of gum disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control, while half who are 30 or older have periodontitis, the more advanced stage.
It begins with gingivitis, when bacteria forms around any specks of food or drink that haven’t been scraped off. This turns into plaque, a sticky film that produces toxins which inflame the gums and can remove the protective surface of a tooth, the enamel (making it sensitive to touch). Without timely treatment from a dentist, the infection causes the gums to pull away from the tooth they are supporting and, untreated, eventually it will fall out or become so weak it needs to be extracted.
And that is just beginning: when a tooth is missing, the neighboring teeth begin to lean in to fill the gap and in the process become loose themselves. You need to replace the tooth with a dental implant or bridge before that happens to keep the others from moving or you will soon find multiple teeth that need replacement. In that event, you find yourself wearing a partial or full denture. As anyone can tell you who has them, they can make speech hard to understand, hinder chewing, have to be cleaned carefully, and need to be readjusted every few years because of the gradual loss of jawbone.
If all that isn’t enough, studies show that not dealing with gingivitis right away allows the oral bacterial to get into the blood stream and these significantly raise the risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, pneumonia, Alzheimer’s disease, and a variety of types of cancer.
If you have bleeding gums, call Pro Health Dental today to set an appointment for an immediate examination before it progresses.
Read More:
Preventing Cavities
