While teeth often take center stage when it comes to dental health, it’s important to remember that it's your all-important gums that keep everything in place, not to mention protect your mouth against bacteria and injury.
Sadly, overall gum health in the United States is less than ideal, as half of men and a third of women age 30 and older have some degree of periodontitis, aka gum disease.
If you want to maintain healthy gums as you get older, it’s important to recognize when there might be a problem, as we can reverse the early stages of gum disease. To that end, the team here at Hillsdale Dental Care, led by Dr. Magdalena Azzarelli and Dr. Roge Jacob, review a few signs that your gums may not be in the best of health.
Typically, the first sign of a problem in your gums comes in the form of mild inflammation and redness around your gumline. When this occurs, it usually indicates that bacteria are trying to get under your gums where they can really cause some damage to both your gums and your teeth. In an effort to block the invasion, your gums can become inflamed and might appear redder than normal.
Another common sign of unhealthy gums is bleeding, which usually shows up when you brush and floss. Often, you see the blood when you rinse and spit into the sink.
If this occurs once or twice and then goes away, there’s typically no cause for alarm. If, however, the bleeding is persistent and gets worse, please come see us, as this likely indicates active gum disease.
As gum disease progresses, you might develop some discomfort. For example, your gums might be more sensitive and sore. Or you might encounter pain when you chew.
Whenever you have something painful in your mouth and it doesn’t resolve within a day or two, it points toward an issue that can benefit from our expertise.
As the bacteria eat away at the soft and hard tissues in your mouth, they release gasses that can turn your once fine breath into something unpleasant.
If you’re starting to see more white tooth and less pink gum tissue, this means that your gums are receding, which is a common symptom of gum disease.
The key to successfully treating gum disease is to have us intervene at the first signs of a problem so to help reverse the course of your oral health. The fact is that gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss in the US, so if you want to safeguard your teeth, you need to pay attention to your gums.
If you suspect that your gums aren’t as healthy as they should be, we urge you to come see us straight away. Often, a good, deep cleaning is all it takes to restore the health of your gums.
For skilled gum care, please contact our office in San Jose, California, to set up an appointment with one of our dental experts.
