Gingivitis

Gingivitis is a common and mild form of gum disease that causes irritation, redness and inflammation of your gingiva, the part of your gum around the base of your teeth. Gingivitis can lead to much more serious gum disease called periodontitis and tooth loss.

Healthy gums are firm and pale pink and fitted tightly around the teeth. The common signs and symptoms of gingivitis are Swollen or puffy gum, dark red gums, Gums that bleed easily when you brush or floss, Bad breath, Receding gums, tender gums.

How Can Gingivitus Be Reversed?

• Use an electric tooth brush in morning and night for 2 minutes. This to disrupt the bacteria on the biofilm and to ensure all plaque is removed

• Floss daily ensuring the floss in seeping underneath the gum – If it bleeds do not worry as this is showing signs of bacteria so KEEP FLOSSING until this bleeding stops, it usually takes a couple of days.

• Regular visits to the dentist/hygienist to check the gums and to guide you if you are unsure what to do.

Gingivitis can then lead to periodontitis which is not easily reversed as Gingivitis. Heart and kidney disease, Alzheimer’s, asthma, osteoporosis, and cancer has been liked to oral health problems such as periodontitis.

Severe case of periodontitis cause from gingivitis.

How To Floss

When flossing ensure to slide the floss underneath the gum margin to disrupt all bacteria on the biofilm. Flossing once or twice will not reverse this so consistency is key.

Deep pocketing is caused by the build-up of plaque that hardens and forms tartar around and under the gum margin. As the tartar begins to harden and the gum pulls away, this creates more space for the plaque to build up.

Phillips Sonicare is a product we recommend to patients with deeper pocketing. This product uses bursts of air and water to disrupt the bacteria and is sprayed directly into the pockets. In the water solution Corsodyl daily can be added as an antiseptic, this will help with any infections also. This is the closest mechanism to the ultra-sonic we use in surgery. This product has made a huge impact and improvement to our patient’s oral health.

Root planning is a procedure where the hygienists can try eliminate the deeper pockets by deep scaling.