BLEEDING GUMS

Bleeding gums is among the common conditions affecting the oral cavity. It leads to diseases of soft tissue surrounding the teeth.

The problem still continues to affect us even with so many modern facilities available in the field of oral care.

Now let me explain you the factors causing bleeding:

• Poor maintenance of the teeth such as inadequate brushing or failure to rinse the mouth after meals results in a thin layer of food and bacteria covering the tooth surface that is termed plaque and calculus that is mineralized bacterial plaque. The bacterium is the chief culprit behind the inflammation. The gums during the stage of infection becomes soft, spongy and swollen.
• Trauma to the gums by hard brushing or tooth picking with sharp objects result in gingival bleeding. 
• Bleeding can also be due to injury of the gums by sharp food item. 
• Hot food and chemicals can end up burning the gums, further resulting in bleeding. Certain rapidly spreading infections can damage the blood vessels of the gums resulting in bleeding. 
• Deficiency of Vitamin C causes problems with the blood vessels, hence causing bleeding in the gums. Ancient sailors are known to suffer from this problem until someone came up with the bright idea of stocking oranges during travel. As we know orange is a rich source of Vitamin C.

Bleeding gums may occur with or without associated pain. The pain if present is usually dull in nature.Bleeding is usually noticed during brushing or in the saliva while spitting. Eating of any coarse food items may induce bleeding.

Know how bleeding gums are treated:

If long standing inflammation is the cause of bleeding then removal of the source of bacteria will result in improvement of the situation.

Proper maintenance of the teeth by the patient reduces bleeding in initial stages. If the bleeding is severe then professional help is required. You can approach your dentist for professional cleaning of your teeth i.e scaling. You can also use medicated toothpastes that would control bleeding to some extent.