If you look at yourself in the mirror and notice that your gums are receding, you are dealing with an issue you won’t want to ignore. Unfortunately, receding gums isn’t something that you can brush off. It’s something that must be dealt with quickly. Otherwise, you could have many problems you’d much rather avoid.
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Some Symptoms of Gums Disease
When your gums start to pull away from your teeth, it can cause various health issues and complications. You may even find yourself noticing many other symptoms along with it. These include but aren’t limited to:
- Bad breath
- Inflammation in your gums
- Bleeding in your gums
- Sensitivity in your teeth and gums
- Changes in your bite
Gum disease is one of the more common causes of this type of recession in your gums. Gum disease, or periodontal disease, is a major issue that impacts many people. The majority of adults over the age of 30 have some sort of gum disease prevalent. How does gum disease start?
Gum disease is an issue that occurs when the sticky film on teeth (plaque) builds up on the base of the teeth and gets in between your gum line. Unfortunately, it can lead to a buildup of bacteria and other stuff that can cause your gums to pull away from the base of your teeth. This can make it extremely difficult to brush and floss your teeth effectively to eliminate harmful bacteria. Bacteria thrive in environments with a lot of plaque because they feed off it.
To effectively determine how severe the gum disease is, a professional dentist would look to see how deep the pockets are. You can tell how bad gum disease is by looking at the overall depth of the pockets in the gums. Gum disease is something that ranges from mild to severe. In the more severe cases, there would be inflammation that can spread from the gums to the ligaments that hold the teeth in the mouth.
When there is significant gum disease present, it can result in these ligaments loosening and the teeth falling out. That’s why gum disease is the most common reason for tooth loss among adults.
Luckily, there are effective treatments to minimize the devastating effects of gum disease. These treatments can help you save your teeth and keep you from losing them prematurely. In the beginning stages of gum disease, you will likely require a lot of cleanings, including deep cleaning and scaling. This is to ensure the area underneath the gum line is thoroughly cleaned. Treatment cannot begin until this area is cleaned properly.
For this reason, deep cleaning is likely necessary, and you cannot get by with routine general cleaning. This treatment will help to remove the deeper plaque, tartar, and bacteria trapped underneath the gumline. It can also smoothen out your teeth to ensure it’s harder for bacteria to grab on and stick to them.
The more severe and advanced stages of gum disease can require surgical intervention. You may need to get surgery on your gums, including getting a bone or gum graft done.
While gum disease is one of the main causes of receding gums, other things could be at play too. Some of these include:
- Old age
- Brushing too hard
- Having hormonal changes
- Not going to the dentist frequently enough
- Smoking
- Poor genetics
Receding Gums Isn’t Something To Ignore
This isn’t a problem that you can ignore. Receding gums is a major warning sign that something is wrong. You need to treat receding gums quickly before things get worse. It’s very likely to get worse if you don’t seek treatment. One of the biggest risk factors of receding gums is bone and/or ligament loss. When this happens, you risk having your teeth fall out.
The overall condition of your gums is going to impact your overall health too. Because of this, getting frequent and regular checkups is important to ensure everything is good. A strong correlation exists between having unhealthy gums and various diseases, including heart disease. You want to care for your gums because your mouth is a gateway to your heart health. This is why you want to schedule routine bi-annual checkups and cleanings with your dentist to keep your gums healthy.
Final Thoughts
Receding gums is a major warning sign of having at least the early stages of gum disease. While smoking and even brushing too hard can cause minor gum recession, it’s not something to ignore or to take lightly. Visit your dentist, and they can tell you whether or not you have gum disease. You may be referred to a specialist if you have a moderate or more severe case. Plan your next visit to the Miners Ravine Dental Group office in Roseville, CA, and you can get examined and treated for gum disease to keep your dental health in check.
