What is Gum Disease? 

Gum disease is so pervasive in all of our society all over the world. So many people don’t even know that they have gum disease. Gum disease starts with just a little bleeding gums. Even a little bit of blood on your floss can indicate gum disease, especially your toothbrush. If you’ve ever brushed your teeth and you’ve had a little bit of blood that shows, or when you spit after brushing, that could be the start of gum disease. It has various phases. Gingivitis is the first phase. It’s been said in some of our literature that over two thirds of our population has some form of gum disease. Much of that is early phase gingivitis. 

The real problem is gingivitis is not horrible because it’s reversible. It hasn’t attacked the bone yet. It hasn’t caused permanent damage. But if it’s left for too long, that’s when you get so much inflammation that you can’t even brush your teeth properly and you can’t get all the bacteria out. So, the bugs stay there and they start to rot the bone and not only cause infection in the gums, but the infection then rots the bone and starts to eliminate it. You almost can’t tell because this is painless.  

This is a painless disease. The body is amazing in this way. I’ve always imagined that you have the body that does so many amazing things. It keeps you from feeling pain so that you’re not suffering at the same time. In case like gum disease. That’s really bad. 

So, you need to recognize some early signs like bleeding gums. It’s not to be an alarmist, but make sure that you have oversight from your dental professional. We do all kinds of non-surgical periodontal disease treatments. This is stuff where you don’t even have to feel it when you come in. We can get you numb and take care of it and then help to monitor this. 

But make no mistake that bleeding gums is not just something to ignore. It is the initial and painless phase of periodontal disease which we know as gingivitis.