Dental Care Essentials: 3 Common Causes of Bleeding Gums

It’s not uncommon for people to notice a bit of blood while brushing their teeth. This is because it can happen naturally when you brush your teeth a little too hard. Nevertheless, many dental experts want people to redefine the perspective on bleeding gums by preventing people from normalizing it.

It’s important to remember that bleeding from any part of your body is never normal. Unfortunately, people would be in panic mode from a skin injury rather than bleeding gums. Undermining one over the other can be a health risk, considering that bleeding points to a hole in the gums that could invite different forms of dental care nightmares.

What Causes Bleeding Gums?

Minor gum bleeding should never be ignored, especially if it remains an issue for too long. While it may seem like a minor problem, it’s important to put things into perspective. To illustrate, bleeding from your mouth is equivalent to having an open wound about the size of an open hand. This amount of exposure to germs and bacteria can lead to different illnesses.

If you’re experiencing bleeding gums, here are three potential conditions you may have:

1) Hormonal Issues

Although most people consider bleeding gums a purely physical issue, your body’s hormones can also influence these responses. Hormone fluctuation can make gums bleed, especially for women undergoing their menstrual cycle. This occurs because gum tissue that contains estrogen receptors also coincides with a woman’s menstrual cycle.

As estrogen levels decrease, women’s mouths tend to dry out. This lets the presence of bacteria and tooth decay be more common, turning gums to bleed or recede accordingly. It’s a biological response that can also occur for pregnant women due to similar hormonal activity. It results in a condition called pregnancy gingivitis, where increased blood flow forces gum tissue to become sensitive, swollen, and irritated.

2) Plaque Buildup

Unless you brush and floss regularly, your gums will be more prone to complications to oral care like plaque buildup. If you ignore your preventive dental care routine, you’re more likely to build plaque.

Although the initial symptoms of plaque buildup result in bleeding gums, you can also develop more severe dental conditions that lead to cavities or teeth misalignment. While you may not experience painful consequences now, you’ll eventually need more expensive dental treatments to remedy your condition.

3) Periodontal Disease

Most dental experts correlate bleeding gums as a sign of two potential gum diseases. It can either be a simple case of gingivitis or a more serious case of periodontitis. Gingivitis occurs due to several reasons, primarily due to plaque buildup or bacteria that aren’t cleared away from brushing your teeth. While it’s not a dangerous condition, it can eventually develop into periodontitis without proper treatment.

Once you already have a diagnosis of periodontitis, the inflammation of your gums can lead to more dangerous consequences. Besides bleeding gums, it can result in permanent damage to the jawbone, compromising your bite and promoting the loss of teeth.

Conclusion

The human body is more interconnected than you think, even in ways that seem odd and unlikely. For example, bleeding gums can also be connected to poor cardiovascular health. In other ways, some dental conditions can signify arterial disease and even some cancers. If you’re experiencing bleeding gums that don’t subside after proper preventive dental care, it’s best to seek dental professionals to get a professional diagnosis.

At 24/7 Emergency Dental Clinic, our dental experts treat all forms of oral illnesses, from bleeding gums to severe dental diseases. If you require an emergency dentist in Edmonton, AB to diagnose your bleeding gums, schedule an appointment with us today.