When your gums bleed — how professional cleaning, gum treatment and gum surgery differ

Where does bleeding from the gums start?

The D-day Dental Clinic website explains how periodontitis develops as follows. Saliva contains a component called glycoprotein, which forms an acquired pellicle on the tooth surface; bacteria gather on that pellicle to form a bacterial film, which then progresses into plaque and tartar. When the gathered bacteria cause inflammation in the tissue around the tooth — the gingiva, the periodontal ligament, the alveolar bone and so on — and that tissue is destroyed, that is periodontitis.

In other words, bleeding may not be a sign that the gums are weak but a sign that inflammation is present.

The symptoms change with the stage

1. Gingivitis — the gums redden and bleed from time to time while brushing. They may also swell.
2. Early to moderate periodontitis — bad breath worsens, the gums bleed while brushing and the teeth feel as if they move.
3. Advanced periodontitis — pus comes from the gums or they swell, the jawbone dissolves and the teeth become loose.

The D-day Dental Clinic website notes that you feel no pain or particular symptom until periodontal disease has already progressed to some degree. Not hurting may not mean that all is well.

How do professional cleaning, gum treatment and gum surgery differ?

The three are less three different treatments than different ways of reaching the inflammation, depending on how far down it has gone. Which treatment is needed is decided after an examination.

Prevention is simpler than you might think

The D-day Dental Clinic website notes that periodontal disease can be prevented well enough by correct brushing habits and regular professional cleaning alone. That said, correct brushing is often not achieved, and tartar forms even when it is.

That is why it explains that it matters to come in and have your brushing habits and the state of your gums checked, and to have a professional cleaning at regular intervals. In the table on the website, periodontal treatment is shown as 3 visits with an average duration of 1 month, and the actual schedule differs with your condition.

The state of your gums also changes the order of other treatments

The state of the gums is not only a gum matter. The D-day Dental Clinic website lists, as the first case in which bone grafting is needed, "where the jawbone has been resorbed because of periodontal disease". If you are planning an implant, it may be necessary to deal with gum inflammation first.