Have you noticed swollen and red gums? The gums can indeed be temporarily irritated due to stuck food, but in most cases, extensive swelling and bleeding indicate inflammation of the gums. The dangers of ignoring such signs are described below.
Healthy gums have a pale pink color, elastic structure, and gingival papillae between the teeth are not enlarged. During daily dental hygiene, there should be no discomfort or bleeding. If the gum is inflamed, the following signs will indicate this:
There are cases when the gum bleeds due to microtrauma, for example, if the bristles are very stiff and the pressure when brushing the teeth is stronger than necessary. Or you bit off an apple and hurt the papilla with the peel. In this case, bleeding occurs once and quickly passes.
Gum disease is mistakenly considered an age-related problem, but, in fact, inflammation of periodontal tissues can occur in children, young people, as well as in the elderly.
The causes of inflammation are:
The initial stage of inflammation is called gingivitis. The disease quickly progresses to more complex forms - periodontitis, if the cause of the process is not identified and eliminated in time.
It is possible to correctly prescribe treatment and relieve inflammation of the gums only at the dentist’s office. Self-treatment can alleviate the problem but not solve it.
Comprehensive professional oral hygiene is prescribed at the first signs of inflammation of the gums. The hygienist removes dental deposits - plaques and tartar, and checks the condition of the gums. If a pocket with a depth of more than 3 mm is detected, a consultation with a periodontist is appointed in order to plan further therapy.
If the patient has deep gingival pockets, the most effective method of cleaning the root surface will be instrumental. With special tools - curettes, the doctor carefully manually cleans deposits, and affected periodontal tissues and polishes the roots.
Curettage can be performed by a closed or open method (with a gum incision). The method is selected depending on several factors: the depth of the pockets, the presence of tartar on the root of the tooth under the gum, the area of the procedure, and the mobility of the teeth.
This procedure prevents the formation of tartar and promotes a strong connection between the gum and the tooth, which leads to a decrease in the depth of periodontal pockets. With a special nozzle, the doctor delivers ultrasonic vibrations with a suspension for high-quality polishing of the surface of the roots of the teeth, which is absolutely painless and non-traumatic. To maintain a positive result after the main treatment, vector therapy can be carried out in the course of several procedures, with a break of 3-6 months.
All of the above procedures can be combined with the obligatory supervision of a doctor and tracking the dynamics of changes.