What causes Bleeding Gums and its Treatment?

Ans. Bleeding gums are medically referred to as gingival bleeding. It is the most common symptom of gingival disease, and also indicates other health problems. You will see blood during the brushing and flossing or it may cause bad breath. Gums appear to be reddish and swollen. There are so many causes for bleeding gums; few of them are lined up below:

• Poor oral hygiene may cause accumulation of food particles and plaque in and around the gums, followed by infection and swelling,
• Gingivitis means inflammation or swelling in the gums. It is a very common gum disease.
• Periodontitis, when gingival disease is ignored, it will lead to periodontal area of the tooth.
• In diabetic patients, immune system will become weak and is slowed down to fight infection of mouth and resulting in swelled bleeding gums.
• Leukaemia reduces blood platelet count in body. As a consequence, it becomes hard to control bleeding within body.
• Thrombocytopenia is insufficient blood platelets make it difficult to form blood clot.
• Lack of vitamin C will easily lead to scurvy causing bleeding in gums
• Lack of vitamin K causes difficulty in blood clot formation.
• Medications like blood thinner may causes bleeding and also reduce the ability of blood to clot.

Treatment:

• Practicing good oral hygiene is highly recommended.
• Consult the dentist for deep cleaning and scaling, this is the most common treatment.
• Mouth rinse with warm salt water.
• Hydrogen peroxide as suggested by dentist to reduce inflammation.
• Quit smoking.
• Increase intake of vitamin C and K.
• Reduce consumption of carbohydrate and sugary food to avid plaque accumulation.

Visit the dentist with your concern so that a proper treatment plan can be devised and implemented.