Healthy Gums Do Not Bleed. Period.

Healthy Gums Do Not Bleed. Period.

The title says it all. I know you’re going to say that your gums have always bled. Okay. That means that your gums-or you- have always been unhealthy.  Truly, it’s that simple. So, let’s take a look at this.

There is a space between where you see your gums on your tooth and where it actually attaches to your tooth just like your fingernails. This space averages 2-3 millimeters deep- 3 millimeters in between the teeth and 1-2 millimeters wrapping around the tongue side and the cheek side. Your toothbrush can reach down 2 millimeters if you have a soft brush, flexing it gently against the tooth but the space in between your teeth the bristles cannot reach. Hence flossing that space has been preached to you since you were an adolesent.

The food you place in your mouth several times daily sits in this nice cozy space and bacteria come to enjoy the bounty of this new found food.  The bacteria will colonize over this food within 24 hours- for the average person eating a healthy diet and not smoking. They colonize far more quickly if you smoke or eat a diet based on white and/or sugary carbs. This colony of bacteria needs to be disrupted before they sit too long and start eating your tissues for nourishment and mineralize and then you cannot remove them with a tooth brush. Once mineralized, more come to join the party, festering under your gum tissue microscopically, and now it is called tartar, eventually the bacteria feed on your bone,  and only the instruments used by a hygienist can remove them.

So- let’s compare this to a few examples easier to see. When you toil in your garden all day, by the time nighttime falls and you return indoors, your fingernails are caked with dirt. Some of your nails are longer, some down to the quick. You can scrub your hands all night long but the dirt under your longer fingernails just will not come out. You need to take an orangewood stick and scrape that dirt out. Your gums work the same way.

So what about bleeding? When you go to the hair salon, the girl brings you to the back and shampoos your scalp pretty darn good, right? You never can get that scrubbed feeling. Maybe it even hurts a little, but boy, how clean it gets! Yet, it does not bleed.

You get a manicure and the lady scrapes out under your fingernails and pushes your cuticles away from the nail bed. She really goes at it, right? Yet,  your hands don’t start bleeding. If your scalp or your hand started bleeding when they cleaned you, you would freak out, right? Because a bleeding scalp or bleeding hands just are not normal.

Neither are bleeding gums. Healthy gums do not bleed. If your gums have always bled, do you floss properly and brush correctly? Do you have the hygienist get in your mouth and clean those areas you cannot reach far more frequently if needed to eliminate the bleeding? I also eluded to the fact you, yourself may not be healthy if your gums bleed when you brush, floss, or when the hygienist cleans them. If you have absolutely no plaque or food debris in your mouth, it may be you. More on that my next blog, but for today, 80% of the time, there is food and plaque debris in the mouths I clean regularly. That is why they bleed.

Ask for the PROPER way to care for your teeth at home. Ask for a demonstration. Do the right things at home. Get healthy. Do not bleed.