When you brush and floss your teeth, so you taste or see blood from your gums? Bleeding gums can come from a piece of food, like a popcorn husk, that is stuck up under your gums causing irritation, but if it persists or appears throughout your mouth, you have a problem.
For some reason, patients often think it is normal for your gums to bleed when you brush or floss, but it’s not! If you scratched your arm and it started bleeding, wouldn’t you be alarmed? Why are your gums any different?
In fact, the health risk of bleeding gums goes way beyond your oral health. If the risk of tooth loss was not bad enough, your overall health is in jeopardy.
What does bleeding gums mean?
When your gums bleed, it is a sign of a serious condition called periodontal disease. Periodontal disease is an infection in your gums. Because your mouth is an ideal environment for bacteria because of the food we eat, without proper home care and routine visits, bacteria can cause a serious infection.
Scientists discovered a link between periodontal disease and other serious systemic conditions like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, respiratory illnesses, and low birth-weight babies.
Anytime you have an infection in your body, it seizes any opportunity to hitch a ride in your blood stream and invade other organs. Those organs can suffer serious consequences and when it involves your heart, can cause sudden death. In fact, in patients with periodontal disease, their chances of sudden death due to myocardial infarction increases dramatically.
Schedule With Keledjian Dental
If you notice your gums bleed and it persists for more than a couple of days, give us a call. Our Keledjian Dental team is highly skilled and gentle when it comes to restoring the health of your teeth and gums. We can get you back on track and offer you an oral care treatment plan that will support your health over the long term and may even save your life.