Gum Health
Sparkling clean teeth are not just beautiful to look at; they are healthier too. No matter how beautiful your smile, without healthy gums it won’t last.
Gum disease causes:
- Bleeding gums
- Tooth loss
- Bad breath
- a bad taste in your mouth
- a higher risk of heart attacks, stroke, dementia, premature and stillbirth.
It makes it impossible to get a good result from treatment such as fillings and crowns for a multitude of technical reasons too. For this reason we won’t start any course of cosmetic or complex treatment until your gum health is good.
How to keep your gums healthy
There are two changes you can make that will do more to reduce your risk of gum disease than anything else.
- Give up Smoking
- Clean your teeth better than you do now
In order to help you achieve the second one, make sure you attend for all your recommended appointments with your hygienist.
Most people believe they are cleaning their teeth properly, but there’s a lot more to it than you think!
“Every Surface, Every Tooth, Every Day”
To achieve truly clean teeth and thus healthy gums, you should
- Use an electric toothbrush. Manual toothbrushes never clean as thoroughly or efficiently.
- Clean between and behind every single tooth with interdental brushes
- Be methodical. Start in the same place and work round the mouth in the same order every day
- Perform your cleaning regime every single day without fail
If you learn and implement the right techniques, tools and habits to clean properly, you’ll be delighted with how fresh and clean your mouth feels.
Treatment of gum disease
If you do ever develop gum disease, we can treat this in partnership with your home care regime by removing any tartar and overhanging filling edges which can trap plaque, and prescribing the correct tools and materials for you to use to help prevent it getting worse. Deeper cleaning is done using local anaesthetic so that you are comfortable during treatment. We will also measure your gums and give you a bleeding score to monitor your gum health. This way you will know if you are improving and can spot any areas that need further treatment.