Gum disease

brook2jack2

There are several misapprehensions about gum disease in this thread. 

Gum disease is not caused by sugar , decay is caused by sugar not gum disease 

gum disease is not made better by mouthwash or toothpaste , occasionally a dentist may prescribe mouthwash for a short time only to control painful symptoms. Most mouthwashes are classed as cosmetic as there is no proven clinical benefit to them

gum disease is not cured by antibiotics. Occasionally you may be prescribed a course of antibiotics to surpress the symptoms for a while to enable good cleaning 

Gum disease is never cured it is only ever kept under control. 90 % of that is the patients efforts and 10% is the dental teams.

Gum disease is not caused by grinding but grinding does make existing gum disease worse

First and foremost is effective cleaning , brushing down onto the gums and using interdental brushes every day. Ask the dental team to look at your toothbrush and check it is right for you and you are using it correctly , 95% of UK people do not brush correctly. Next ask them to show you how to clean effectively interdentally. 

speedfreek1000

I've had this and my dentist suggested inter dental brushes you can buy them in any supermarket or they usually on 3-2 offers in most big chemists.

I actually 1st use those little rubber picks/interdentals to remove debris and massage my gums, then floss (look up how to floss properly as I got it wrong for over 40 years) to remove plaque and also use the larger interdental brushes where they fit. I have both tightly packed and gappy teeth so a mix or inter n floss is what works best for me. 

The other thing my dentist asked was if I used an electric toothbrush as they work better - I do so that was fine. 


There is a thing called over brushing and brushing to hard which can actually damage your gums so as suggested above you need to discuss your whole cleaning regime and what toothbrush etc with a dentist.  

[Deleted User]

Zellah said:

MarkN88 said:

Zellah said:

paul55555 said:

 I really am struggling to avoid sugar as I drank soft drinks and did eat alot of chocolate so its been a hard thing to change my diet as well. 

You need a make a simple choice: keep having sugar bombs galore (chocolates, fizzy drinks etc) or save your teeth and health. Not to mention your high sugar diet is increasing your risk of getting type 1 or type 2 diabetes - in which case gum disease will be the least of your worries. 

Think you need to check your facts. 

You think eating a lot of refined sugar is good for your teeth & general health? I better mention that to my dentist! 🤣

No it’s the diabetes. 

Eating sugar does not on its own contribute to getting type 1 diabetes. 

I’ll let you off on type 2 but it’s not the sugar alone it’s been overweight that contributes to type 2. 

Diabetes UK has plenty of information on their website in relation to this. 

ElephantBoy57

speedfreek1000 said:

The other thing my dentist asked was if I used an electric toothbrush as they work better - I do so that was fine.

Yet some people use a manual brush and all is ok, my dentist recommended an electric brush too.

Gum disease is slow and long, there is no cure but you can slow it down.

Every time you eat something, you create an acid reaction in your mouth, so snacking is not good. It's not just sugar that creates this reaction.

Foods that stick in between your teeth are bad for them, so think a little about what you eat.

When I had a change of dentist, she woke me up to my gum disease, at that point I consulted a dental hygenist.

You need to do that. It cost me around £45 per session, I went every three months. Slowing down the gum disease is worth it. I am 58 and I want to keep my keep, as the older I get, the more sensitive they become.

QuackQuackOops

paul55555 said:

I  don't drink and eat tones of sugar  just have some know and then like most people,. What I am trying to say is I have had to cut sugar out completely try it for a week and you will be surprised how hard it is to do.  Even basic things like potato's oranges strawberry's   have sugar in them.

Its not that hard.
I eat less than 20g of carbs a day and have done for a long time.
Its pretty easy once you get your head around the idea that carbs = illness.