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A whole month devoted to our gums? If that seems a bit over-the-top, let’s take a moment to consider just how important these under-the-teeth heroes are. Because, while your healthy, confident smile is a gift you’re happy to share with the world, that smile wouldn’t be possible without healthy gums protecting your teeth and the structures which support them.

The gums are made of connective tissue covered with a mucous membrane layer. Healthy gums are firm and fit snugly around each tooth. This snug fit prevents plaque and food particles from reaching the tooth’s roots, which can cause decay. But our gums don’t just protect our teeth—they also cover and form a seal around the ligaments and bone which hold our teeth in place, protecting them from bacteria and infection.

Healthy gums are essential for healthy smiles. Give your gums the protection they deserve from the very start with some basic gum care:

Treat Your Gums Gently

• Heavy-handed brushing and flossing can damage delicate gum tissue. Always use a soft-bristled brush, and brush at an angle to clean away plaque where the gums meet the teeth. Floss properly to avoid gum injuries.
• Ask a team member at Mill Creek General Dentistry for tips if your gums are suffering from too-vigorous brushing and flossing. A quick refresher in proper technique might make all the difference.
• Electric toothbrushes and water flossers can be very helpful for thorough and gentle cleaning around the gums—and are especially helpful for people with mobility issues or who wear dental appliances.

Eat a Gum-Healthy Diet

September is also the month we celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day, and “arrr” pirate friends can teach us a lesson about gum health. Life on the high seas centuries ago was never easy, and scurvy was one of the major reasons why. In its early stages, this disease caused painful, swollen, bleeding gums and tooth loss. The cause of scurvy? Too little vitamin C in sailors’ diets.

Today we realize the importance of a balanced diet for maintaining healthy teeth and gums, with nutrients from A to Z providing essential benefits:

• Vitamin A is necessary for the integrity of mucous membranes, including the gums, as they act as a barrier to infection.
• Vitamin C helps us produce collagen, which provides vital support and structure to gum tissue and helps encourage tissue repair.
• Vitamin D fights infection and reduces the inflammation which can lead to gum disease.
• Iron deficiency can cause anemia, which prevents our immune systems from working effectively to fight infection.
• Magnesium has anti-inflammatory properties.
• Zinc is important for reducing inflammation and healing wounds.

These are just a few examples! The vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants found in fruits, vegetables, dairy foods, and proteins are good for your whole body, not just your gums, so talk to your doctor if you want to make sure you’re getting the nutrition you need.

Help Prevent Gum Disease

Gum disease can sneak up on you because it’s painless in its early stages. If you’re not brushing and flossing thoroughly, plaque and tartar around the gum line will build up. This buildup irritates the gums, causing redness, bleeding, and swelling—an early stage of gum disease called gingivitis.

Left untreated, gingivitis can develop into periodontitis, a chronic inflammatory disease. The gums pull away from the teeth creating pockets around them. These pockets become home to harmful bacteria which attack the ligaments and bone tissue around the teeth. Teeth become loose and eventually fall out or need to be extracted.

Fortunately, gum disease is largely preventable.

• Brush at least twice a day with a soft-bristled brush and floss once a day or as recommended to remove plaque and prevent tartar formation.
• Evaluating your gum health is part of every dental exam, so see the team at Mill Creek General Dentistry for an examination and a professional cleaning as often as recommended.
• Genetic factors and certain medical conditions can put some people at higher risk for serious gum disease. Hormonal changes during puberty, pregnancy, and menopause can also leave gums more vulnerable to inflammation and disease. If you’re in one of these groups, your dentist and doctor can work together to design a treatment plan.
• If you have symptoms of advanced gum disease, talk to Dr. Kerry Olszewski about a periodontal referral.

Quit the Habit

Smoking increases the risk of gingivitis, periodontitis, and oral cancer, as well as many other health complications.

• If you’ve never smoked, don’t start.
• If you do smoke, talk to your dentist or doctor about the best ways to quit the habit. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to stopping smoking, and your care team can suggest methods which will work best for you.
• There is growing evidence which suggests that gum disease is linked to higher rates of diabetes complications, heart disease, and stroke. Protect your oral health and your overall health with timely treatment.

Don’t Ignore Symptoms

Gum pain, swelling, redness, bleeding, bad breath, deep gum pockets, and gum recession can be symptoms of gingivitis and/or periodontitis. Persistent sores, red or white patches, or lumps might be symptomatic of oral cancer or other health conditions.

• Make your dental and medical health a priority by seeing Dr. Kerry Olszewski if you have any questions or concerns about your gum health. Early treatment leads to the best outcomes.
• Most important, keep up with your scheduled examinations. Regular exams will help you discover and treat any oral health problems before they become more serious.

Take a moment this month to review your gum health, to check for ways to improve your gum care routine, and to contact your dental team in Mill Creek if you have any questions. After all, while your smile is the main event, your sparkling, confident smile wouldn’t be possible without healthy gums providing essential support.

Dental floss is similar to a lot of products that depend mainly on the consumer’s preference. Fact is, floss comes in a wide variety of flavors, coatings, and other variations, but all types of floss essentially do the same thing. After all, that is what is most important: that the dental floss you buy is functional—cleaning the areas in between your teeth. If you want to know what the best dental floss is, the answer is the kind that enables you to successfully and regularly clean those areas. So to help you find the right type of floss for you, here are some options.

Flavored Dental Floss

Many people that floss prefer a flavored dental floss because it freshens their breath even more than unscented floss. The latter can also take on the smells associated with bacteria in your mouth. And we all know how bad that can be. So, if flavored dental floss is what you prefer, and it allows you to floss your teeth regularly, then it is automatically best for your mouth.

Flossers

There are also products on the market called flossers, which usually consist of a plastic instrument with strung floss and a pick on the opposite end. This option can be both effective at cleaning the areas in between your teeth and scraping off plaque. These flossers also come flavored in mint and various other varieties.

Gentle Dental Floss

Some people find that typical dental floss is too harsh on their gums. For that reason some companies make floss with soft coatings that are less abrasive on the gums. For the most part these types of floss are just as effective as regular floss, and for those people that require a more sensitive approach to flossing, especially when just starting out, this is the best option.

Of the aforementioned options, it is difficult to name an absolute best type of floss. However, Dr. Kerry Olszewski and our team say that the type of floss that works best for you, giving you the greatest chance of succeeding at regular flossing, is the best. For more information on floss, contact our Mill Creek office.

One of the most common clues that you might have anemia is found in your smile. If you’ve noticed that your gums are suddenly paler than they used to be, it could be a sign that you’re anemic. What does this mean for your general health—and your oral health?

There are several types of anemia, which have can be caused by different medical conditions and which can cause different symptoms. The most common form of anemia, and one of the most easily treated, is iron-deficiency anemia.

Iron is essential to our health. Why? It’s all about the red blood cells. First, some biology.

Every cell in your body needs energy to live and to function. Cells get this energy from the foods we eat, which are broken down into a simple sugar called glucose. Glucose molecules are transported by our blood cells to reach all parts of the body. But that’s only the first step.

Energy is released into the cells when the chemical bonds holding glucose molecules together are broken. And this requires oxygen. Once inside our cells, glucose and oxygen react, breaking the chemical bonds of the glucose molecules, reconfiguring their atoms to create carbon dioxide and water byproducts—and releasing energy into a form your cells can use.

So, how do we move this oxygen from our lungs to our cells to start the process? That would be our red blood cells again. But this process can’t happen without adequate iron. More biology!

Red blood cells contain a protein called hemoglobin, and hemoglobin contains iron. In fact, well over half of the iron in our body is found in our red bloods cells. And here’s the key to iron’s importance: iron attracts oxygen molecules.

Hemoglobin picks up oxygen in our lungs and delivers it throughout the body, where it becomes glucose’s essential partner in fueling our cells. Without enough iron, your body won’t be able to create the red blood cells it needs so that all of your cells, tissues, and organs can get the oxygen they need to function efficiently.

When might you suspect that you’re anemic? Your gums, the lining of the mouth, the inside of your lower eyelids, and your skin can take on a paler hue—the classic sign of anemia. But other symptoms which you might not necessarily associate with anemia are also common, including:

• Fatigue
• Heart palpitations
• Cold hands and feet
• Dizziness
• Irritability
• Difficulty Concentrating
• Pica (the desire to eat non-food items)

And because anemia affects the whole body, your oral health isn’t immune. It’s not just a matter of pale gums. Iron deficiencies can cause:

• Sores and ulcers in the mouth
• Cracks on the sides of the mouth
• Pain, redness, and/or swelling of the tongue
• Loss of papillae (those little bumps on your tongue which hold your taste buds)
• Tooth damage caused by pica
• Dry mouth, which increases your risk for cavities, gum disease, oral infections, and bad breath

Iron-deficiency anemia can have several causes, among them insufficient iron in the diet, medical conditions which cause bleeding (such as ulcers), heavy menstruation, pregnancy, or growth spurts in children and teenagers. Treatment will depend on the cause of your anemia. It might be as simple as a change in diet or an iron supplement, or it might require further treatment options. Do consult with Dr. Kerry Olszewski before taking iron supplements, as too much iron causes iron toxicity, which can be very dangerous.

If Dr. Kerry Olszewski and our team suggest that you might be anemic, or if you notice changes you think might be caused by anemia, see your physician for a simple blood test. Besides iron-deficiency anemia, there are other forms of anemia and other diseases which can mimic these symptoms, so it’s important to get a doctor’s diagnosis. If you have been diagnosed with anemia, let our Mill Creek dental team know.

One last “if”: If you do have iron-deficiency anemia, don’t delay treatment. The sooner your red bloods cells are back at their peak, the sooner you—and your gums—will be back in the pink!

The dental section of your local drugstore or favorite online site offers more dental tools for home care than ever before. Little angled mirrors. Tongue scrapers. Gum stimulators. Interproximal brushes. Why, there are even curettes and scalers to help you remove tartar at home.

But should you try do-it-yourself scaling (the technical term for scraping tartar off enamel) at home? Let’s weigh the facts.

• Tartar Buildup is Harmful

Plaque, a sticky biofilm composed of bacteria, food particles, saliva, and fluids, starts forming within hours after you brush. And within days, if it’s not brushed and flossed away, plaque starts to mineralize, becoming tartar, a hard, rough, yellow or brown deposit that you can’t simply brush away.

Tartar often develops in the places we where we don’t brush or floss effectively. If you run your tongue across the back of your front teeth and feel a rough surface, that might be tartar. If you check out the back of your mouth and discover yellow discoloration on your molars, that might be tartar. If you see brown staining between your teeth or at the gumline, that might be tartar.

Why worry about tartar, especially if it’s not visible? Several good reasons.

• Tartar provides a rough surface which makes it easier for plaque to stick to teeth, and more plaque leads to more cavities.
• Tartar irritates delicate gum tissue, which causes inflammation and gum disease. Not only can the gums themselves hurt, swell, or bleed, but they can begin to pull away from the teeth, creating pockets between tooth and gum. These deep pockets become home to harmful bacteria, making gums and the bone supporting your teeth more vulnerable to infection.
• When gum tissue recedes, the parts of your roots normally protected by that gum tissue are now exposed to bacteria and plaque. Because roots are coated with cementum, which is weaker than enamel, they are more vulnerable to cavities.

For all these reasons, cleaning tartar from your teeth is an essential part of every professional dental cleaning at our Mill Creek office.

• Your Dental Professional Is an Expert in Tartar Removal

Your dental team has extensive academic and clinical training which enable them to discover and remove any plaque or tartar thoroughly and effectively. They are also experts in using specialized tools to remove plaque and tartar gently and safely, including:

• Ultrasonic scalers, which use ultrasonic sound waves to break up tartar deposits.
• These metal hand tools have small, curved hooks on one or both ends, with sharp side edges and a pointed tip to fit between the teeth. They’re used to scrape away tartar above the gumline, and come in several angled shapes to accommodate the shape of different tooth surfaces.
• These tools look a lot like scalers and also come in a variety of shapes. The curette, though, can remove plaque above and below the gumline because its rounded tip and back are gentler around delicate root surfaces and gum pockets.

The scalers available at your drugstore certainly look a lot like these professional tools. But,

• Should You Try This at Home?

There are many DIY home projects which are satisfying and well worth your time—but DIY dental scaling isn’t one of them. Let’s take a look at some of the dangers of home scaling.

• Ineffective cleaning. Without removing tartar completely from around and under the gums, you’re more likely to suffer gum disease and cavities below the gumline.
• Your enamel is hard, but it’s not indestructible! A bit too much force, and you can scratch and damage tooth surfaces. And, if you’ve ever flossed a little too vigorously, you know how delicate your gum tissue is. The sharp ends of scaling tools can cause gum injuries, mouth injuries, and tongue injuries. Which brings us to . . .
• There’s not only the danger of infection due to cuts and lacerations, but you can accidentally push plaque and tartar into and under gum tissue, leading to irritation and infection.
• Finally, imagine using a sharp tool to scrape tartar from the back of your teeth, around your delicate gum area, and in pockets below the gum surface, using a tiny backwards mirror image to guide you in the dark interior of your mouth. There’s no way to make this sound like a good idea!

So, on balance, should you do your own scaling? We think the answer is clear. Keep your teeth healthy and plaque-free at home with regular brushing and flossing, and see Dr. Kerry Olszewski when it’s time for a cleaning. When you need tartar removal that’s safe, precise, and thorough, the experience and skill of your dental team outweigh any potential DIY satisfaction!