Here’s Why You Should Worry More About Your Gums
Most of the advertisements for dental health show gleaming pearly white teeth. Which isn’t wrong, considering that is what the public expect. Unblemished and shiny teeth. But oral health encompasses more than just healthy and white teeth.
Enter the periodontium. That word is derived from Greek with peri meaning around and odont; tooth. It consists of 4 parts, the gingiva (gums), alveolar bone (bone under the gums), periodontal ligament (microscopic ligaments attaching your tooth to the socket ) and cementum (….cement, I guess).
But before you all click away from this article, let’s just focus on the gums and why you should be more worried about it. The gums are the unsung hero of the oral cavity. The hero it deserves, but not the one it needs.
You might be having gum disease
Raise you hand if you have bleeding gums while brushing. Good, now put your hands down. You look silly doing that in front of the computer screen. Bleeding gums are a sign of gingivitis, which is a the baby of the gum disease family. It’s the first step towards having periodontitis, the meaner alcoholic elder brother of gingivitis. If left untreated, several things will happen to your teeth;
- The gums will recede towards the bone which causes;
- Longer looking teeth with widening spaces in between them which in turn;
- Makes you teeth wobbly and mobile.
Gum disease is really gross
A few more symptoms in this crappy game of Gum Disease Bingo are bad breath and presence of calculus.
When you’re done retching after seeing the picture above, notice that the teeth are relatively healthy, albeit a bit stained. The exposure of the roots of front upper teeth will cause most people sensitivity on drinking cold drinks and such. The gums, which is the base of the teeth, are horribly unhealthy and this needs treatment.
Treat if before it gets worse
A study done by UM showed that 90% of Malaysians need gum treatment. This was taken from a sample of 8, 331 patients, across all ages. That means 7497.9 people need treatment to prevent their teeth from becoming like the aforementioned picture above. The data is further broken down in the table below.
To those whose eyes glazed over when seeing a whole bunch of numbers, just know this. Most Malaysians need prophylaxis (gum treatment) and OHI (oral health instructions).
The most basic treatment most patients need is scaling, which is the removal of plaque and calculus from the pockets in between your gums and teeth. This gives your gums a chance to heal.
You’re brushing all wrong
What’s more important is prevention. In the study, a whopping 94% of Malaysians need OHI, which is basically instructions on how to have a better oral hygiene. This involves instructions on proper brushing techniques, use of dental floss and dietary habits
Yea, we need to be taught how to brush our teeth again. Apparently we’ve been doing it all wrong all these years. Without going into too much details, the most effective technique involves more like a gum massage than a vigorous scraping of the tooth surface.
