What is the difference between gingivitis and periodontitis?
Gingivitis is different from periodontitis. Gingivitis is minor inflammation of the gums without destruction of the bone underneath, so you're not at risk of losing your teeth. Periodontitis is where the structures around the teeth are actually being destroyed and are diseased. That involves a little bit more of a deep cleaning, per se. It's kind of like your tires have minor wear on them versus needing whole new rotors on your car or something like that. Minor versus major.
What are the first symptoms of gingivitis?
The first symptoms of gingivitis are that your gums will bleed when you floss. That's a pretty common one, and some patients think that's normal, but it's not. If you touched any part of your skin on your hand or your eye and it bled, you wouldn't think that was normal.
Same thing with your mouth. There's no reason your mouth should bleed whenever you do a routine cleaning. Gingivitis is usually noticed when patients say, "Oh, I have a little bit of blood in the sink whenever I brush or floss." That's one of the first things that we notice.
How dangerous is gingivitis?
Gingivitis is pretty minor, thankfully. However, it can turn into periodontitis. That's how it starts, so the reason we care is because we want to catch it early. It's like cancer. It's like any sort of sickness. The earlier you catch it, the better it is. If you leave it untreated, it's only going to get worse. It's only going to get more expensive, and it gets more painful. So catch it early, take care of it, and be done with it.
Can you have gingivitis and periodontitis at the same time?
Interesting question. Yes, you could. You could have one part of your mouth that has gingivitis and another part of your mouth that has periodontitis. One area of your mouth, let's say, has some deeper areas where bacteria are causing a lot of problems and destroying the gums. Then let's say another area is just not so bad.
How do dentists treat gingivitis?
Routine cleaning is how we treat gingivitis. We have you come in, you get your cleaning done, and we follow up with you in six months. Really, the treatment is that you have to do good hygiene at home. The reason this started in the first place may be that we weren't flossing as much as we need to or brushing as much as we need to.
It's kind of like I tell my patients: it's like buying a car. You can buy a nice car, but how long is it going to last? Well, it depends on how you treat it, right? If you drive it through the mud, you never wash it, you never take care of it, and you don't take it in for oil changes, you're going to have problems. If you do all those things and you treat it correctly, it's going to last you a long time. Same thing with teeth.
How long does it take to cure gingivitis?
Well, assuming you're relatively healthy, right? It really depends on every patient's medical condition—diabetes, how well you control it, things like that. But let's just say the average patient. The mouth heals extraordinarily fast. It's really impressive. Honestly, after you have a cleaning, probably two days later you're going to be back. You might be a little sore the next day. After that, boom, you're healed. So take care of it. It's really important.
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