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Resembling a wad of Double Bubble, your gums look all pink and wimpy. Don’t be fooled. These bodyguards of your tooth roots are tough customers, despite their resemblance to Patrick Star on SpongeBob.

While they are tough, your gums still need you to take care of them. Prevention is the key to keeping them healthy. Really all you need to do is be diligent with your home brushing and flossing, and keep your twice-yearly appointments for professional cleanings and exams with Dr. Egger.

While that advice seems sensible enough, it is often ignored. But you do so at your own peril because it will end with gum disease, and you don’t want that.

Gum disease

Periodontal disease is the medical term for gum disease, periodontitis if you want to get downright clinical. It involves infection of the gums that can end up with tooth loss and an extra spot in a remake of Deliverance.

The good thing about periodontitis is that it is almost wholly preventable. It all begins with dental plaque, the sticky film that forms on your teeth throughout the day. Plaque has lots of bacteria in it. Dental plaque is easy to remove with daily brushing and flossing. In fact, a good home dental hygiene program of brushing twice daily for two minutes and flossing once a day is usually enough for most people to never have to deal with gum disease.

But if you pay more attention to the Tigers’ off-season trades than home dental hygiene, and if you throw in lifestyle choices such as smoking, plaque can have its way with your mouth. When plaque isn’t removed it hardens into calculus, also known as tartar. Once tartar forms it doesn’t belong on fish sticks — it can only be removed by a professional hygienist.

Gingivitis becomes periodontitis

Gum disease isn’t like some other diseases where one day you have a pain in a certain spot and the doctor tells you that it is some disease and you have three days to live! Gum disease gives you plenty of warning. The bacteria in plaque produce toxins that irritate the gums. Irritated gums are not happy gums, and they become red and bleed easily. Plus, the tartar that has formed gradually makes its way below the gumline, leading to more irritation. This irritation is called gingivitis.

You may be as busy as a beaver in the U.P., but at this point you can still reverse things with a professional cleaning from Dr. Egger and his team, along with more dedicated home hygiene. But if you think you’re just too busy and opt to stay away, the gum irritation worsens and the gums begin to pull away from the teeth causing pockets to form. These pockets hold all the bacteria from the plaque and that bacteria begin to attack the roots of the teeth. You can see where this is leading — tooth loss and jawbone deterioration.

Now, a trip to our office will be necessary just to keep your teeth. Dr. Egger will need to do things such as gum planing and scaling. You may receive an antibiotic prescription if infection has taken hold. A root canal could be required to save a tooth or teeth.

All of this mayhem could have been avoided with some home hygiene and keeping up with your twice-yearly visits to Dr. Egger’s office. Is it time for your next exam and cleaning? Call us at (989) 773-3560 to make your appointment.