Gum disease is definitely not something you want to mess around with. If your gums start to recede, you are opening up the way for tooth loss and a whole host of other problems. The best thing you can do is to make sure you don't get gum disease in the first place. To help you understand what causes it and if there is something you can do to prevent it, check out some of the different risk factors below.
Changing hormones
As you grow older, your hormones are going to change in ways that you cannot control. While your body goes through those changes, it can make your gums more susceptible to gingivitis. It is because of this that you need to make sure you are doing your part to brush and floss on a regular basis. Visiting the dentist on a regular basis to monitor for possible gum disease can also help to put an end to it if it does develop.
Smoking
Just about everyone has heard about how bad smoking is for you, yet that doesn't stop people from continuing to do it. Smoking can end up causing you to develop gum disease and prevent treatments from being able to work effectively. If you never thought about it before, or if you tried to quit and failed in the past, you might want to give it another go to see if you can make quitting work for you. Not only will it protect your oral health, but it will protect your general health as well.
Medication
While medication is supposed to help treat certain medical problems, it can also cause problems for you. Some medications can actually slow down the production of saliva. When that happens, your mouth isn't able to protect itself and clean your teeth and gums like it should. Your mouth needs saliva to keep the bacteria and infections away. There are also medications that could end up causing your body to produce more tissue than what it needs. If your body is overproducing gum tissue, it can make it difficult to be able to get in there and clean like you should. Preventative dental appointments can determine if this might be what you have going on to help you best learn how to treat it.
There are countless other things that make you more susceptible to gum disease as well. Make sure you go to the dentist regularly to catch this disease early on and begin treating it the right way. Contact a clinic like Tots to Teens Dental for more info.
Share21 March 2016
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