Gingivitis-gum Disease

Oral care is very important. If your teeth are not cared properly, they can be infected by harmful bacteria that can give rise to certain disease.

Gingivitis is an inflammation of the gums surrounding the teeth. Gingivitis is a bacterial infection. It is mainly due to long-term effects of plaque deposits. For bacteria, mouth is the best place to reproduce rapidly as it gets the warm and moist environment inside the mouth with constant food supply.

Following are some of the risk factors that can increase the chances of developing gingivitis:

1. General illness: When some body is ill, his/her immune system is lowered. The bacteria are most likely to reproduce rapidly.
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3. Dental hygiene: Main reason of gingivitis is poor dental hygiene.
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5. Pregnancy: During pregnancy due to hormonal changes sensitivity of gums increases. So there are more chances of bacterial infection.
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7. Medical problems: Due to some medical problem like uncontrolled diabetes, there are more chances of developing gingivitis.
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9. Ill-fitting mouth appliances: Due to ill-fitting and unclean mouth braces, dentures, bridges and crowns, there are more chances of developing gingivitis.

Following are some of the symptoms that can be seen for diagnosing gingivitis:

# If you experience bleeding gums, take advice of your dentist.

# Also, If you see mouth sores, it can be a symptom of developing gingivitis.

# Swollen gums.

# If you experience foul odor of your breath, take help of your dentist.

# See for the change in the color of your gums from pink to some inflamed color.

Prevention of gingivitis:

For preventing gingivitis to infect your mouth, the most important thing you need is to have regular medical checkup of your mouth to remove plaque. Brushing your teeth regularly can help in prevention of gingivitis as it will ensure better teeth without plaque. Dentist may also advice you to get flossing for removal of plaque.

For better teeth you need to take care of your mouth so that no infection harms them. The infection can also spread to the other areas near to mouth like neck, if not treated early. Seek a medical advice whenever you see the symptoms. A disease should never be ignored as it increase to large extent in not time, if not treated in its early stages.

If gingivitis is not controlled it can turn into "periodontitis" and then to more severe "acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis."

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gingivitis.

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