If your child has developed bleeding gums this can be distressing for both you and them. You might feel as if you’ve done something wrong or that you’ve let them down in some way, but this really isn’t the case. Gum disease develops in thousands of people and sometimes it’s not down to a lack of care, it's just that we aren’t practising the right type of care. We at Oldmeldrum Dental Care want to reassure parents that within our practice there is no judgement and our top priority is always taking care of patients’ health. That being said, let's look at what our dentist in Aberdeenshire can do to make things better moving forward.
Why we develop gum disease
Gum disease can turn up for a whole lot of reasons, but in most cases we see here it’s due to a misstep in oral hygiene routines. Most people brush their teeth and most people brush their teeth twice daily, but lots of patients, especially children, don’t brush with good technique and they certainly don’t use dental floss after brushing.
We all have very busy lives and having the time to stand and watch your child to see if they’re a) brushing correctly and b) flossing, can obviously feel like a big chunk of time you could be doing something else prior to the school run. That being said, it's really important that we help our little ones and sometimes not so little ones, and remind them that brushing teeth is just as important as having a shower in terms of hygiene and the way in which we do it makes a big difference. Anyway, more on that later for now let’s look at the science.
Science behind dental hygiene
Gum disease develops when bacteria and food debris are left between the teeth and along the gum line. This then builds up and begins to release nasty acids which like to attack the gum and teeth. The body's way of fighting back is to make the area infected which works as a way to tell if something is wrong, but also is it’s way of trying to get rid of the infection. The only trouble with this is that by doing this it’s going to get rid of your teeth and we all want to keep our teeth.
What you can do
The first and most important thing to do is not to worry. It's highly likely you’ll have caught this in the very early stages and so no serious harm will have been done. Make an appointment with us and explain to reception the symptoms and that it’s your child involved, and we’ll get you booked in with our dentist in Aberdeenshire as quickly as possible.
During the appointment our dentist in Aberdeenshirewill do a full examination of the teeth and then probably book you in to see the hygienist who will perform a scale and polish before discussing better long-term oral hygiene practices with both you and your child. This is very normal and nothing to worry about.