Signs Your Gum Disease Is Getting Worse

Periodontal disease is a progressive disease. It starts with your gums being red, swollen, or tender. You may also notice that your teeth are pulling away from your gums, making them feel and look loose.

While these symptoms are “bad,” this isn’t as bad as the disease can get. Left untreated, it’s possible for gum disease to grow even worse.

Signs of Advanced Gum Disease

When your gum disease reaches the “advanced” stage, you’ll have much worse problems to deal with. Beyond your gums turning red and being swollen, they may now start to look purplish and feel tender when you touch them because they bleed so easily.

As your teeth continue to recede, new spaces will also develop between them that are filled with pus – something that will make your breath smell bad. All this will change the way your teeth fit together, especially when you bite down with them, which is why it’s so painful for you to chew any type of hard food now.

Stages of Gum Disease

As your gum disease progresses, you’ll move through the various stages as defined by your dentist.

First, you’ll have chronic periodontitis, which is common among adults. It’s due to plaque building up and slowly causing your teeth, gums, and bones to be destroyed.

Secondly, you’ll move into what’s known as the aggressive stage. While chronic periodontitis can affect children, aggressive periodontitis usually doesn’t start until early adulthood. However, it can rapidly progress when not treated immediately.

Third, you may move into a necrotizing periodontal disease where your gum tissue, tooth ligaments, and supporting bones all die. This is because they don’t have enough blood supply. Usually, people who have a suppressed immune system (e.g. HIV, cancer, malnutrition) suffer from this.

Before your gum disease gets out of control, make sure you set up an appointment to discuss it with us.