Painful gums are a common problem. There are many things that can cause gum pain, swelling, or bleeding.
Find out about 11 things that can hurt your gums.
- What’s wrong with my gums?
- Getting a hard time
- Gum disease
- Canker sores
- Tobacco
- Allergies to dental products
- Food allergy
- Burns
- Changes in hormones
- Abscessed tooth Partial and full dentures
- Oral cancer
1. Brushing too hard and not flossing
Why Do My Gums Hurt When I Brush My Teeth? To keep your teeth clean, you should brush and floss. But if you’re too rough, especially if you’re using a toothbrush with stiff, hard bristles, you can hurt or irritate your gums.
Use a soft-bristled toothbrush if your gums hurt after you brush. They usually clean your teeth as well as a toothbrush with hard bristles, and the American Dental Association recommends them. Also, brush and floss your teeth with less force.
2. Gum disease
There’s a chance you have gum disease if your gums are red, swollen, and bleeding (periodontal disease). Most of the time, this happens because you don’t floss and brush your teeth well enough or often enough. Most people who have gum disease have gingivitis. Periodontitis is a type that happens less often but is worse.
3. Sores ulcers (mouth ulcers)
Canker sores, which are also called mouth ulcers, are painful sores that show up on the gums and elsewhere in the mouth. They are not contagious. Sometimes they are red, but sometimes they are white.
Canker sores don’t have a clear cause, but they are thought to be caused by a virus or bacteria. Canker sores are more likely to happen to people with autoimmune diseases.
There is no one way to treat canker sores that doctors recommend. Most of the time, they go away within 14 days. If you have a mouth ulcer for longer than three weeks, you should see a dentist.
4. Tobacco [H2]
Cigarettes and cigars, which are made of tobacco, can hurt your gums. Even more damage can be done by using smokeless tobacco, like chewing tobacco or snuff. If you smoke, this could be the reason why your gums hurt.
Quit smoking if you want to improve the health of your gums. They are bad for the gums and can even cause cancer.
5. Allergic response to teeth-cleaning items
Some people are allergic to the additives in mouthwash, disinfectant, and other products used to keep teeth and gums healthy. This could be why your gums are hurting.
If you believe you might well be allergic to a product you use to clean your teeth, try to figure out which one it is: Just take away one product at a time to figure out which one is causing the problem. Once you know what product it is, you should stop using it.
6. Food allergy
Your sore gums might not be caused by a dental health product but by an allergy to food.
You might be able to figure out what food intolerance is going to hurt your gum tissue by going on an elimination diet. Quit eating the certain meals for 30 days as part of this diet and then try it again to see what happens.
Why Do My Gums Hurt When I Brush My Teeth? Meeting with an allergist is a faster way to figure out what food or other thing is causing a reaction. They can help you figure out what caused your reaction and tell you how to treat it, which will probably be to avoid it.
7. Burns
Some hot foods, like pizza or coffee, can burn your gums, but you might not remember it. After a while, the burned area hurts.
If you don’t keep making the burn worse by eating hot foods or brushing too hard, the gum tissue should heal in 10 to 14 days.
8. A change in hormones
Hormone changes can cause gum problems for many women at different times in their lives.
Puberty. During puberty, a surge of hormones can cause more blood to be pumped to the gum tissue, which can cause them to swell and become sensitive.
Menstruation. Some women’s gums can get inflamed and more probable to bleed right before they get their period. Most of the time, this problem goes away once the period starts.
Pregnancy. Some women get swollen, sore, and bleeding gums in the second or the third month of pregnancy, which can last until the eighth month.
Menopause. Some women undergoing menopause find that their gums are drier than usual, which can make them sore and make them more likely to bleed.
If you have gum pain during these hormonal changes, you should have your dentist look at your situation and tell you what to do.
9. Tooth with an abscess
An abscess can form when there is an infection near the root of a tooth. This can make your gums hurt and swell up. If your dentist says you have an abscess, they can also tell you how to treat it. Root canal surgery is often needed.
10. False teeth and bridges
If your dentures or partials don’t fit right, they can irritate your gums. This constant irritation can cause damage to the tissues and gum disease. You and your dentist can change how your dentures or partials fit to get rid of gum pain.
12. Oral cancer
Oral cancer usually looks like a sore that won’t heal. It can show up on your gums, inside cheek, tongue, or even tonsils.
If a sore in your mouth doesn’t heal within a week of two weeks, you should see your dentist to find out what’s wrong. Surgical removal of cancerous cells or tumors, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy are often used to treat cancer.
Outlook
These are some of the basic reasons that Why Do My Gums Hurt When I Brush My Teeth?
There are many things that could be causing your gums to hurt, but many of them can be prevented by living a healthy life and taking care of your teeth.If you have pain, inflammation, or sores on the gums that last more than a several weeks, you should make an appointment to see your dentist to get a full evaluation and treatment advice.
