Have you ever felt this before?
A patient’s bleeding gums from probing
During a casual conversation with a friend the other day, I realized there are many of us that have been affected by not seeing the dentist for a long time. So much so that this friend mentioned that the gums were bleeding a bit more than usual during the cleaning. Has this been happening to you? I haven’t been noticing this in my regular patients, but I do notice it in my new patients. When these new patients do notice it, the immediate thought is that the dentist is doing something wrong. “I’ve never had a cleaning like this before. Or I’ve never been diagnosed and probed with this much bleeding. It’s really painful. Ouch, you’re doing something wrong!”
This is the difficult part of dentistry especially in the field of periodontics. Pain isn’t inflicted by the dentist just because we’re using sharp instruments, but it comes from the gum tissues being diseased. If it’s diseased it becomes sensitive. How do we determine disease? It’s by probing and looking at xrays. Looking at xrays (although taking it can be painful) isn’t painful but the disease can’t be fully diagnosed without probing. If we don’t touch, how would we know the extent of the disease? Some would say “Can you look at other dentist’s charting and go off what they write?” The way I would answer that is by saying, “No, I need to get a full picture, because this helps me see what areas I need to focus on in treatment and in rehabilitating the gum tissues back to health.”
Gum disease is a hidden disease much like high blood pressure and diabetes. You can live with it and not know it until something bad really happens. If it continues to be undiagnosed, it can lead to bone loss and/or cavities or even worse tooth loss. Gum disease also means damaged tissue. It’s been damaged because of the effects of bacteria and its indirect effects of inciting an immune response resulting in inflammation.
If your gums do bleed from a routine exam of probing, don’t let anyone tell you it’s normal. It’s not especially when it’s painful. So if you think your dentist is hurting you from doing exactly what they should be doing, realize that it’s done to help you understand that there really is a problem that needs to be corrected.