Why Do My Gums Bleed When I Brush?

Written by Dr. Reuben Sim
Published: 23-01-2022

Have you ever wondered why your gums bleed when you brush your teeth, and if it does, should you be concerned? Now, let me put it this way, if you were to touch your gums and they bleed, you may or may not be concerned. But, if you were to touch your skin and it start bleeding spontaneously, I bet you’ll be quite concerned about the situation.

 

The fact that your gums bleed, and bleed when you brush your teeth could be a sign of some form of inflammation or an infection on the gums. If you were to put a piece of meat on your skin and after three to four days you take the piece of meat away and you look at the skin, and you touch it and it starts bleeding, that’s because the skin is quite unhealthy and it’s actually potentially maybe infected. When you brush your teeth and the gums, and it starts bleeding, the reason why it’s bleeding is because you may have some form of food stuck around the area, or you have actually some form of bacterial infection, due to excessive plaque and calculus accumulating around your teeth.

When you actually have gums bleeding, I would encourage you to do this. Increase your frequency of brushing your teeth maybe to twice a day, and floss your teeth, if you haven’t already done so. Now, if you’ve done so, and your gums are still bleeding quite profusely or rapidly for the next few days, I would strongly encourage you to see your dentist because it could be something underlying that’s causing gums to bleed. When the dentist sees you, they may be able to help you and point you in the right direction to improve the health of your teeth, because after cleaning up your teeth professionally, there are ways to prevent this from happening again.

Now, when your gums bleed and your gums get inflamed or infected, you may get gum recession, your foundation of teeth might actually be rocky, at the same time your bones might actually recede away as well. This is one of those things where it could be painless, it could lead to detrimental long-term side effects on your teeth, and the foundation of your smile.

If you know of someone who’s got a bit of bleeding gums when you talk, or when you’re brushing your teeth, or if you have got bleeding gums, see a professional straight away, because this could help you potentially save your teeth, save your smile and give you a nice-looking smile for a much longer period.