Is There Blood when You Rinse Your Mouth? - Cause and Treatment of Bleeding Gums

Do you see blood when you rinse your mouth after brushing your teeth? Is there blood on the string when you floss? Do your gums hurt when you floss?

These are all signs of gingivitis, also known as periodontal disease, a health condition that, if not properly treated, can ultimately lead to tooth loss from the destruction of tissue surrounding your teeth. I am not a dentist, but I did suffer from all the symptoms listed above and I was able to make them all disappear. Here's how I did it.

Floss After You Eat

I started flossing regularly. I didn't only floss after every meal, I flossed after every single time I ate. That includes snacks.

"That's a pain in the tukus!" you say. Yes it was. But it was necessary, and an interesting side effect was that I snacked less often. Whenever I wanted to munch I asked myself whether the treat was worth having to floss again. Often it wasn't.

Floss Properly

When I told my dental hygienist my gums were bleeding, she showed me how to floss properly. You don't just pull the string between your teeth and then pull it out again; you pull it back and forth between the tooth and the gum, on both sides of each tooth, and go as deep as you can. I did that five times on each side of each tooth. (Be careful not to floss too hard and cut the gum.)

Use An Antiseptic Mouth Rinse

My dental hygienist recommended I rinse my mouth with Listerine at least once a day, preferably right before I go to bed. For good measure, I rinsed after every meal, for thirty seconds each time, then didn't eat or drink for thirty minutes afterward. This allows the antiseptic liquid to kill all the bacteria in your mouth, including the bad ones rotting your gums.

Because I'm on a budget I didn't use Listerine, but bought a generic equivalent (much cheaper). All the generics I bought, from Walgreens, Shoprite and Wal-mart, worked just fine.

Use An Anti-Gingivitis Toothpaste