[darkxflutterby]

For months now my lower gums have been irritated. They bleed when I brush my teeth and it looks like the actual gum now is starting to recede making my teeth look bigger. My breath is terrible. Sometimes when I suck on my teeth it causes them to bleed. This happened yesterday but the unusual thing is one particular tooth kept clotting, well the blood would appear in clots. I thought its was food at first but I woke up this morning and had a big blood clot, its so weird, I've never heard of it in my life. I brush my teeth every night and every day and use mouth wash when I can.

What is this? I'm terrified!

I haven't had time to see my dentist, the reason I'm asking on here.

[tickle]

You are definitely going to have to make time to see your dentist because your description of your mouth problems do not sound good. Receding gums could be caused by a few things and one is gingivitis. If you are having trouble with gums bleeding it sounds like at some point you were not brushing on a regular basis and gum disease has set in. Regular maintenance from a dentist or hygeinist should occur every 6 months to have a check up and a good cleaning to keep gums healthy and happy. I heard an old saying once 'your teeth look good but your gums have to go! '

[flossie]

Definitely sounds like you have gum disease. It is important that you see a hygienist to have a thorough cleaning. You will be instructed to not only brush twice a day but to also clean between your teeth with dental floss or proxabrush every day.

The reason your breath is bad is due to the bacteria sitting under the gums and fermenting.

You want to get this taken care of before your teeth get loose and have to be removed.

The other thing to remember is the kind of infection you have in your mouth has been linked to heart attacks, stroke, respiratory disease, diabetes, and also alzheimers and some cancers. Call your dentist ASAP.

[twinkiedooter]

You sound like you definitely have gum disease. The only remedy for this is to have your gums curitaged (sp) or rotorootered for a better description of the procedure. It is expensive and painful but this must be done before your teeth get too loose in their sockets and too much bone loss is evident. You probably will lose some teeth due to the gum disease if it is too far advanced. The bad breath is from the trapped bacteria in your mouth. Do you smoke cigarettes or chew chewing tobacco or snuff? This could have been a contributing factor to your gum problems now. It will not go away until the bacteria is literally scraped from the tooth roots and flushed out properly. I had this done about 20 years ago. My teeth were wiggly loose and I had a lot of bone loss. My dentist saved as many teeth as he could but warned me that I would most likely have the domino effect where one tooth would have to be pulled and then the next one to it, then the next one, etc. Well, so far he was right. I do have a lot of tooth loss but I still have quite a lot of teeth left. I traced it back to the fact that my dead husband had gum problems and teeth problems and from kissing him I had shared his infection/bacteria. My teeth have shifted and now my upper front teeth are "western teeth" as my mother used to call her spaced front teeth. You don't want to end up like me, believe me.