Gum disease: how to catch it early, and how it's treated.

Gum disease comes in two stages. Gingivitis is the early, mild form — inflamed gums that bleed easily — and it is fully reversible with better cleaning and a professional clean. If it is ignored, it can progress to periodontitis, where the infection spreads below the gum line and starts to destroy the bone that holds the teeth. That bone loss cannot be regrown, which is why periodontitis is managed rather than cured. The whole point of catching it early is to stop it at the reversible stage.

The root cause is plaque — a sticky film of bacteria that constantly forms on teeth. When it is not removed daily, it hardens into tartar along and under the gum line, which irritates the gum and harbours more bacteria. Several things raise the risk: smoking (the single biggest one), poorly controlled diabetes, hormonal changes, certain medications that dry the mouth, and a genetic tendency. But the trigger is always bacteria, which is why daily cleaning is the foundation of both prevention and treatment.

The earliest and most reliable sign is gums that bleed when you brush or floss — healthy gums do not bleed. Watch also for red, swollen or tender gums, persistent bad breath or a bad taste, gums that look like they are pulling away from the teeth, and — in later stages — teeth that feel loose or have shifted. Because the early stage rarely hurts, bleeding is the warning most worth acting on rather than dismissing as normal.

Early gingivitis often resolves with a professional clean (scaling) to remove tartar, plus improved daily cleaning at home. Established periodontitis needs deeper cleaning below the gum line (root planing), sometimes in sections, to clear the infection and let the gum reattach where it can. More advanced cases may need gum or bone procedures from a specialist. Ongoing maintenance cleans then keep it stable. The earlier it is treated, the less invasive and more successful the treatment.

Prevention is genuinely straightforward: brush twice a day, clean between the teeth every day to disrupt the plaque a brush misses, and have regular professional cleans to remove the tartar you cannot. Not smoking makes a large difference, as does keeping conditions like diabetes well controlled. Treat bleeding gums as a signal to clean better and get checked — not as something to live with. Gums that are looked after early rarely become a serious problem.