Hello!! How’ve you been? Things have been a little mad for me recently because I’m back at practice seeing patients and I am suffering from writers block BIG TIME. Then it came to me like a bolt from the blue…lockdown gums! Throughout July I’ve been seeing patients again, some I haven’t seen for months and months, some I saw just before my practices closed because of Covid 19 and I can 100% conclude that lockdown gums are definitely a thing.

For most of us life was paused from March to July and for some of us life is still on a pause, its like that weird time between Christmas and new year. The days blended into one, all routine went out the window and a perfect storm situation was created for Gingivitis (bleeding gums) to occur, existing Gingivitis to turn into Gum Disease and Gum Disease that had been stable before lockdown to become active again. But why oh why did this happen? I have a few theories…

All routine has gone out the window
Gums LOVE routine, and not only do they love it, they need it.
Plaque is the main nemesis of gum health, and not just any plaque, plaque that has been sitting at the gum line for more than 24 hours. This plaque is protected by a layer of slime which prevents your bodies white blood cells fighting it and killing the bacteria inside. The which blood cells still come in their droves to protect you though, and because they can’t fight the plaque directly because of this layer of slime the sits on top all they can do it hang out, cause inflammation, tenderness and bleeding at the gum line. This my friends is Gingivitis which you can read more about on my blog post here. When you have a good oral hygiene routine that you’re carrying out daily, plaque doesn’t get an opportunity to hang out at the gum line long enough to involve white blood cells coming to the rescue so they gums stay healthy. If you’re not putting your routine into practice we are going to start to see problems which is exactly what happened to a lot of my patients over lockdown.
We’ve been over indulging
We’ve all seen the banana bread and the drinking from 12pm posts but the truth is these bad habits have been really bad for our health generally and its had a knock on effect on our gums too. It shouldn’t really be a surprise to us that sugar causes cavities but sugar also causes gum inflammation and not just sugar in brownies or chocolate bars but hidden sugars in processed foods, white rice, white pasta and white bread. Similarly going over the recommended 14 units of alcohol in a week you (which is really easy to do when you’re serving yourself and drinking at home rather than out in a bar) could also be increasing inflammation around your gums too. A little bit of what you fancy absolutely does you good but now that we’re getting back to the ‘new normal’ its important that we don’t bring so lockdown habits into our everyday lives. Diet can also have a huge positive effect on your gum health so eating health balanced meals which contain a wide variety of fruit and vegetables is a great way to kickstart gum health.
We’ve been feeling stressed
I don’t know about you but I have found parts of lockdown to be extremely stressful, from worrying about and being separated from friends and family, to thinking about work and being anxious to leave the house. Lots of my patients have been feeling stressed and this extra stress in our lives is not good. Stress increases our risk of developing Gum Disease in the first place and can kick start some previously stable Gum Disease back into activity. Handling stressful situations and stress generally is easier said than done but being aware of stress and having some sort of coping mechanism in place is beneficial for your mental health, your general health and your gum health too. You can try mindfulness apps like headspace and if in doubt speak to your GP.

I know we are still really far away from how things were pre Covid-19 and for some of us gum health is WAY down the priority list but because poor gum health can have such a negative effect on your health generally its really important to be:-

Changing the head on your electric toothbrush or your manual toothbrush every 3 months. The new Oral B iO * lets you know on their app when to change but just making a note of this somewhere is really helpful especially when all the days merge into one.
Using something to clean in between your teeth as close to daily as you can. Even the best most amazing electric toothbrush cannot clean in between your teeth, using something like interdental brushes, dental floss or a water flosser or a combination of all 3 will help you keep these areas as plaque free as possible.
Brushing your teeth systematically so that no area gets left out, making sure you are cleaning at the gum line where the tooth meets you gums and doing this gently for 2 minutes. Again if your toothbrush has an app like the Oral B iO * it can help coach you to do this effectively.
Using a non abrasive fluoride toothpaste that meets your dental needs eg sensitivity

Not only will this help improve your gum health and general health, you could also potentially be saving yourself loads of money in review appointments and future gum treatments. Lots of my patients that I saw at the beginning of lock down with poor gum health came back to be reviewed 2 weeks later with reduced inflammation, reduced bleeding and reduced probing depths (a test we doo to highlight areas of Gum Disease) around their teeth and a scraped or reduced treatment plan to help them achieve gum health. Sticking to and implementing a gold standard oral hygiene routine will save your gums and your wallet in the long run.

Thankyou so much for reading :). If you have any questions please comment below or DM my Instagram page.

* gifted products