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The effect of pregnancy on gum disease
Pregnancy tends to aggravate gum disease. While you're pregnant, the altered hormone levels in your body makes your
gums more sensitive to irritants and can cause your gums to be inflamed,
swollen, and to bleed easily. This inflammation begins in the earliest stages of pregnancy and lasts
through the entire pregnancy. In fact, while I was in dental practice, I had
an interesting incident with a female patient. I was doing a routine
examination and noticed that her gums were more inflamed than they had
usually been. I told her and asked if she was pregnant. She said she wasn't.
But, in her next visit to the office she told me that she found out later
that she really was pregnant at that time.
Pregnancy doesn't actually cause the inflammation in your gums, but it makes
the gums more sensitive to irritants. To control this inflammation, you need
to brush and floss a little more carefully. If you're really diligent, you
can keep your gums completely healthy. In addition to this problem, while you're pregnant you tend to have a more
difficult time keeping a regular oral hygiene schedule.
The gum inflammation caused by pregnancy is
what you would call gingivitis. Gingivitis is
an inflammation of the gum tissue that hasn't affected the bone support of
the teeth. There is no evidence we're aware of that pregnancy is tied to any
more serious gum disease, such as periodontitis.
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