Dental Cleaning

I wasn't sure what to do after I didn't want to go back to my old dentist. The dental cleaning was awesome
(my dental hygienist recommended the butler g-u-m gum stimulator that worked great and really stimulated my gums) but he didn't care about my gum infection at all. I thought I had the situation with my swollen and bleeding gums under control. As the three months were over, and I normally would go back to my dental hygienist in March 2010, I didn't.

My gums were ok, still swollen and infected, but ok. So I thought I would have the time to find another dentist who really cares about my gums and my overall dental health. How wrong I was!

With the current economy and the money challenge, I pushed the dentist search to April and then to May 2010. I saw an ad of an holistic dentist an hour far away from my home who advertised that she would specialize in gum health. The ad looked great. I wanted to check her out but didn't make a final decision. Visiting a healthy living expo in my neighbor city, I participated in a seminar, led by specific holistic dentist. She was straight forward and let us visitor look in mirrors to "see our gums and teeth" and go through exercises to check out our problem areas.

By this time, my gums started to "shrink". All my back teeth lost gum and bone tissue within two months. It felt like it happened over night. I looked in the mirror and was shocked. Where have I been? What happened with my mouth, teeth and gums? I became scarred. Only being in my forties, I am too young to lose my teeth (I guess you are still too young with seventy for that).

Finally, I went to a local dentist in my neighborhood. I asked him about my shrinking gums, why I have them, and what I could do. No answer. I am so tired that no dentist really cares about helping me with my gums. He only said that my bite would be off and perhaps later I would need a crown. A crown again!!! No word about that I would have gingivitis or periodontitis (what I know now). I couldn't hear it anymore. However, I didn't want to give up and went back to get a dental cleaning with this dentist.

The dental cleaning was horrible. The dental hygienist complained about my teeth and gum loss and assumed that 1. I wouldn't clean my teeth, 2. I wouldn't clean my teeth right, 3. I didn't clean my teeth as I was young (what is right), etc. No word about Gingivitis or Periodontitis either. Then she started for thirty minutes to clean my teeth manual, again complaining about my plaque, and that it was so difficult. In the meantime, my teeth starting hurting from getting pulled back and forth. Finally, she used electrical equipment for few minutes and told me then I was done. While she was treating me she asked if I ever went to a periodontist.

I am sure you know how your teeth feel when you come from your dental cleaning. They look so good and feel so clean. That wasn't the way they felt in this case.

I know I had to do something and finally find a dentist who cares about my gum problem or going to a periodontist who eventually would place dental implants in my mouth.

Remembering the holistic dentist, I thought I give it a try. It was my best decision in regard to my long gum infection problem ever.

Gum Infection

Over the years, my gums became more and more infected. Several teeth started bleeding. The gums got swollen and red. There was never a time the infection went  totally away.

I guess it is also in my family. My parents and my middle sister have the same problems. The last twenty years, I tried everything what is available on the "traditional" dental hygiene market, from special formed tooth brushes and dental floss over water picker to a gum tip that massages your gums.

For a long time, I didn't want to show my teeth when pictures were taken. I felt embarrassed about my appearance, and that I didn't take care of my teeth as I was a child.

Changing the dental hygiene behavior was easy for me, but it doesn't change the damage that already was done.

If I would know as a child what I know now I never ever would not be brushing or cleaning my teeth. But, it is too late for that now.

Swollen Gums

Hi, I am Daggi. I wanted to share my odyssey from swollen gums and having a gum infection over gingivitis to periodontitis.


I am German and live in the USA since 2005. I have swollen and infected gums since I was a teenager.



As I was a child I hated brushing and cleaning my teeth. I felt it was a waste of my time, and often I went to bed without or only with a kind of a minute brush. My dental hygiene wasn't great, not to say horrible.


Being a teenager, everything else was more important. It really didn't bother me so much then. Furthermore, I never saw that it was bad for my teeth. As I was a child my mom brought my sister and me to a dentist who put filings as "prevention" in my healthy teeth.


I had a lot of cavities back then, no wonder with all the chocolate, sugar and sweets I ate.


Since I am a young adult I brush and floss my teeth twice a day. However, the bleeding and swollen gums didn't stop since then. I still have them twenty years later. It always bothered me.


I often feel desperate and that I am the only one who is fighting with it. It looks like everybody else has these wonderful teeth, especially here in the United States.


This is my odyssey of having a "little" gum problem to being one step away from losing my teeth.

Perhaps my blog helps you, and you don't have to go through the same hell as I do now.


Happy teeth and gums!