The Real Reason Your Gums Keep Receding (Most Dentists Miss This)

[00:00:00]If your gums are receding, somebody may have already told you their opinion about why you brushed too hard or you're just getting older. That's my favorite.

[00:00:10]So, you bought a softer toothbrush. You started being gentle and your gums kept receding. Well, here's the truth, and I've [music] said this to thousands of patients. There are two main reasons gum recede, and neither one is actually brushing too hard, and neither one is [music] your age. Thank goodness. Once you understand what's actually causing this, you can stop it and even fix it.

[00:00:33]So, let's talk about what we know and what the science shows. After 29 years in practice, basically my routine is that I check for recession at every exam. It's like checking the pressure in your tires, right? A measuring stick for the whole mouth. We catch it early, we can fix it before, you know, you get the flat tire. Well, that's the same thing for your gums. Half of the patients I see were told that the recession was because they brushed too hard. The other half were usually told it's just age.

[00:01:02]It's something that's just going to happen as you get older. You know, you get that old adage, I'm long in the tooth, which means, you know, I'm older.

[00:01:09]Well, I actually disagree with both of these things. I won't promise that you can magically regrow your gums at home because that's not true. I'll tell you the truth and exactly what to do about it. I formulated my own gum care products because I couldn't find ones that I believed in and that I saw really worked. So, let's talk about what gums really are. Gums are really like skin, but on the inside, they cover and they protect the teeth and the jawbone. Well, once that tissue and the bone under it recede, you just don't grow your gums back. So, anyone promising that your gums are going to grow back from a mouth rinse or something like that is really overpromising.

[00:01:55]But that doesn't mean that nothing can be done. You can stop it. You can calm the inflammation and you can have healthier gums, tighter gums, pinker gums. There really are regenerative options. We can even at the dental office do things like laser and ozone and gum grafts when they're needed. But here's the most important piece that you need to understand. You have to fix the cause first. So, let's actually go back to that tire story. Let's say that you check the air pressure on your tire and it's really low. So, you go to the gas station and you fill up your tire and the next day you go and you check your tire pressure again and it's really low again. And you just every single day go to the gas station and fill your tire up with air.

[00:02:40]Well, all of us understand the reason and the problem here, right? It's never going to get better. It's never going to stay full of air until you figure out the reason that it's losing air pressure. Do you get what I'm saying here? So, I'll always remember a patient. She was coming to me to do a gum graft. And as I looked at her mouth, I said, "There's an underlying reason here for why you're getting this gum recession." She was actually fairly young. I think if I'm remembering right, she was her late 30s, if that. And she said, "Well, you're actually the second surgeon that I've visited with." The first surgeon told me that I was going to have to have this gum grafted every five years. So, let's just say she was 40. She's now going to have to have a gum graft every five years for the rest of her life. Well, first of all, I can tell you gums are fairly miserable. We take a chunk of gums out of the roof of your mouth. It's just not that comfortable. Second thing is really is it going to be successful time and time and time again? The bigger issue is why did it recede in the first place? And if we fix that, you won't actually need another graft ever again. So this is what I shared with her and I said we need to find the reason that you're having the recession to begin with. That is the first thing that we are going to correct. Once that is corrected and the gums are healthy, then we talk about do we need to do any of these regenerative procedures like a gum graft. So if someone's recommending a gum graft and they've actually not gotten to the root cause of why you have the recession to begin with, then you're just up for repeat surgeries every 5 years or so when the cause that's led to the first recession hasn't been corrected and it just leads to the graft now receding.

[00:04:31]This is so important. I really want you to hear this. So, the real question isn't can I regrow my gums? It's why are they receding and how do I stop it? So, the first cause procession is a telltale sign of gum disease. Here's the interesting thing. Gum disease is actually the most common infection in the world. Yeah. Isn't this crazy? Up to 80% of adults have it. Most don't know why. because it doesn't hurt. I like to call it the most silent and deadly infection in the world. You don't even know that it's happening. Bacteria, they live in the plaque around the gum line.

[00:05:15]So, I like to think of them kind of like a city. And if those bacteria are allowed to stay around the gum line for long enough, they start to calcify. The saliva brings minerals to the mouth after every single meal. That's its job.

[00:05:30]Remember, we talked about this when we've talked about how cavities form where acid comes, dissolve minerals, saliva comes into the mouth, brings minerals back. That's saliva's job.

[00:05:40]Well, if the plaque stays around the gum line, the plaque actually takes in minerals, too. It becomes calcified. We call this tartar. Well, once that tartar is connected to the tooth, the bugs or the bacteria, they are having a party all day long. They have places now to live. So, I like to think of tartar as bacterial condos. Basically, they're just taking up residence on your teeth.

[00:06:04]You can't get it off unless you've got something that's going to scrape or you go to the dentist and we scrape it off.

[00:06:09]So, those bacterial condos are great places for them to have parties. They eat the sugar that you're consuming.

[00:06:16]They start to have parties. They dump their toxins out the windows. And what's down below those bacterial colonies?

[00:06:23]Your gums. Well, guess what? Those toxins they inflame your gums. Your gums hate them. This is called gingivitis.

[00:06:33]Gingiva means gums. Itis means inflammation. So this is inflammation of your gums. So left alone, what's going to happen if those tartar bacterial condos stay there. The toxins eventually build up enough that they reach the bone. Now the bone starts to pull away.

[00:06:52]The gums start to pull away. Why are they pulling away?

[00:06:55]because they hate the toxins. They're so inflammatory. They hurt. They make them sore. All of these things. So, they're trying to get away from those bacterial condos and the toxins that the bacteria are dumping off. This is now called periodontitis.

[00:07:13]What is the periodontum? The periodontum is all of the tissues that are surrounding that tooth. So, not just the gingiva, not just the gum. The periodontum is the gum plus the bone plus the ligament everything around. And remember itis is inflammation. So periodontitis is inflammation of all of those structures. And eventually if this continues happening those condos start to grow. They start to move down the tooth as the gums recede and eventually the tooth gets loose. Why? Because there's no more bone holding it in place. Now there's some really interesting fixes for this. The first one that hasn't really been talked a lot about is nutrition.

[00:07:54]Now, clear back in the 1800s when there was these cross oceanic voyages happening, you know, people were sailing from England to the United States, the sailors would be on those ships for weeks or even months at a time. And sailors started getting something called scurvy. Well, scurvy is a nutritional deficiency disease. And what they found is that they weren't getting any fresh fruits or vegetables, so they weren't getting any vitamin C. They started taking pickled limes or lime juice on those voyages. This is why sailors got the nickname of limeies because they were taking lime juice. Why? Lime juice is full of vitamin C. When they had scurvy, they had bleeding gums. They had loose teeth. Sailors were losing teeth right and left. As soon as they started adding the lime juice, all of a sudden, they weren't losing their teeth anymore.

[00:08:44]So, this showed us just loud and clear that nutrition is a part of gum health.

[00:08:49]It's not a side note. We can help those gums stay healthy if there aren't a whole bunch of bacterial condos living there, right? But you can you can help them out. Some other contributors, hormones during pregnancy and menopause.

[00:09:03]Why? Well, it's because the body is changing the way it's metabolizing minerals. It's changing the way it's utilizing vitamins. You just may need more of all of the things that help the gums and the teeth to stay healthy during these times. Diabetes or other autoimmune diseases. Again, this makes it so your body is not utilizing nutrients the same way. Dry mouth and medications, those often go hand in hand. Why? Because it doesn't bring the saliva, which often will wash away that plaque, wash away the bacteria if you don't have the saliva there. Smoking, how does this contribute? It dries everything out and also contributes to the toxic effect that smoking. The toxins that come from smoking are also very inflammatory to the gum, so they're going to shrink further away. And then a family history. Well, I actually don't like the family history piece very well because you can just blame it and say, "Ah, it's just because of family history. My dad had bad gums. I'm going to had bad gums." So, we instead have to point to what did your dad have that you also have? And that's what we're going to get into next. Reason number two, this is the most misunderstood reason for receding gums that no one is talking about. This is if you have recession and you have no gum disease. All right, so listen to that again. You have recession but you have no infection, no gum disease. You don't have bleeding gums, you don't have bacterial condos, the tartar living on the teeth, your teeth are clean, you're doing everything you can, but you still have recession. You need to look at the tooth that hits that tooth. So if it's right here and right here, do both of them have recession? If so, this is all about the way the teeth come together. Teeth that hit too hard or actually at an angle creates a rocking motion when you chew. That flexes the tooth right here down at the gum line. That's the flex point is the gum line. So the gum gets pushed down out of the flex zone. It's kind of like the splash zone. You know, when you're at SeaWorld, you're going to move out of that zone. it moves out of that flex zone and then the root is exposed.

[00:11:06]Oftentimes you'll get a little even divot in that tooth because that flex zone you'll get little tiny chips. Now here is where your brushing comes in.

[00:11:15]You actually may take a toothbrush across those little chips and brush those little chips away. So now we can say ah it's due to your toothbrushing.

[00:11:24]No, it's due to the flexing. And then your toothbrush comes and brushes the chips away leaving a V-shaped notch in the tooth behind. wasn't the toothbrush that was the problem. The toothbrush came after the problem. Does that make sense? So, why is it missed? Well, it's on teeth that touch. And I often will ask patients, I'll say, "Why did you only brush those two teeth too hard?"

[00:11:50]Because they'll say, "Yeah, my dentist told me that this is just because I've been brushing too hard." Oh, are those teeth a little more sensitive? Well, yeah. Where that gum is is receded and the roots exposed, it's actually quite sensitive. So, why do you keep brushing those two teeth too hard? People usually get a little, you know, quizzical look on their face and they'll say, "Well, I don't. I actually avoid those teeth because they're a little more sensitive."

[00:12:14]So, that means you've just debunked what you've been told. It can't be the toothbrush. So, the way the teeth hit together is a huge piece. Now, the airway issues come in secondary to this.

[00:12:26]A tongue tie, an airway issue can mean that the teeth came in angled and the bite was off from the very start. Not only that, but if you are struggling to get enough air at night, your body will naturally squeeze your teeth, even clench or sometimes even grind to activate the muscles so that you can get more air through. So if we're seeing a lot of recession, no infection, no tartar, just a lot of recession, the first thing I check is your airway and see are you actually getting enough air or is this related to that? So the point is if it's your bite, no rinse fixes it.

[00:13:03]The tooth has to be balanced so it keeps rocking. If this is an airway problem, no rinse is going to fix it and you shouldn't get a gum graft yet. Why?

[00:13:13]Because if you graft over all of those flex zones and you don't fix the reason that it's flexing, can't you see exactly what's going to happen? You're gonna just have the graft recede. So, we're not diving into surgery right now. That is not the step we're going to right now. And this is something I tell people all the time.

[00:13:33]They even sometimes come in asking for a graft and we have to say, "Slow down.

[00:13:38]Slow down right now. Let's figure out why the recession's happening. We can graft later if needed, but we have to find out the root cause first. Gum recession isn't the problem. It's a symptom. It's your mouth telling you that something underneath, either an infection or a bite that's off or an airway issue or both are causing the problem. That's actually good news because a symptom has a cause and a cause can be found and fixed. Before I show you exactly what to do, I want to give you something. I put together a free gum health guide. The real causes, the daily routine, and how to tell if your gums are healthy or heading the wrong direction. It's free. The link is right below this video. Go grab it, then come right back because I'm giving you the exact steps next. Step number one, real cause identified. Find out which it is. Is this an infectious problem, infection issue? How do you find out?

[00:14:36]You go to your dentist. We're going to do a gum measurement. We're going to measure around every single tooth, six different spots, every single tooth.

[00:14:43]We're going to look and see, are the gums red? Are they bleeding? People will often say, "Oh, my gums just bleed a little bit." Your gums should never bleed if they're healthy. If you were just to touch your skin right here and it just started bleeding, would you be concerned? Of course. The same thing happens with gums. You should not have bleeding gums if they are healthy and well. Could it be your bite? Is it your airway? Or is it all three? When we're doing those measurements, we're looking for something called a pocket. Well, pockets deeper than 3 millimeters mean disease has already started. If you have pockets deeper than 3 millime, you're going to go visit a dentist. You're going to go have them work and see, is there a bacterial condo living underneath that gum somewhere that's causing the gum to shrink away? Is there plaque? Is there something that needs to be removed and cleaned up? If you are in Utah, please come and visit us or from far away as well. We have people flying in from all over the world because we find things most offices miss. We look at the bite to see if this is your cause. We look at airway to see if that's the reason. We look for hidden infections. Sometimes there's a hidden infection underneath the edge of an old crown or an old filling or an old dental implant. Grafting won't solve the problem if the problem is still active.

[00:15:55]So, if you're looking for a dental office, check the link below for Total Care Dental here in Utah. Step number two, calm the inflammation, support daily gum health. So, this is where the rinse does come in. In our mouthwash, we have natural antimicrobials, things that are going to control that bacteria and minerals to support healthy gums without harsh antimicrobials like chlorhexidine.

[00:16:19]That's actually what I used for decades.

[00:16:22]That's what was our gold standard that I was told if somebody has gum disease.

[00:16:26]Well, research is now showing that that's very toxic to your gums. So, you're adding something just as toxic right back and it causes crazy staining on your teeth. Don't do it. Use things that are more natural. We want to support that gum health. Now, remember though, this isn't treating it. It's just supporting the gum health because step three is we want to continue down this path of making things better. Let's fix the nutrition piece. We want to add vitamin C and lots of it. Plus those fats soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.

[00:16:56]Clean daily care plus nutrition gives you gums that are nearly disease proof.

[00:17:03]Step number four, if it's your bite, if it's your airway, we're going to balance the bite. We're going to expand the teeth to give you more room to breathe to fix the airway issue. Minimal reshaping of the teeth so they stop rocking. There's so many things that we can do to actually correct that underlying problem. There was an interesting patient that I talked to.

[00:17:21]She had struggled with red bleeding gums her whole life and her whole family had it. So remember I talked about that family issue. So everybody had just blamed it on grandma and great grandma and whoever else had had this passed on through their life. What was it really?

[00:17:39]We had to get down to the root cause of what this issue really was. She actually brushed her teeth very well. So, she didn't have any of those bacterial condos on her teeth. She had a bite that was even. It wasn't hitting too hard or flexing the tooth, and she didn't have any airway issues. So, what was going on? Hers was actually a microbial issue.

[00:18:00]She wasn't balancing the microbes and her mouth very well. Now, I do believe this was related to her family history, which was related to her gut history, her ability to keep herself well, her gut. Now, there are different things that we inherit in our family, but there's also things that we pass down in our families. And this has been a fascinating thing for me. I remember seeing a whole family who had yellow stain on their teeth. Not black. These are called chromogenic bacteria. So, sometimes we'll see black stain, green stain, yellow stain. The whole family had yellow stain. And I asked them, I said, "You guys eating a lot of yellow foods? What's going on?" And mom said, "Oh, no. We just always get yellow stains." My dad got the same thing. So, do they inherit yellow stain? No. They passed on bacteria that create yellow stain. So, this is when we share food, we share a drink, we kiss somebody in our family. Any of these things, we're going to share bacteria. It's normal. We can't get away from it and we don't need to. But what we need to understand is this patient I'm talking about, these red gums. Hers was two pieces. It was nutritionbased. So, we increased her vitamin C and those fats soluble vitamins helped immensely. But she also had bugs in her mouth that were leading to these red gums. Her gums were also always slightly inflamed. So we started her on a mouth rinse and this was her quote. As soon as I started using your mouth rinse, I started to see some pink, right? It went from the red to the pink.

[00:19:29]So the mouthwash naturally rebalances the the oral microbiome. Let's take this up a notch. Now, I've just talked about gum health and losing your teeth or loose teeth, bleeding gums, those kinds of things. But gum health, it doesn't just stay in your mouth. It's not just about your mouth and your teeth.

[00:19:47]Research connects gum disease to heart disease, to stroke, to diabetes, to Alzheimer's, and on and on and on and on. Your gums are a part of your whole body. So, let's really summarize everything we're talking about here. Can receding gums grow back? not on their own and not from a rinse that promises miracles. But you can stop the recession. First, you have to find the real cause. Calm the inflammation. Fix the bite if that's the issue. Open the airway if needed. Protect the gums you have. That's the honest answer, and it's a better one than regrow them at home because it actually works. Grab the free gum health guide below. And if you want to understand how your gum health is connected to your heart, [music] your brain, your gut, all of those other things, watch this next. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Dr. Michelle Jorgensson, and as always, my mission is to give you the knowledge and tools you need to live well.