Are Your Gums Bleeding On Probing?

If you are good at upside down reading and find yourself awaiting the dentist’s arrival after the hygienist has departed, you may find the abbreviation “BOP” jotted down in your file. As you may be curious to find out what it means, you may ask your dentist or hygienist and perhaps not surprisingly you will find out that it means gums bleeding on probing. In other words, as the hygienist was doing her or his work, it became noticeable that even at the slightest probing the gums would begin to bleed.

While this is in and of itself not a dangerous situation, it is a sign that you may be suffering from an increasingly serious inflammation of the gum tissue at the gum line where the tissue intersects with the teeth. In the oral cavity, this kind of inflammation is serious business since it leads to a plethora of undesirable outcomes.

Gums bleeding on probing are most frequently linked back to a chronic and persistent condition, such as gingivitis, which forces the body to respond in a persistent manner to remove the source of the inflammation, in this case bacteria. Sine the bacteria cannot be eradicated, as would be the case with an acute wound site that could be cleaned out, sterilized, and then directly treated with antibiotics, the recurrent nature of the irritant expresses itself in a low grade fever – frequently not noticeable to the patient – and also a continuous immune system response from the body.

Are your gums bleeding on probing or have you noticed that when you bite into a big, juicy apple there is some red from your gums? If this is the case you might be suffering from an advancing case of gingivitis; while it is tempting to simply ignore the problem – as so many are prone to do when a condition involves a visit to the dentist – the fact that this kind of inflammation may continue on for years should be a wakeup call. After all, the entire body’s immune system is more or less held hostage by the continued need to tend to the oral cavity to avoid toxicity from taking on unhealthy levels and this leaves the rest of the body in a bind when it comes to fighting infections elsewhere.

At the same time, failure to deal with gums bleeding will lead to the necessity to deal with gums receding. If it would still take more than 10 wild horses to drag you to the dentist at this point, the sad reality dictates that you might find yourself with your gum tissue destroyed to such an extent that an extensive skin graft is the only way of saving your teeth. Do not let things progress this far if you have the opportunity to seek out dental health care. Otherwise, the odds are good that before long you will suffer from extensive tooth loss and will require bridge work and other cosmetic prostheses for not only aesthetic reasons but also to ensure that speaking and chewing will not be inhibited.