{"id":12748,"date":"2020-04-06T06:59:59","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T06:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.io\/?p=12748"},"modified":"2021-07-02T14:38:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T14:38:44","slug":"14-common-causes-of-gum-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.io\/14-common-causes-of-gum-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"14 Common Causes of Gum Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pain in the gums is a very common type of pain that people experience at some or other point during their lives: It can also be one of the worst and most uncomfortable types of pain you can be made to deal with – and certainly one of the most intolerable, especially where it’s related to needing an emergency procedure or having a chronic condition.
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If you experience chronic and regular gum pain, then there’s almost certainly a chronic cause for it. There might be a variety of things causing it, ranging from tooth decay through to left-over tooth fragments after an improper extraction – it might also be conditions such as grinding causing your symptoms, and unless you see a doctor for an accurate diagnosis, you are likely not to find out.
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Here are 14 frequent causes of gum pain that might tell you when it’s time to see your doctor or dentist.
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1. Abscesses
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An abscess <\/a>generally means a fluid-filled growth that occurs due to an infection; while they can theoretically happen anywhere in the body, they are particularly common within the mouth – and anywhere teeth or gums might have been injured.
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If you have an abscess in the gums, teeth or mouth, it’s likely that you will be able to feel it – and that pain and swelling will be the first symptoms that you feel. From there, you are also likely to experience other accompanying symptoms such as a feeling of permanent heat and a bad taste in the mouth – a fever is also almost certain in this case. 
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Abscesses are a huge risk for releasing the infection behind it into the bloodstream: This is particularly dangerous where the infection is left undiagnosed and untreated for too long.
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For gum pain coupled with any of the aforementioned symptoms, see your doctor as soon as possible.
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2. Cracked Teeth
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Cracked teeth are very common, and these might in turn cause trapped nerves, inflammation and abscesses to occur as a result; sometimes, they might even expose the inner-nerve of the teeth directly – and this leads to a very high infection <\/a>risk as well as a lot of accompanying pain felt in the tooth.
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An increased sensitivity to hot and cold in a certain part of the mouth where the cracked teeth are located is another common symptom, and the teeth are always at risk of cracking or chipping further.
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You’re certain to experience gum pain and swelling in this case, and you might even experience accompanying bleeding from the mouth depending on the severity of the injury.
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Due to the infection and abscess risk as well as the pain, seek out dental help as soon as you realize that it starts to hurt. It’s not uncommon for pain to suddenly become worse.
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3. Tooth Decay 
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Public service ads (and often dentists and doctors) always warn us about tooth decay and the potential dangers, but most people don’t take this advice very seriously until they’ve gone through any of the symptoms that tooth decay might trigger.
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Serious gum pain and swelling <\/a>is characteristic of experiencing tooth decay: You might have an increased infection risk, a potential fever and increased plaque as consequences of tooth decay, and it might eventually lead to serious degradation of your teeth should the condition be left untreated.
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Where tooth decay has triggered other issues in the mouth, it’s more likely to cause gum pain and might cause additional bleeding: From there, tooth decay can trigger further issues.
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Proper hygiene and dietary habits can save you from tooth decay, as can being more careful with what you eat (and how carefully you chew it).
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4. Tooth Sensitivity
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If your gums are habitually experiencing pain whenever you consume hot or cold things, this can be an early sign that you should see your dentist: It’s not the kind of dental problem that you can assume will go away “on its own.” 
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The kind of dental injury that causes things to be painful when temperature changes are experienced will usually get worse over time (and is likely to cause further degradation of the particular tooth or nerve <\/a>which might be triggering the problem).\u00a0
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Gum pain is common, and pain will likely feel as although it has a sharp and stabbing or radiating quality to it.
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Sometimes this is also tied to the degradation of the tooth enamel: Something only your dentist will be able to remedy. See your dentist if you suspect that you are experiencing this, which can also be characterized by any color changes of the teeth due to staining.
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5. Tooth Fragments
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Sometimes fragments of teeth or roots are a common and uncomfortable cause of pain felt in the gums. There are many things that can leave behind these fragments, including physical trauma to the mouth or jaw, grinding or improper extractions – and the body almost always tries to expel these fragments, with the main result being more pain and often a heightened infection risk.
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Where you experience an abscess <\/a>shortly after an extraction (sometimes as much as a year after), it could mean that fragments broke off during the extraction and seated themselves in the gums. Here, they cause the characteristic gum pain that comes with it – and if left alone, it might also cause a very serious infection.
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Ideally, you should see your dentist for this type of injury first.
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From there, x-rays and an examination can help to establish what should or should not be done as a next course of action.
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6. Plaque 
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Everyone is familiar with the term plaque<\/a>, but not a lot of people realize what it really means. It’s the proper name for a substance that grows on the teeth – usually due to the wear-and-tear that teeth go through while we eat and drink different things. This substance is one of the main causes of serious tooth decay – and getting rid of it is one of main reasons why people are told to regularly brush their teeth.
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If you have excess build-up of this substance on your teeth, then you are at an automatically higher risk of facing tooth decay as a result: You’re also further at risk of dealing with further health issues from there that might include.gum pain and swelling.
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A bad taste in the mouth can be characteristic of build-up, but might also mean that a serious infection has taken root. See your dentist as soon as possible and make some general alternations for better dental health.
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7. Overcrowding of Teeth
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The overcrowding of teeth <\/a>is a common condition that affects thousands of people, most commonly in childhood (though sometimes the condition is only noticed or apparent when someone has entered adulthood); it can sometimes occur on its own, but might also occur as a result of connective tissue disorders (and one of the most defining symptoms of certain ones).
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if you experience any overcrowding of teeth, it’s likely that you’ll also experience pain and potentially bleeding of the gums as a result of it. This is always serious, since overcrowding of teeth can cause further pain – and eventually pressure as teeth start to press against one another.
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See your doctor if you suspect obvious overcrowding of teeth as one of your symptoms: Braces and surgery are some of the ways to fix it, although surgery is the recommended option anywhere braces might cause more damage to your teeth instead.
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8. Malnutrition
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Everyone needs nourishment, and most people are aware of this very basic health-related fact – but it’s true that not everyone realizes what serious implications this might have in store for their health. If you aren’t taking in the kind of thing your body needs – following the wrong diet – or if your body simply isn’t absorbing the nutrients from the food you’re getting, malnourishment is the consequence (and you might not even know it.
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One of the first symptoms of malnourishment is gum pain and bleeding: While rare in the general population, some diseases such as Crohn’s disease<\/a> might cause issues with how the body absorbs nutrients from food and it might result in gum pain as a symptom.
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Should you suspect that your gum symptoms are related to your nutrition, make changes to include more vitamin-rich foods or a healthy comprehensive supplement: From there, see your doctor to establish potential causes.
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9. Infection Within the Mouth or Gums
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An underlying infection in the mouth or gums can be one of the first causes of pain, particularly where it can be combined with other symptoms that are common for infections – including a fever that doesn’t go away or becomes harder to treat.
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If you have a mouth or gum infection, a bad taste in the mouth is one of the most common symptoms you’re likely to experience: A certain area of the mouth surrounding the infection might also become sensitive to the touch, sensitive to temperature <\/a>changes between hot and cold and the abscess trapping the infection might be felt around the same area.
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Infections should always be considered serious, even if you think that the rest of your health feels fine right now. Sometimes, untreated infections can be deadly, especially where they might end up in the bloodstream.
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See your doctor for any infection-related health issues: Antibiotics are usually all that it’ll take from there.
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10. Gum Injury
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An injury to the gums is a lot more common than you might think, and people hurt their gums in different ways a few times per week by eating without noticing – and sometimes, it hurts bad enough to cause temporary pain and swelling<\/a>. We all know the feeling of stabbing the wrong part of our mouth with something sharp – crisps are a common culprit, and things like popcorn tends to be even worse – and it’s never pleasant.
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The good thing is that the injury and gum pain associated with temporary injuries like stabbing the inside of the mouth with a piece of food are temporary: They’ll go away within a few days should the proper care method be followed from there.
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If you are already prone to an infection or your immune system is running at a low-point, then the injured part of your gums becomes more likely to become an entry point for an infection: In this case, see your doctor or dentist immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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11. Bruxism
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The condition known as bruxism <\/a>is familiar to most people simply as grinding their teeth, and it affects thousands of people all across the world every year. Grinding is common, and it most commonly occurs during the night.\u00a0
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Symptoms of grinding your teeth can include fractures that you can’t identify a potential cause for, pain in the jaw, perpetual pain in the gums and bleeding; it might also include waking up with neck pain or a headache every morning (or sometimes at night) without knowing why.
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If you experience any of these symptoms on a regular basis, see your doctor or dentist: Most of the time, the condition is easy to treat with a few lifestyle changes and the addition of a grinding block, worn when asleep to prevent any serious further damage to the teeth happening from there.
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Medication can also sometimes be adapted where it’s found to be a potential trigger for night-time grinding, and other times medication might be added where the cause is found to be related to stress.
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12. Direct Trauma
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Direct trauma <\/a>to the jaw, mouth or face can commonly trigger gum pain, and might trigger other issues such as cracked teeth (sometimes ones that only become apparent years after the initial accident has taken place) and abscesses or infections are also considered fairly common.
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Should you have experienced any direct trauma to the jaw, the first thing you should do is see your doctor or seek out emergency room treatment. Even where you think the damage might not be as bad as you initially expected, gum pain is never a good indicator of what’s to come – and the damage might be worse than you initially anticipated.
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Where you suspect that this might be the case, see your doctor and ask for x-rays where you feel as though the potential damage might be severe and related to the trauma. Trauma injuries can flare up, sometimes months after the physical traumatic event itself.
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13. Dietary Triggers
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Dietary triggers might be the reason for your gum pain if you are following the wrong diet<\/a>, or if you’ve recently eaten something that might have impacted your teeth or gums in a negative way; these are things one doesn’t normally imagine as possible causes for gum pain, but it’s likely anywhere dietary factors are the first thing you might have thought of.
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If you consume a lot of sugar or acidic foods, then the gum pain you feel might be as a result of either respectively tooth decay or degradation brought on by these factors. 
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Changing your diet is a good way to ensure that no further damage happens, but this alone cannot repair damage that dietary factors have already caused your teeth. To repair existing damage, you’re going to have to see a dentist, and tests are going to have to be performed in order to establish the real extent of the damage.
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14. Connective Tissue Conditions
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Connective tissue disorders are thought to be a lot more common than we had expected or known a few decades back, and more people are being diagnosed with connective tissue disorders such as Marfan’s syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos<\/a> than ever before – and this is considered a good thing because of the fact that it’s due to a better diagnostic protocol existing for how to spot these cases that might have gone otherwise undiagnosed.
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Connective tissue disorders cause serious degradation of the body’s connective tissue, and this might include the skin, the bones, the muscles and tendons – but also includes the teeth and gums.
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Those diagnosed with connective tissue disorders (and people who might have been born with these conditions but remain undiagnosed) are more at risk of developing many conditions mentioned in this article (including tooth decay) and will be more at risk for gum pain.
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Ideally, health and conditions should be managed by a team of knowledgeable specialists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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