Is gum inflammation contagious?
The question of whether gum inflammation is contagious must first be addressed. If it is only a mucous membrane injury, which has become a bit inflamed, this question can be answered in the negative. Injuries can be caused by crumbly, coarse-grained food, for example.
However, if the disease is caused by bacteria, then these can be transmitted by kissing. This direct fluid exchange is required for “infecting”. However, it cannot be said exactly whether the disease really breaks out in the other person. This depends on other factors, such as a poor state of the immune system, etc. Caution is advised with ANUG, as this variant is very aggressive and also transmissible.
Symptoms
Inflammations in the area of the gums can usually be detected quite quickly. The gums quickly lose their rosy, light color in the affected areas and become increasingly darker. Bleeding along the gum line is the first and most important sign of gum inflammation.
Already in this stage of the disease, the patient may experience pain while brushing his teeth. In addition, severe redness and dark discoloration of the gumline are among the typical symptoms of gingivitis. In addition to these very early signs, strongly inflamed gums often react after a while with water and secretion deposits within the tissue. The result is increasingly swollen gums.
Purulent gum inflammation
In very rare cases of gingivitis, the swelling of individual lymph nodes in the neck also occurs. They usually only become larger when the disease has been present for a longer period of time and the body is increasingly trying to fight the disease. Therefore, in this case they indicate chronic gingivitis. However, since there can be many other diseases that are associated with enlarged lymph nodes much more often, a clarification at the dentist should be made in any case.
What are the consequences of gingivitis?
Gingivitis can cause periodontitis if it persists for a long time without treatment. Periodontitis is a disease of the periodontal apparatus. The periodontium is the “anchoring system” that connects the tooth with the jawbone.
If it is affected, after some time it can cause the teeth to become loose. If no treatment is initiated, this process progresses and over time even leads to tooth loss. The difference between these two diseases is that gingivitis is reversible, i.e. it heals completely, whereas periodontitis is not.
In the best case a stabilization of the existing condition can be achieved. Destroyed tooth supporting tissue cannot be rebuilt, however. Another unpleasant side effect of gingivitis is unpleasant bad breath.
However, this will subside once the inflammation has healed through good oral hygiene. Gingivitis alone does not pose a danger to the heart. Only when the inflammation spreads and periodontitis (inflammation of the periodontium, which can accompany tooth loss), the heart is at risk.
The risk of suffering from heart disease is then increased by about 50%. The reason for this is the bacteria that are found in the oral cavity during periodontal disease. These are anaerobic bacteria that survive without oxygen. These bacteria can enter the bloodstream via gingivitis with bleeding gums and then migrate to the heart.
