The following symptoms and complaints may indicate periodontitis:
Leading symptoms
- Sweetish bad breath
- Pain when brushing teeth
- Bleeding gums
- Gum recession
- Tooth loosening
- Tooth loss
- Pocketing
- Inflamed gum pockets
Gingiva (gums)
- No longer tight and garlanded to the tooth.
- No pale pink color and stippling
- No homogeneous surface
- Hyperplasia
- Non-inflammatory gingival atrophy
- Acute, purulent processes
- Sweetish bad breath – indication of pocket formation and bacterial proliferation.
- Reddish, swollen, slightly bleeding mucosal areas.
- Stillman’s cleft – cleft-shaped recession of the gums.
- Mc Call` s festoons – fibrous thickening of the gingiva in the recession area.
- Bloody or purulent bloody secretion from the gingival margin.
- Abscess formation
Late symptoms
- Tooth mobility
- Tooth loosening
- Tooth migration
- Tooth loss
Note: A pronounced periodontitis can occupy a wound area of up to 8-20 cm2. This explains the extent of a resulting systemic immune response (chronic inflammation).
