 My name is Andrea Trosti and I've been a dental professional since 2005. I'm currently a dental hygienist where I have my own mobile dental hygiene practice. And something I see nearly in every single client of mine is their gums are going to bleed. Whether they're bleeding during the cleaning or they tell me, hey Andrea, my gums bleed when I'm brushing, when I'm flossing, why is that, what's going on? So let me explain bleeding gums a little bit. Now typically, when anybody experiences bleeding gums, they get concerned. They're like, oh my goodness, what's going on? And you should be concerned, but not in the way that you might think. So let me backpedal a little bit. So when I see bleeding gums, when I'm cleaning somebody's teeth, I know I'm not doing anything wrong because during a teeth cleaning, we're there to remove the plaque and tartar that builds up on your teeth. If we don't remove it, then that can cause gum disease, it can cause cavities and it can cause pain. So we do need to remove that plaque and tartar with the tools that we have. Now if I notice the gums are bleeding, that tells me that particular plaque and tartar in that area has been sitting there too long and it's made the gums inflamed. Quite often patients are going to say to me, Andrea, I taste blood, like that doesn't taste good. Can I please have a rinse? And sometimes the bleeding just continues. Like it's not going to stop after a rinse. It's going to continue for a couple seconds, if not a couple minutes. Like it really depends on how long I'm cleaning in that particular area. Now some patients are overly concerned. They might be like, oh my goodness, what did you do? Did you hurt me? Why are my gums bleeding? My gums never bleed with any other hygienists, like what's going on? So basically bleeding gums tells us that that area, those gums, aren't healthy. It could be because you're not flossing every day. If you're the type that doesn't want to floss every day or you just don't find the time, you don't like it, I highly recommend a water pick. I'm going to leave a link for you guys down below where you can actually buy one from Amazon. I use the same one. It's a cordless one. It's an attachment, kind of like a pressure washer, but four inside your mouth that just helps to clean the mouth really, really well with high pressure water. It's amazing. I highly recommend that. If your gums are bleeding and you're using the water pick or it could be also called the water flosser. If you're using that at least every day, the gums will get so much healthier in no time. What we say in the dental world is healthy gums do not bleed. So when we see bleeding, are we concerned? Yes, but it kind of depends. Even my gums bleed from time to time. If I'm using the water flosser and my gums are bleeding, I'm not immediately like, Oh my goodness, what's going on? You know, call 911. What's happening? No. I had more plaque in that area. I probably didn't brush that area that well today, or maybe I didn't quite get back there with the water flosser. So gums can bleed very easily, but if you notice bleeding, or if your dental hygienist has told you your gums are bleeding more than usual today, the best thing to do is start to brush every day, twice a day, use the water flosser every day. I tend to use mine after I'm eating, if I'm home, so maybe three or four times a day, and get your teeth cleaned on a regular basis by the dental hygienist. Because if the plaque or tartar is sitting there for too long, and you can't get at it with your toothbrush or anything else, then the dental hygienist, we have special tools to get underneath the gums to clean that off. Your gums are going to be unhealthy. They're going to continue bleeding unless we clean off that plaque and tartar. But like I said before, it's kind of like a double-edged sword. When I'm cleaning in there, the gums are going to bleed even more. So it kind of looks like I'm making the matter worse, but I'm not. Things have to get worse before they get better. I need to clean away that plaque and tartar. The gums are going to bleed a lot, but then the gums can start to heal. The gums are going to get used to things again, and they're going to toughen up. So what I tell my patients is, you might notice the gums bleeding a little bit more tonight, but by tomorrow, maybe a couple days, if you're doing everything you should be doing with your toothbrush, you know, brush twice a day. Use the water flosser at least every day. The gums are going to start to heal, and you'll notice them bleeding less and less each time. The gums need to toughen up. So now that I've cleaned everything out of there, the plaque, the tartar, all of that, the gums can start to heal now. So then you will notice it can take somebody a couple days. It can take somebody a couple weeks, maybe even a couple months. But you will notice, hmm, my gums are bleeding so much less now. Some people do need their teeth cleaned more often, say every three months, to keep their gums as healthy as possible, and to have the bleeding not happen. But let's say they wait four months and they notice the gums are starting to bleed more than usual, it's time to get your teeth cleaned. I'm not going to get too scientific about it in this video, but basically there's certain bacteria that you have in your mouth that can take three months to get really bad. So that's why if you've ever been told to have your teeth cleaned every three months, it's because you have more plaque and tartar than the usual person, or just more than what's ideal, and your gums don't like it, and they bleed more often than maybe somebody else. You might know some people who barely brush, but they have their teeth cleaned every nine months and things look okay, well, they're lucky. They have very limited bad bacteria, lucky them. Or somebody like you, or maybe you know somebody who brushes twice a day. You use mouthwash. You use the water flosser. You have your teeth cleaned every three months, but your gums bleed so much every time, or you have so much plaque and tartar all the time. That just means you have more bad bacteria, so you have to work even harder at home, and to continue seeing your dental hygienists every three months. So leave me a comment if you guys have any questions. Thank you guys for watching, and I look forward to seeing you guys in the next video.