Ah yes, the YOU factor (sorry- I guess spelled it kinda wrong in the title).

Here are some things that you might be doing that can cause sore gums:

1) Brushing too far beyond the gum line - There are two different types of gums in your mouth you need to know about - there’s the NFL linebacker (i.e. the attached gums), and the professional soccer player (the unattached gums). The further beyond the gum line you brush, the more likely you are to hit the unattached gums. Just like a professional soccer player, the unattached gums are MUCH less resilient and will make any minor injury well known to the world. In other words, if you brush the unattached gums, they will complain and be sore. So brush the linebacker, stay away from the soccer player, and you should be good to go :)

2) Using certain medications can make your gums puff up (and sore) like nobody’s business. Calcium channel blockers, which are used for blood pressure control are one such example, and even certain anti-seizure and anti-rejection medicines (for organ transplants) can cause this problem. Ask your doctor about changing up your medications if you suffer from swollen or sore gums that came about from the introduction of a new medicine.

3) If you have a super sore spot on the roof of your mouth, ask yourself if you ordered some ‘Za recently (for those of you who aren’t millennials: ‘Za = pizza). If so, you might have burned your palate with some of that delicious but piping hot melted cheese. While these burns can be very painful or annoying, they are not dangerous - you do NOT need to worry about any irreversible damage. So give it a week or so, and you should be back to normal!

4) And last but not least, If you are starting to feel a little under the weather and think you might be coming down with a cold, it’s very common to develop some soreness throughout your mouth. Sometimes its just a general sense of soreness, and other times it can be actual little bumps on the gums. The latter is called an apthous ulcer (better known as a canker sore), and they often happen when the immune system is a little out of whack. If they’re small, they’ll go away and won’t leave a scar. If they’re huge, then they can scar - and that’s when you want to make sure you get them checked by a dentist or doctor. 

Now you are in the know when it comes to sore gums! And remember - when in doubt, get it checked. If that pizza cheese burn isn’t going away after a few days, maybe it’s something more serious. It’s always better to have it looked at and get the peace of mind that comes from knowing exactly what’s wrong (or not wrong).

Thanks for reading!

Michael the Dentist

Dr. Michael Wenzel is a Dentist, Wedding Filmmaker and Aspiring YouTuber from Medicine Hat, Alberta. Michael loves technology and practices dentistry exclusively through surgical operating microscopes. He and his wife Natalia own a wedding photography and filmmaking company named Follow the Hope.