Bleeding gums is a problem that affects more than one out of two French people. If it happens while brushing your teeth, it means that you have an important dental sensitivity. However in certain cases, the presence of blood in the mouth can be the revealing sign of benign or severe pathologies. The bleeding in the mouth can be of oral origin, from one of the anatomical elements of the oral cavity: teeth, gum, tongue, mucous membrane, jawbone. It can also be externalized through the mouth but come from another part of your body.
Here is a guide on what to do if you wake up with blood in your mouth.
What are the symptoms of blood in the mouth
The presence of blood in the mouth is a symptom that can be observed in many pathologies. The bleeding is characterized in several ways.
Here are the different symptoms of blood in the mouth:
- According to the circumstance of occurrence: if it appeared in a brutal way cataclysmic or permanent, positional, trauma, the morning, the night;
- According to the quantity of blood lost: if it resembles a spit, the equivalent of a glass, a bowl; the hemorrhagic bleeding.
- According to the appearance of the blood: if it is red or black;
- According to the associated signs: if you feel fatigue, fever, chills, sore throat, if you have a change of voice or dysphonia, hoarseness, cough, vomiting, chest pain, abdominal pain, ...)
- Following the intake of anticoagulant medication: this type of medication can lead to an abnormal appearance of blood in your mouth.
The different causes of blood in the mouth
The sign of a cancer
One of the causes of blood in the mouth is oral cancer. If this is the case it is squamous cell carcinoma. It is the most common cancer of the mouth. It is characterized by bleeding from a lesion in the mouth, on the mucous membrane, the tongue, the gums. This can actually be a sign of a lesion of the oral mucosa or of oral cancer. Smoking and alcohol consumption are very often the cause of this oral cancer. However, it can also be a sign of lung cancer.
The sign of gingivitis
One of the causes of blood in the mouth is bleeding gums. It often occurs with the aging of the teeth, i.e. teeth that are loosening and gums that are receding. The causes of this oral disease are very often tobacco, alcohol but also hot drinks such as coffee and tea. All this will cause an inflammation of the gums or gingivitis, a gingivopathy at the origin of a bleeding during brushing or gingivorrhagia. If it becomes more serious, it can turn into periodontitis. This is a bacterial disease that can lead to the destruction of the bone that supports the teeth. It can lead to tooth loss if not treated properly.
The sign of hemoptysis
Hemoptysis is coughing up blood or blood-tinged mucus. It is a sign of a pathology of the respiratory tract and should lead you to consult a doctor quickly if it is abundant. The blood is usually accompanied by mucus and usually appears bright red if it is abundant, or mixed with mucus (hemoptoic sputum), or darker.
Treatment options for blood in your mouth
Even though bleeding in the mouth is always a concern. It is especially important to take care of it when the bleeding is brutal and abundant but also if it is moderate and repetitive. You must therefore inform your doctor who will specify the origin, the degree of severity and also prescribe additional tests to get the right diagnosis and the treatment adapted to your problem.
However, here are the different types of possible treatments:
- Tooth avulsion: this is an operation that consists in extracting a tooth from its socket;
- Scaling to remove tartar from the teeth and advice on gentle and effective brushing of the teeth
suture of a wound; - Osteosynthesis reduction of a jaw fracture
- Biopsy of a lesion in the oral mucosa for microscopic analysis;
- Nasal packing and cauterization of a vascular stain in the nose.
To avoid this type of oral problem, it is important to maintain good oral hygiene. Indeed, brushing your teeth twice a day or even 3 times and flossing or brushing with an interdental brush will help you take care of your teeth. You will thus reduce the chances of having this type of problem.
To do this, you can use the Y-Brush toothbrush. It is a toothbrush that offers an effective brushing of each tooth, in only 10 seconds but also of the gums. It also takes care of your dental sensitivity.
We hope this guide has helped you understand that your oral health is important to your overall health. We hope that you have understood that there are many symptoms related to blood in the mouth. The different causes of blood in the mouth are all particularly serious if you don't get the right treatment for it.
