Three Things That Can Inflame Your Gums And How The Dentist Can Help

Inflamed gums are red, swollen, and very irritated. If you have tried everything you can to ease the irritation and discomfort of swollen gum tissue, you may need to see your dentist. Here are four things that cause that problem and how your dentist can help.

Popcorn Husks

Eating popcorn, or even eating corn on the cob, can get the husks of each kernel stuck underneath your gums. With corn on the cob, you may not notice any irritation until the following morning. With popcorn husks, you can begin to feel the irritation with an hour after eating popcorn. If you fail to brush and floss, the problem will get worse. Your dentist will remove the kernel bits or husks with really fine dental floss and the office suction tool to draw the corn bits out of the swollen tissues.


Chewy or tough meat produces some stringy fibers that can get caught all the way up under your gums. A toothpick can get most of the meat out of your teeth, but you may miss just the tiniest string of meat. Even the littlest fiber of stuck steak can be extremely irritating after a day or two. Brushing your teeth is also no guarantee that you will get those bits of meat out. Your dentist may need to use one of his long, sharp, pointed plaque scrapers to scrape around under your gums and grab the meat bits. These tools may also lift the gum tissue up off the tooth's surface so that the suction tool can clean out the area.

Thin Fruit Skins

Thin fruit skins are another set of similar items to irritate gums. The skins of apples, pears, and a few other tree fruits are thin enough that they can slide right in between teeth and get jammed up where you cannot see them. You may not think the softest, ripest pear could cause such inflammation of your gums, but it can. Procedures similar to extracting corn husks and meat are used to pull the thin fruit skins out of your gums.

What Happens If You Do Not Remove the Irritating Bits

Obviously, your gums will continue to be irritated and swollen. However, they will also become infected after the food bits have rotted beyond the point of unpleasant. You will suffer the foulest breath because of these rotting bits of food. Eventually, you will have intense pain in the areas where something is causing this distressing problem. Contact a company like Milner Dentistry if you think you've got something stuck in your gums and can't get it out.