Thursday, December 22, 2011

Massage your gums

My fav cartoon and taken from the site name displayed above. No copyright intended.
 Are you wondering why? But of course, coz your brushing/flossing would not do it.
Lemme explain by my story. For the past 1 and a half months, my gums had been bleeding as per their wishes. So, if you were to visit a dentist with my scenario, he would say that you are suffering from 'periodontis' and do some treatment. Basically, your gums have become weak. Now, I really did not want to go to a dentist and wanted to cure it myself coz that's the best way in my opinion.

I had to take my dad to a dentist a few days back.After examining his teeth the dentist told him that his gums were receeding. Since, I observe my teeth daily when I brush, I knew that the same was happening for me. The huge diagrams all over his clinic gave me the term 'periodontis' for my state. My dad of course underwent a treatment and I was wondering what should I do. Then, my dad told me that sometime back some dentist in Kolkata had asked him to massage his gums daily as well. That hit me with a thud! I suddenly realized that we do all kinds of jazz for our teeth, but nothing for the gums. When one adds bad brushing techniques to that, only God can save the gums. Then, I also realized at that instant, that our ancestors used datoon, which had soft wooden fibres and was used for cleaning teeth and massaging the gums. With the current nylon fibre brushes, if I were to massage my gums, that would be the last I'd see of them. So, I started massaging my gums with my finger and a little toothpaste for a minute or so before brushing every morning. Voila!! My gums have got their good mood back and don't bleed anymore. When I am sitting idle (travelling by bus), I use the finger next to the little finger and massage my gums from the outside (pressing on the cheeks where there are gums below). I was suggested to use this finger by a naturopathy doctor whom I hold in very high reverence.
Added to that, I brush my teeth very gently and don't use all my morning might on them.

The purpose of this blog is to pass on this info to other ppl in the same boat as me and help them appease their gums back to be the pink sweethearts they have always been. Remember, everyone loves a massage, including your gums :) Everyone likes to be treated gently like our gums and teeth. After all your mouth is the way to heaven, be it food or drinks or even a kiss. You have to treat it well.
P.S - Rinse your mouth after any meal. Thats a good enough dental treatment for all your life. Your mouth does not smell of the food you ate and is ofcourse clean. Our ancestors insisted on it and had clean smiles even without dentists. I am against mouth-washes because they unnecessarily kill the good bacteria in our mouth which helps digestion. But, you can ignore that one for now. Use mouth-wash if you like it.
Last, but not the least, when we get tensed, we tend to stiffen our neck muscles and clench our jaws together. If you start noticing yourself you'll observe these are the small ways in which we make our body react to stress. Anyways, the point that I am trying to make here is that we need to consciously not do that so as to not screw up our gums because when we clench our jaws, they take the brunt. Interestingly, the sensational pout is another way to replace the clenching.