Gum Disease In Lafayette, CO

Q: Is bleeding when my child brushes normal?

No. Healthy gums do not bleed when brushed correctly. Bleeding means inflammation and is usually reversible in children when caught early.

Q: Can baby teeth get gum disease?

Yes. Gingivitis can occur around primary teeth, and periodontal disease can also begin there.

Q: Will my child need a deep cleaning?

Most children will not. Scaling below the gumline is generally used when there is pocketing or bone loss, which is uncommon in children. Dental films help determine treatment.

Q: How soon should we come in?

If bleeding lasts more than 2 weeks despite good brushing, book rather than waiting for the 6-month checkup. Come sooner with a loose permanent tooth, gum recession, pus or a changed bite.

Q: How often should my child be seen?

Every 6 months for most children. Kids in active gum treatment may need visits more often.

Bleeding gums are the first sign of gum disease in most kids, and most of the time it's gingivitis. That reverses in 2 to 3 weeks with a cleaning and a change in how your child brushes. The form that doesn't reverse barely looks inflamed at all. That's the one we screen for.

Mini Miners is 6 miles from Lafayette, about 13 minutes by car.

The 4-Question Gum Check

Run these 4 questions before you book. They separate the bleeding that fixes itself from the bleeding that needs an x-ray.

1. One spot, or everywhere?

Bleeding across the whole mouth usually points to plaque and brushing technique. Bleeding in the same one or two spots every time is different, and it's what we want on a film.

2. Longer than 2 weeks of brushing that reaches the gumline?

Two minutes, twice a day, bristles angled into the gumline, floss where teeth touch. If bleeding survives 2 weeks of that, brushing isn't the problem.

3. Anything besides bleeding?

g back off a tooth. A permanent tooth that wiggles. A gap that wasn't there in the summer photos. Pus. A bite that suddenly feels off. Any one of those moves this from a cleaning to an exam with x-rays.

4. Which teeth, and does it run in the family?

This is the question that matters most and gets asked least. If the teeth involved are the first permanent molars or the front incisors, and a parent or sibling lost teeth young, tell us when you book. That combination changes what we look for and how soon we want to see your child.

Three or four yeses means don't wait for the next 6-month checkup.

The Gum Disease That Doesn't Look Like Gum Disease

The dangerous form of pediatric gum disease shows almost no visible inflammation. That's the single most useful thing on this page.

It's called Grade C molar-incisor pattern periodontitis, renamed from localized aggressive periodontitis at the 2017 World Workshop. It attacks the first permanent molars and the front incisors, it moves fast, and the published clinical picture is minimal plaque and low gum inflammation alongside major bone destruction. A child can be losing bone around 4 teeth while their gums look pink. It clusters in families and shows up in kids who are otherwise healthy.

Here's the finding that should change how often your child gets x-rays. In a retrospective review, 90% of patients diagnosed in their permanent teeth already had visible bone loss around their primary molars on older films. The disease was on the record years before anyone named it.

You can't see bone loss by looking at gums. Neither can we. That's what the films are for.

Why Gums Bleed, by Age

The age is a real diagnostic clue. Here's what we weigh when a parent tells us their child's gums bleed.

Ages 6 to 12: eruption gingivitis

Plaque collects where baby teeth are falling out and permanent teeth are pushing through. Those spots are awkward to brush. Usually it's one puffy red gum around one erupting tooth, and it settles as the tooth finishes coming in.

Ages 11 to 14: puberty gingivitis

Hormone receptors sit in gum tissue, so the same plaque produces a bigger reaction. Girls typically see it between 11 and 13, boys between 13 and 14. The gums look worse than the hygiene explains. Temporary, and still worth managing.

Any age: mouth breathing, crowding, braces

Air moving across the front gums dries them out and saliva stops rinsing them. Crowded teeth and brackets make some surfaces unreachable. Both show up as inflammation in one zone rather than across the mouth. Treat the gums, then deal with the cause.

Any age: medication-related gum overgrowth

Some medications make gum tissue thicken and creep up over the teeth instead of just reddening. The documented classes are phenytoin for seizures, calcium channel blockers, anticoagulants, oral contraceptives, vitamin A analogs and protease inhibitors. Bring the bottle. Never stop a medication on your own.

Lafayette Tap Water, and What It Won't Do for Gums

Lafayette's water runs below the federal fluoride target, and it makes no difference to gum disease either way.

The U.S. Public Health Service set the recommended level for community water at 0.7 mg/L in May 2015. The City of Lafayette's water reports put the system around 0.59 to 0.61 ppm. Six miles east, the Town of Erie system reads about 0.78 ppm over the same period. So a Lafayette kid drinks water with roughly 22% less fluoride than an Erie kid.

That gap belongs in a conversation about cavity prevention, not this one. Fluoride hardens enamel against acid. Gum tissue doesn't respond to it. If your child has pocketing or bone loss, no amount of tap water, varnish or fluoride toothpaste treats it.

The two conditions do share a cause: plaque that sits too long. Our in-office fluoride lets kids eat and drink right after.

How We Treat Gum Disease

Gingivitis in a child is treated by removing what's irritating the gum, then changing what happens at home. Most cases need one visit and a recheck.

The cleaning

Plaque and hardened tartar come off above and just below the gumline. This is the treatment, not a warm-up to it. Every instrument and sensor is sized for a child's mouth, which matters more than it sounds when the target is a 7-year-old's molar. Book it as a cleaning and exam.

The soft tissue laser

We have one in the office. It's the same laser we use to release infant tongue-ties, and it works on gum tissue where that's the right tool.

X-rays without leaving the room

Our x-ray unit is camera-style and works chairside. Your child keeps watching their movie while we take the films.

When we refer out

If the films show bone loss in the molar-incisor pattern, your child needs a periodontist, and we'll say so and make the connection. A laser in a pediatric office is not the answer to that diagnosis.

If bleeding comes with swelling, pus or pain your child can't sleep through, that's emergency dental care, not a routine booking.

Kids Who Won't Sit Still

A cleaning only works if your child lets it happen.

They pick their prophy paste flavor, their fluoride flavor, and their movie from a library of more than 70. Every treatment room is plumbed for nitrous oxide, and we offer moderate sedation and deep sedation with an anesthesiologist. Moderate is often enough to get a cleaning and x-rays done in one sitting.

One example of how we adapt for a child with special needs: our chairs move up and down, plenty of kids don't want theirs reclined all the way, so we do the cleaning and the x-rays with them partially sitting up. Happy visits come first. Your child walks in, sees the space, meets us, and leaves with no treatment done. Parents come into the treatment room, and that isn't a concession we make on request, it's how the rooms are laid out.

About Dr. Alison Grover

Dr. Grover earned her DDS at the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine in Aurora, completed a General Practice Residency there, and holds her pediatric dental certificate from UCLA. She's a Board-Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry, which requires passing both a written and an oral exam. About a third of pediatric dentists in the US hold it.

Her undergraduate degree, in child psychology, is from Wellesley College. That's the part that shows up in a gum appointment. A cleaning on inflamed tissue is uncomfortable, and a child who doesn't understand what's happening remembers it and fights the next one.

She and her husband built Mini Miners from the ground up in 2017, starting with 4 patients. She's the board-certified pediatric dentist Lafayette families see, and she reviewed every clinical claim on this page.

Getting Here From Lafayette

We're at 61 Erie Parkway, Unit 101, in Erie Commons at the corner of Briggs Street and Erie Parkway. From Lafayette that's 6 miles, about 13 minutes, mostly along East County Line Road. The office sits between I-25 and Highway 287. Parking is free and right outside the door.

We accept all major private dental insurance, and the Mini Miners Membership Plan covers families without it.

Questions Lafayette Parents Ask

Is bleeding when my child brushes normal?

No. Healthy gums don't bleed when brushed correctly. Bleeding means inflammation. It's common, but common isn't normal, and in a child it's almost always reversible if you catch it early.

Can baby teeth get gum disease?

Yes. Gingivitis happens around primary teeth, and the periodontal form can start there too. That's the point of the 90% finding above.

Will my child need a deep cleaning?

Most won't. Scaling below the gumline is for pocketing and bone loss, which is uncommon in children. We take films before deciding, not after.

How soon should we come in?

If bleeding has lasted more than 2 weeks of good brushing, book now rather than waiting for the 6-month checkup. Book today if there's also a loose permanent tooth, gum recession, pus or a changed bite.

How often should my child be seen?

Every 6 months for most kids. A cavity takes about 6 months to form on a baby tooth, so the interval is built around the window problems actually develop in. That cadence is the backbone of preventive care for Lafayette kids. Kids in active gum treatment come more often.