1. Gingival color: Normal gingiva is pink, while floating gingiva and gingival papilla turn dark red or dark red when suffering from gingivitis, which is caused by hyperemia and hyperplasia of blood vessels in gingival connective tissue.
2. Gingival appearance: When suffering from gingivitis, the gingival margin becomes thicker due to tissue edema, and the gingival papilla becomes round, dull and hypertrophy. When gingivitis is attached, stippling can also disappear, and the surface is smooth and shiny.
3. Texture: When suffering from gingivitis, the gums may become soft, fragile and inelastic due to connective tissue edema and collagen destruction.
4. Gingival sulcus depth: When the periodontal tissue is healthy, the depth of gingival sulcus is generally less than 2 mm, and when the gingiva has inflammatory swelling or hyperplasia, the gingival sulcus can be deepened by more than 2 mm, forming a false periodontal pocket.
5. Explore bleeding: Healthy gums will not cause bleeding when brushing teeth or exploring gingival sulcus. With gingivitis, I bleed when I touch it. After exploration, bleeding is an important objective index to diagnose whether there is inflammation in gums.
6. Increased gingival crevicular fluid: When gingivitis occurs, gingival crevicular fluid exudation increases, and the number of white blood cells in it also increases significantly. Some patients may also have gingival sulcus abscess, so measuring gingival crevicular fluid can be used as an index to judge the degree of inflammation.
7. Self-conscious symptoms: Patients with chronic gingivitis often bleed when brushing their teeth or biting hard objects, or there are blood stains on the bitten food, which is the main reason for promoting medical treatment. However, chronic gingivitis generally has no spontaneous bleeding, which can be distinguished from gingival bleeding caused by diseases such as hematological diseases. Some patients occasionally feel itchy and swollen gums and have bad breath.