Natural Occurring Gingivitis

After oral hygiene, the bacterial biofilm immediately starts to form. With time, more anaerobic gram-negative bacteria appear, depicted as the rod-shaped, blue bacteria. When we eat food, the bacteria convert food nutrients into energy and byproducts through metabolic activity. Here we see a gram negative bacteria absorbing a food nutrient and metabolizing it. One of the byproducts of bacterial metabolism is the production of inflammatory toxins depicted here as the yellow balls. The inflammatory toxin load is a result of both the number of bacteria present and the amount of inflammatory toxins being produced. These inflammatory toxins are a strong contributor to the inflammation and bleeding associated with gingivitis.