Carol Bled Every Time She Brushed. So She Photographed Her Gums Every Week For 60 Days.
A retired school secretary's week-by-week photo diary of red, bleeding gums turning calm and pink, introduced by the dermatologist who ran the home test.
Introduced by Dr. Elena Matthews, MDBoard-certified dermatologist, 24 years in practice · 3 min read
Carol, 61, taking her weekly gum photo in her bathroom in Toledo, Ohio.
A note from Dr. Matthews
My mother brushed twice a day her whole life and still lost her teeth to receding gums. She ended up in a full denture. At 52 I saw my own gum line starting to pull back, and it finally clicked for me: gums are collagen, the same tissue I have worked with in skin for 24 years.
Dermatology has used red and near-infrared light on skin for decades. So I had a mouthpiece built that puts that same light along the gum line, and I ran a 60-day home test with volunteers.
I asked every volunteer to photograph their gums once a week. Carol's diary is the one I send people, because it reads like what so many of my readers are living with. Here it is, in her words, with her own phone photos.
Carol's 60-day gum diaryCarol, 61 · Toledo, Ohio · retired school secretaryDay 1: gums bleeding every time she brushed, gum line creeping back
Day 1 2 photos
Blood on the brush again.
My bottom gums, Day 1The sink after brushing
Dr. Matthews asked me to take a picture before I start, so here it is, and I'm not proud of it. My gums bleed every single time I brush. Every morning there is pink in the sink and I've stopped looking at it. Along the bottom teeth they're puffy and dark red, and those teeth look longer than they used to. My hygienist keeps saying "keep an eye on that." I have been keeping an eye on it for three years.
Tonight I did my first 12 minutes with the light. Bit down, pressed the button, watched the news.
Day 7 1 photo
Twelve minutes, every night after I brush.
One week. Twelve minutes every night after I brush, while I do the crossword. It's cordless, so I just sit at the kitchen table with it. It doesn't hurt and it doesn't get hot, it's a warm red glow and that's it. My husband calls it my glow-in-the-dark smile.
I honestly can't tell you anything has changed yet. Still pink in the sink this morning. I'm keeping at it because I promised the doctor sixty days, and because I am tired of the blood.
Day 14 1 photo
Less pink in the sink.
I didn't want to write this too early in case I jinxed it. This morning I spat, looked down, and the foam was almost white. A faint tinge of pink in one spot and that was all. I took a picture of it because I could not remember the last time my sink looked like that.
My gums still look red to me in the mirror, but they don't sting when I floss the way they did.
Day 30 1 photo
Same teeth. Calmer gums.
Halfway. I put today's picture next to Day 1 on the kitchen table and just stared at the two of them. The angry, swollen look along my bottom teeth has calmed right down. It's still a little red at the edges, but it isn't puffy and shiny anymore, and there has been no blood on my brush all week.
My sister asked what I was doing differently. I told her: twelve minutes and a lot of crosswords.
Day 45 1 photo
I bit straight into an apple.
Small thing, but I bit straight into an apple today. For a couple of years I've been cutting them into slices, because biting down made my gums sore and sometimes left a smear of pink on the apple. Not today.
Brushing doesn't bleed. Flossing doesn't bleed. My gums feel firmer around my teeth when I run my tongue along them. I'm doing the twelve minutes for me now, not for the study.
Day 60 2 photos
Day 60. Pink.
Last picture for the doctor. I laid all nine of them out in a row on the table. Day 1 is dark red and swollen and you can see the blood. Day 60 is pink. Plain, healthy-looking pink, calm and firm along every tooth.
At my checkup last week my hygienist noticed before I said a word and asked what I'd been doing. No blood in the sink in over a month. The light stays on my bathroom counter. I'm not going back to the way it was.
Day 1Day 60
Carol's own phone photos, same teeth, same angle, 60 days apart. From red, puffy and bleeding to calm and pink.
Why Carol's gums bled, and why brushing alone never settled them
By Dr. Elena Matthews, MD
Your gums are made of collagen, the same structural protein as the skin on your face. After 50, the cells that make collagen slow down. The gum tissue gets thinner and looser, it inflames easily, and inflamed tissue bleeds when a brush touches it. As it loosens, it starts pulling back from the teeth, which is why teeth begin to look longer.
A toothbrush, floss and mouthwash clean the surface of the teeth and gums. That matters, and Carol kept doing all three. But none of them reach the tissue under the surface, where the collagen is.
630nm red light calms inflamed tissue at the surface of the gum.
850nm near-infrared light reaches deeper, into the tissue that makes collagen.
Dermatologists have used both wavelengths on skin for decades. GumLight puts 32 of these LEDs into a soft U-shaped mouthpiece that sits along the whole gum line, so the light lands where the gums meet the teeth, for one 12-minute cycle a day.
32 LEDs, 630nm red + 850nm near-infrared, along the upper and lower gum line
One 12-minute cycle a day. Bite down, press one button
Cordless, with a rechargeable round base
Use it alongside brushing, flossing and your dental checkups
Dr. Matthews' 60-day home test: 30 volunteers aged 50 to 74, weekly photos and a check-in each week.
Three more volunteers, in their words
Linda, 67Scottsdale, Arizona
"I used to rinse pink every single night. By the third week the floss was coming out clean. My gums look pink in photos again, not that dark red I had gotten used to."
Frank, 70Knoxville, Tennessee
"My wife signed me up. Twelve minutes with the ball game on. A few weeks in, my brush stopped coming out pink, and my gums feel snug around my teeth instead of spongy."
Denise, 58Charlotte, North Carolina
"My dentist had been saying 'watch that gum line' for years. I wanted to get ahead of it before anyone mentioned dentures. My gums are calmer and pinker than they have been in a long time."
Carol did nothing heroic. She brushed, she flossed, she kept her checkups, and she added twelve minutes of light in the evening while she did the crossword.
If you see pink in your sink, or your teeth look longer than they used to, that is your gum tissue asking for attention. Early is the best time to start.
Dr. Elena Matthews, MD
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The mouthpiece from Carol's diary
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