24 years of itching gums! Can you explain it?

I've been having another terrible itching episide and it's the worst thing ever. What helps a little - applying Canker Cover on the irritated and scratched itchy gum at night helps the healing process...Brazillian propolis extract also helps the healing...using Parodontax toothpaste more regularly helps to almost never get the itchiness in the first place. Still haven't discovered the reason or the triggers for it. My teeth and gums are in good shape othrwise.

I have had this problem when I get sick all my life, to the left and right of my front top teeth. No one I've known or met, doctors included, have heard of it. I have it now and it is almost more annoying then the headache, stuffiness and cough! Clearly it has something to do with sinuses. Infection comes to mind. I usually dig a hole till I'm better then it heals up. Shoot me and put me out of my misery comes to mind!!!

Thank you for the support that this is normal. I recently had my 1st filling and mentioned the itch between 2 of my top molars which I have had on and off for years, he'd completely paid no attention to it like I was being silly, so I could only imagine that everything was healthy and he thought I was 'one of those' patients. It seemed to start many years ago when I was a teenager and needed teeth removed to create more room. I always thought it was tightness in the gun and jaw from teeth being moved into a different position. As with the rest a poke is very satisfying.

This is so true, all the down votes are from people in denial. It is an addiction and a gross one at that. I have done this, and the more you do it the worse it gets, the better it feels. you just have to stop... or let your teeth fall out, which is very unattractive.

My five year old daughter has extremely itchy gums. She will poke at them with her fingers and fingernails, and sit in a chair with a cup of warm salt water and dip her toothbrush into it and then massage her gums very vigorously for hours at a time. One month and four days ago she developed swollen lymph nodes, a nasty looking sore throat (red with white bumps) at the back of her throat and high up on the gum line under her lips. She didn't complain of her throat being sore. She feels very tired most of the time, irritable, and developed an extremely itchy raised red bump rash all over her chest, abdomen, back, elbows, and jawline after every bath for 4 baths in a row. The rash and itching would persist for 45 minutes and then be completely gone until the next bath. Just the itchy gums remained. Two separate doctors thought it was strep throat, two separate swab tests were cultured and they came back negative for strep. She went to a kids dental clinic who took an xray of the worst area and said that ruled out anything 'sinister'. She said it doesn't really look like mouth ulcers but she gave a prescription for Perichlor Oral Rinse (Chlorhexidine Gluc 0.12% and Perichlor 0.12%) She said it may help relive the itching while we wait a week to see if it is mouth ulcers, they should go away. The rinse didn't help the itching, the sores are still in her mouth. Now her family physician is thinking she has mono. She did bloodwork three days ago and I will go back for the results of the bloodwork in four days. I contacted her dentist again to tell her that the oral rinse didn't work and her dentist prescribed ratio-nystatin (100000u/ml) to treat a fungal infection. Her dentist doesn't think it's a fungal infection but she said it's worth a try. She said if this doesn't work, she is at a loss as to what to do, and referred her back to her family physician. My daughter's head aches, she blows her nose constantly which she never did before, and her forehead feels warmer than normal however she doesn't show to have a fever. The last time she and I went to see our family doctor which was three days ago, he said I (her mother) have a sinus infection, and he prescribed antibiotics and nasal spray for me. My daughter seems to have all of my symptoms, plus the rash and mouth sores and gum itchiness but he won't prescribe any meds for her, I guess she isn't showing any sign of infection.. yet. But I do think it's sinus related. I also think for some reason right now her body is hyper sensitive. I've noted that food and drinks served in plastic containers trigger seem to trigger itchiness. Apples seem to really trigger itchiness. Possibly raspberries, strawberries and blueberries as well. Ice cream seems to trigger itchiness. Anything spicy seems to trigger itchiness. And milk seems to trigger itchiness. I think yogurt is O.K. I'm giving her doses of 5 billion active bacterial cultures pro biotics three times daily. Not sure if it's helping yet, but she has had chronic constipation most of her life and this seems to be normalizing her stools if nothing else. Today I'm going to give her rice and extremely bland foods and start a food journal, isolate our pets to one room of the house and clean and wash everything. She has also mentioned that she still feels thirsty after she has water. She drinks plenty. She's not dehydrated. But I'm wondering if she has 'dry mouth'. I'm going to go to the pharmacy and see what I can get over the counter in the way of a gel to rub on the gums. I will keep you all updated. Please everyone else keep updating your progress as well. We need to figure this out. I'll be giving this page address to my family physician and also to my daughter's dentist in the hopes that they will have a look, realize this is a serious problem, and look into it further.

I had it when I was little too. It always seemed related to an illness related to sinus's. I had mono and strep throat back then too. I know when I was really little a doctor said I was allergic to animals. But I've had animals all my life and have been fine. I got real sick lately with a bug my son brought home. Headache, coughing bad and sinus infection. Been taking meds. But my gums still feel good when I dig at them. It's also taking me forever to get completely better. Also I have Spring allergies from a grass, so that isn't helping either. Right now the doctor has me trying Prednizone, a five day course. If I'm not better after that I have to go back in. I believe from my experience it has to do with some kind of infection in my repertory system. I'll be hoping for the best for your little girl. There is hope. I've gone many, many years without this happening. Shamarah

Oh great wise one... Even if your all knowing wisdom (that it is pleasurable to puncture our gums and pour burning acid in them) is correct (that it is an addiction), why would you communicate your theory (which is ludicrous at best...or are amputees who suffer debilitating phantom pain enjoying that too?) in such a condescending and quite frankly obnoxious tone? Do you comprehend what a true addiction is? I hope they never enlist you to speak at an AA or NA meeting. Your advice would be, "Just don't be addicted!" Whoa!!!! Why didn't anyone ever think of that?!! Thanks pal!!!!! (eye roll)

Hi all. I am the one with the awesome dentist who believes me and continues to try to work with me. Recently we discovered by accident that it may be related to the position of the teeth around the itchy area such that something is pressing on a nerve. I got a double sided mouth guard (one piece that you bite both top and bottom teeth into at the same time--got it on Amazon) to keep from clenching my teeth at night. I think it is also used to prevent snoring so you can search for that on Amazon. Anyway, because I grind my teeth , having top and bottom teeth both biting into the same mouthpiece caused me to wiggle my lower teeth a tiny bit loose. When I woke up and felt my wiggly tooth it scared me that it was loose but THRILLED me to feel the heavenly relief from wiggling it. Knocking on it with my knuckle was heaven too! My teeth tightened back up after about a week. But I tried it again and had the same experience. So then I took some of my sons orthodontist rubber bands and put them around my itchy teeth to pull them apart from each other slightly. This has given me the longest period of no itching in over 40 years. I plan to ask the orthodontist if perhaps he can put braces on to just slightly shift those teeth. By the way, I never had braces. However, my son began experiencing the same itchy gums at an early age. Once he got braces, the problem stopped.

Hi!

I have had similar issues with my tooth number 22 - flossing WAAAAAAAYYYYY down the side of that tooth is the only thing that helps me. Did you end up getting the Botox? Any update at all?

I have been suffering from itchy gums as long as I can remember(I am 22) - no allergies, no sinus problems, healthy teeth. I remember my teeth itched even when I was a child. I think it's the pressure on the nerves. I have already had 3 teeth extracted (one was impacted, two were extracted because I am getting braces.) I EXPERIENCED UNBELIEVEABLE RELIEF the moment my dentist pulled my tooth out. Like if something FINALLY scratched the place. This was the case with all my extracted teeth. Now the gums are healing and its terribly itching as well, but at the place where I had my tooth extracted prior the gum is healed now and NOTHING itches.
And now I am sitting here, having my teeth expanded using the rubber bands from orthodontist, and it's terribly itching as well. I think the teeth may stop itching that much when they are straight. The fact is that it itches the most at the places where the teeth are crooked. We will see. :-)))

The Botox was ruled out as an option. I can't recall exactly why. But whatever it was, it did make sense to me at the time. The laser thing made it worse. It seems that locating the spot where the itching originates gives an opportunity to experience that combination of extreme pain and yet relief too...but until I actually MOVED the two teeth on either side of the itch spot, I was not able to maintain relief.

Tilly, Please let us know if the itching gets better after a couple of weeks. I'm the one that just posted that after over FORTY YEARS of dealing with this, I finally noticed that when I accidentally moved my teeth, I got the first relief EVER. I have never had braces, but my son does. His gums were itching exactly like mine until he got braces. When they first put the braces on, the itching was actually worse. But within a few weeks...when the teeth shifted, the itching went away and it has never returned for him. I have taken some of his orthodontia rubberbands to put around just my teeth (without braces) and it has given me the most relief EVER. My itch spot is right between my bottom two front teeth. So I used two rubber bands from the orthodontist. Each rubberband goes around one of the bottom teeth as well as the tooth next to it (working outward...towards the molars). In other words, the two front bottom teeth are being pulled apart from one another. Yes, there may be a small gap created between the teeth, but I'll deal with that later. Right now I just want to stop wanting to carve my gums!!! I did notice that when I first started to "move" the teeth (the first few days), the itching was nearly unbearable. I was constantly "knocking" on my teeth (like you would knock on a door), or wiggling them, or pinching the gum in front and back....I literally started drooling from the combination of the pain and the fact that I clearly was hitting the spot!!! I have done this "procedure" about 3 times and now I am at the point where I actually think the itching is probably 90% gone. I think the remaining 10% is almost like "phantom pain" that amputees experience when they lose a limb and yet feel the pain in the missing limb. It's like my brain is still expecting it to itch there and I can so vividly recall the horrible nightmare of it for so many years that I still feel like I can almost feel it. But truthfully, I think that we have finally hit on something here. I think getting the teeth just slightly moved (an orthodontist if you want to do it the right way and have the money....or makeshift like with the little rubberbands if you want to give it a go on your own) may offer relief to many of us.
If anyone else tries this...please let us know how it goes for you!!!!!!!!!

Try putting those orthodontist rubber bands around the teeth on either side of the itchy spot. So for example if you have:
Tooth1Tooth2itchyspotTooth3Tooth4
Put one rubberband around tooth 1 and tooth 2. Put the other rubberband around tooth 3 and tooth 4. Do this overnight. In the morning, the itching will probably be INTENSE. But after about a week, if it follows what happened with me, the itching will actually be a million times better!!!! I'll be anxious to hear if you try it, if it works! GOOD LUCK! I know the living HELL this can be to deal with!!!!!!

Jesus christ, its an addiction, its not f*****g allergies or some kinda genetic sh*t, its an addiction it feels good to you keep doing, it , this is no different than alcoholism or drug addiction, you have to stop, if you don't your gums will receed and your teeth will fall out. Have some will power, stop trying to blame it on things that aren't causing it, focus on what is wrong with you that you are doing it to yourself and why you for some reason enjoy this physical pain.

And to the lady with the 5yr old that sits in a chair for several hours at a time brushing vigorously with salt water, instead of trying to get her on pro biotics or whatever, get the tooth brush and salt water away from her, take her to a dentist and have him/her show her what gum recession and a mouth with no teeth looks like and that if she doesn't stop, tell her about all the nut jobs on this website posting that they look to pick, poke, stab and cut there gums till they bleed, receed and there teeth fall out, sounds really good doesn't it.

Make an effort to stop, i sure as hell don't want my teeth to fall out. If it's stress, have a drink or a beer , do something else with your time.

You are a complete buffoon. You have no clue what you are talking about. Seems you have some rage issues too. Why don't you stop stressing out about this. Go do some yoga. Why is this so important to you anyway ? Now perhaps YOU had some sort of self-inflicted pain addiction, but that is different. Look on a different support board for YOUR clearly deep-rooted, unresolved issues...