Careful brushers and devoted flossers may wonder why they keep seeing pink in the sink in spite of their devotion to dental hygiene. Afrom the University of Washington suggests that if you’re experiencing bleeding gums and it’s definitely not gingivitis, you may be lacking in vitamin C.
“When you see your gums bleed, the first thing you should think about is not, ‘I should brush more.’ You should try to figure out why your gums are bleeding. And vitamin C deficiency is one possible reason,” said the study’s lead author Philippe Hujoel, a practicing dentist and professor of oral health sciences in the UW School of Dentistry.
Interstingly, the connection between oral health and vitamin C isn’t exactly new. Studies from the 1980s and early 1990s pointed to a link, but the idea became lost in the overall oral health conversation, researchers say.