What do you do when your gums feel swollen and are bothering you?

I was advising people to take between 1 and 5 grams of vitamin c a day, but taking just one gram a day myself. Today I increased my intake to 2 grams. I will have to see if 2 grams a day helps. If not I might increase it to 3 grams soon. I doubt that I will go over 5 grams a day, except during short periods of acute illness. Two grams a day instead of just one might make enough of a difference though. I have been taking 30,000 units of vitamin A a day the past two days, but plan to scale this back down to 10,000 a day after a week or so(before this I wasn't taking any fully formed vitamin A, just beta carotene.
Today I took 80 mg of zinc. I will cut this down to 50 mg or less a day within a week. Websites have recommended extra vitamin c, zinc, and CoQ10 for gum problems. I haven't taken any CoQ10 lately. Has anyone here gotten relief from gum pain or irritation from CoQ10? I guess I should get some and try it if it might help.

When my gums are bothering me I do oil pulling.

Does oil pulling really work? I barely have the patience to rinse my mouth for 30 seconds with Listerine. I don't think I would be patient enough to swish oil in my mouth for 15-20 minutes in the morning, especially before I ate anything.

My gums have been a problem for me I think from my overall lowered immunity. So I have some form of gum disease, though not serious. I maintain my teeth/gums with just normal toothpaste, however I use an electric toothbrush (properly) and also use these little piksters (you can get online). They are like floss, but far better and more effective. They have a brush and you get the right size for the gaps between your teeth and use them every night. As my teeth are very tight, I have to get the size 1 (small). But some people maybe able to get bigger ones if they have a bit more gap.

At first, you may find things get worse, some bleeding etc, but over time the gums improve and get a bit tougher. Mine are ok so long as I keep this up.

I use the electric toothbrush once per day (morning) and a normal toothbrush at night with the pikster floss. Works well for me. I use colgate total for toothpaste.

It is really important to remove plaque and between teeth, or the gums will indeed get swollen and if you are unwell like myself, then this tendency will increase. My electric tooth brush and tooth paste have done a good job, as have the piksters.

Apart from that, i think your supplements are very good. And of course, the diet.

I use flouride free toothpaste. You may want to make sure that your toothpaste does not contain sodium laurel sulfate which can irritate the gums. I just floss at bedtime every night. I am not sure Listerine is a good idea - you can check it out on ewg.com.

Oil pulling works for me and some of the improvements are consistent with what I have read from others. I don't do it for a full 15 to 20 minutes. I use organic coconut oil and I only do it for about 8 minutes. My teeth are very white, my gums are in better condition. My sinuses drain within 5 minutes of doing it. My skin is noticeably less dry, especially my heels and feet. And if my veins were swollen (I had a blood disorder) they would stop swelling for some time afterwards (interesting since Dr. Karach claims to have cured his own blood disorder through oil pulling).

i have gum problems now but only since removal of amalgam.
My gums feel really tight sometimes and the feeling can last for hours, its very strange. i do have a couple of areas of receeding gums so now i am trying tooth soap.
oil pulling never helped at all,it only made my gum problems worse in the end, in my earlier posts i said it was working but it doesnt now,maybe that is the case for some people.
Dawn.

I recently tried a extra strength lycopene supplement and for some reason it made my gums get swollen and it didn't go down until I stopped taking it.

So it could possibly be something you are taking

My gum problems started after having some amalgams replaced. Before that, I never had gum problems. Over the past 15 months I have had gum problems. The problem is just in the lower rear of my mouth. My dentist said the gums looked puffy. I asked him what to do about it, and he gave no ideas. I am getting cleanings 3 times a year. If it was a supplement or mouthwash I am using, then why would it affect only the lower rear gums?
I wasn't flossing before the dental work, and now floss every day. Could improper flossing be causing this? If mercury is causing this, then why just the lower gums? I think it may be tied into the fibromyalgia, as I seem to get muscle ache and fatigue in general when I get this. Is it related to candida or candida die off? I have been eating more raw garlic lately, and lately this has been worse.

Hmmm? My gums healed after amalgam removal. They had become very resected. Do you still have mercury in your gums? Do you have an amalgam tatoo on your gums? My gums do get worse when I get a candida flare up and I might get canker sores too then. I don't think that your mouthwash or toothpaste is causing it but I'm sure it is not helping either. Here is the product review for Listerine on the Environmental Working Group:

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/product.php?prod_id=22688

When you are trying to chelate a neurotoxic poison you don't want to expose yourself to another neurotoxic poison. There are a lot of alternatives. I was using a mouthwash from my biological dentist that worked well - I think it was from the Dental Herb Company. When you floss you should just do it enough to get any food particles out - you don't want to tear into your gums. The coconut oil is antifungal so why don't you try swishing with it after flossing? I also got some aloe vera gel when my gums were bad and when I had canker sores and just left it in my mouth for a few minutes.

Good idea. I guess I will try rinsing my mouth with coconut oil and see if that helps.

I think rinsing my mouth with coconut oil is helping a bit. Let's see what happens when I do do it a few times a day for several days.