Tonight when I was flossing, I noticed the floss would go into the gum in some places rather than stopping at the gumline. It would pretty much go slighty under the tooth too. I can see my gums look like they've gotten a bit lower in the front (not a lot, but it seems like they did). My oral hygiene is not perfect, but it's not as if I go weeks without brushing and flossing. Does the floss going into my gums sound like a bad thing? Are my gums rotting away or something? Is it possible I'm brushing my teeth too hard and wearing away my gums or tooth enamel?

I've always been very paranoid about my teeth, and right now I'm worrying that my gums are going to recede too much and my teeth will begin falling out. I don't know why this scares me so much, but it does. You can imagine how traumatic it was for me to lose my baby teeth :eek:. Currently I have no loose, rotted, or diseased teeth, and have only ever had one cavity. I'm going to be seeing my dentist for a routine cleaning in a few days, so I'll ask her about it then.

I wanted to add this: I recently went and looked up a little bit of information on receding gumlines and gum grafts and the likes. If I go by the images used on the site I saw, I probably wouldn't even qualify for grafting for cosmetic reasons. I still can't help feeling paranoid, though. I think my fears are due in part currently to having a slight ache in one of my canines. I really don't want to have to get a front tooth drilled and have some dark filling tainting my smile, but I guess I can't snap my fingers and make my tooth normal again. Boy wouldn't that be convenient? :)

It sounds like gingivitis so I would bring this to your hygienest or dentists attention. When plaque builds up around the base of the tooth it pushes the gum tissue out of its way so the gum becomes irritated and loose or mushy and begins to recede without treatment. Sometime there even might be some blood on the toothbrush or when you rinse. Usually a deep cleaning or scaling by a periodontist will remove the plaque and the gum will tighten back around the tooth and return to normal. My dentist and hygienist missed this despite my telling them I was noticing changes in my gum tissue - by the time I got to a perio I had some deep pockets around some teeth. So if they say all looks fine go find a periodontist on your ownn and make an appt for checkup. Gingivitis is pretty easy to treat when caught early.