Thanks Bryanna!

When I think about it, I do oil pulling with organic coconut oil. I love it! That a great idea on calling them, I will do so.

I use plain, old fashioned Crest. The old school formula-it doesn't make my mouth peel like most products do.

My goal is to keep my mouth as health as possible, and try not to irritate. I know it's the medicine, but it feels like I'm neglecting gums with how they're acting (I know I'm being just as good as I was before, but the fact they're bleeding is making mad because I'm putting forth the effort). The other weird part is that there bleeding in weird spots. Like I've never had the gums in front of my front teeth bleed, and yet they are.

I would like to chime in here too....

The symptom of bleeding gums should be reported to your doctor, because low platelets will also cause it.

Many many drugs can cause low platelets in the blood, including
genetic errors you may have inherited.

All warnings to patients, who take certain drugs (even Calan for blood pressure!), may develop bleeding gums. It is a serious side effect and should be reported to the doctor.
more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrombocytopenia

I know a young woman with NO medication or lupus history who just started to hemorrhage in the dentist's chair suddenly... she had ITP and was hosptialized!

So please discuss this with your doctor and have some blood work done to verify your platelets are okay. They can tend to go down in lupus patients, anyway... It might not be just the new Cellcept.

Thanks mrsD, I actually just had lab work 3 weeks ago and am good. She's keeping an eye on it all considering both the disease and medication. Thank you for keeping an eye out for me though!

Socasusie,

Mrs. D is right...... there are other things that can cause bleeding gums, even sudden onset that may not have obvious symptoms until the problem has become severe. I would assume that your dr will be doing frequent blood work while you are on this medication. It would be important to keep track of that

Regarding the tooth paste... there are better alternatives to crest and others like it because they contain chemicals, dyes and preservatives that are irritating to the oral tissue and digestive tract. Homemade toothpaste is easy to do.... on a wet toothbrush put a few drips of melted coconut oil, a slight sprinkle of baking soda and a small drop of peppermint oil! Works great! If you wanted to you could make a small batch of it ahead of time, stir it up really well, keep it in a closed glass jar in the bathroom and use each time you brush. The coconut oil will harden so you will need to use a little spoon to scoop some out each time. But it's really no big deal!

Bryanna

Thanks Bryanna, I tried the homemade toothpaste last night and this morning. It works great and nothing has been peeling either. I make my own skin care products so I have a ton of those tiny spatulas-prefect for coconut oil based products. My teeth are as smooth as when I get them cleaned, and I didn't even overt the baking soda either!

Socasusie,

Great! Glad you liked the toothpaste!

You make your own skincare products... very cool!!
I assume they are food based and chemical free???

Bryanna

For the most part, yes. I do use one pre made base that has mineral oil (it really is good for certain dry skin) but overall I prefer a more natural line with essential oils because you can customize it to your exact needs. I love sea kelp bio ferment-it's the ingredient in creme de la mer-the stuff that's like 120 an ounce.

There are a lot of great recipes to use too. It's how I discovered coconut oil. It's one of the few oils that can actually penetrate the hair shaft. Great oil treatment, and it smells good. Also, winter skin does great right out of the shower with coconut oil on wet skin, then dry off like normal (you'll get oil on your towel but it washes out easily). Scrub down with plain sugar in the shower- just make a paste and rinse well (Or you can add to body wash), and your skin is baby soft! There's even one you can do for hair loss that's roughly as effective as rogaine-but it's oil and essential oil, along with scalp massage.