Gum infections typically show up as red, swollen, puffy gums that bleed when you brush or floss. Healthy gums are firm and pale pink (or coral, depending on your skin tone), and they fit snugly around each tooth. Infected gums lose that firmness and tight fit, and their color shifts noticeably. What you see depends on how far the infection has progressed.
What Healthy Gums Look Like
Before you can spot an infection, it helps to know what normal looks like. Healthy gums are generally pink or coral in color, though the exact shade varies with skin tone. Darker or lighter pink is perfectly normal as long as the color is consistent across your gum line without patches of redness. The tissue should feel firm, not spongy, and it should hug each tooth tightly with no visible gaps. Healthy gums don’t bleed when you brush, floss, or eat crunchy food.
Early Infection: Gingivitis
Gingivitis is the earliest stage of gum infection, and it has a distinct look. Your gums turn bright red or dark red, or simply darker than their usual shade. They appear swollen or puffy, especially along the gum line where the tissue meets the teeth. Instead of lying flat against the tooth, the gum margin looks rounded and slightly raised.
The hallmark visual sign is bleeding. You’ll notice pink or red in the sink when you spit after brushing, or blood on your floss. The gums may also feel tender to the touch. At this stage, there’s no bone loss and no permanent damage. Gingivitis is fully reversible with better oral hygiene, which is why catching it early matters. Over 42% of American adults aged 30 and older have some form of periodontal disease, so these early color and texture changes are extremely common.
Moderate Infection: Early Periodontitis
When gingivitis goes untreated, it can progress to periodontitis, and the visual changes become harder to miss. The redness and swelling deepen. You may start to notice your gums pulling away from your teeth, a process called recession. This makes teeth look longer than they used to, and you might see gaps or small dark triangles forming between teeth near the gum line where tissue has shrunk back.
At a dental visit, periodontitis shows up in pocket depth measurements. A thin probe is slipped between the gum and tooth to measure how deep the gap has become. Healthy gums measure 1 to 3 millimeters. Pockets of 4 to 5 millimeters signal early periodontitis, and 5 to 7 millimeters indicates moderate disease with noticeable bone loss underneath. You can’t measure this at home, but you can see the recession and increased bleeding that accompany it.
Advanced Infection: Severe Periodontitis
In advanced periodontitis, the damage is visible and often alarming. Gums recede significantly, exposing the roots of teeth, which are darker and more yellow than the crown. Teeth may visibly shift position or appear to lean. You might notice them wobbling slightly when you press on them with your tongue. Pockets at this stage can reach 7 to 12 millimeters deep, meaning the bone and tissue anchoring the tooth have been severely destroyed.
Pus is another visual indicator at this stage. You may see a yellowish or whitish discharge oozing from the gum line, especially when you press on the tissue. Persistent bad breath or a bad taste in your mouth often accompanies the visible signs. Without treatment, teeth loosen further and can eventually fall out on their own.
What a Gum Abscess Looks Like
A gum abscess is a localized pocket of infection that looks quite different from general gum disease. It typically appears as a small, raised bump on the gum tissue, sometimes called a gum boil. The bump can be yellow, red, or pink, and it often looks shiny and taut because it’s filled with pus. It may feel soft or spongy when you press on it, and light pressure can cause yellowish fluid to drain from it.
Abscesses tend to form near the root of a specific tooth or in the space between the gum and tooth. They can be painful, though not always. Some people notice a sudden salty or foul taste in their mouth when the abscess ruptures and drains on its own. Even if the pain subsides after drainage, the underlying infection remains and needs professional treatment.
Color Changes to Watch For
Gum color is one of the most reliable things you can monitor at home. Here’s what different colors generally indicate:
- Bright red: Active inflammation, often from gingivitis or irritation. This is the most common sign of early infection.
- Dark red or purplish: More advanced inflammation. The darker the color shift from your normal baseline, the more established the infection tends to be.
- White or pale patches: Could indicate a fungal infection, irritation, or another condition unrelated to typical gum disease.
- Yellow near the gum line: Often signals pus buildup, pointing to an abscess or advanced periodontal infection.
The key is knowing your own baseline. Since healthy gum color varies naturally with skin tone, what matters is a change from your normal shade, not matching a specific color on a chart.
Signs You Can Feel but Not See
Some indicators of gum infection aren’t purely visual but often accompany the changes you can see. Persistent bad breath that doesn’t go away after brushing is a common companion to gum disease, caused by bacteria thriving in deep pockets below the gum line. A lingering bad or metallic taste works the same way. Pain or tenderness when chewing, especially when it’s concentrated around one area, can point to a deeper infection even if the gum surface doesn’t look dramatically different.
Changes in your bite are another clue. If your teeth feel like they fit together differently when you close your mouth, or if partial dentures no longer seat properly, the bone supporting your teeth may be shifting due to infection underneath. These functional changes often show up alongside the visible recession and swelling of moderate to advanced disease.