Table 1 Example participant quotes—symptoms

Bleeding

‘I’ve got to admit at first I didn’t really think much about it, erm, but I think the longer it’s gone on the, the more I think I, I really could do with maybe doing something about it or, erm, but initially it was just a “oh dear”’ (Participant 1, Female, 53, gingivitis)

Blood on food

‘I can remember going for a curry once and eating poppadum’s and that happening, where there was blood on the poppadum and I was really embarrassed, but nobody noticed, so I got away with it’ (Participant 22, Female, 54, Periodontal disease)

Gum recession

‘So, it’s a bit worrying because it’s something that doesn’t come back, receding gums. It sounds like it doesn’t. You can’t pull them back up or anything. Once they’ve gone, they’ve gone that distance’ (Participant 27, Male, 45, Periodontal disease)

Bad breath

‘It’s like you, my little lad, you see him like turning away from me. You go for a cuddle and he like turns away from you because like your breath stinks. It honks, you can taste it in your mouth’ (Participant 17, Male, 47, Periodontal disease)

Loose teeth

‘Well, the tooth felt loose. I think both times I’ve had to go to the dentist to say, “can you take this out?” because I either was going on holiday or Christmas was coming up or something and I just thought, “This is going to cause me grief when I don’t need it” (laughs)’ (Participant 21, Male, 53, Periodontal disease)