I have a front tooth that had a root canal a little over a year ago. Now my tooth has turned this ugly, dull yellow. What are my options? The tooth is otherwise healthy, so I don’t want to damage it any further.
Betsy G.-Orlando, FL
Betsy,
You have several options for a discolored tooth:
1. Teeth Whitening: If it is only done on the crown of your tooth, you won’t have to worry about weakening the tooth any further. Make sure you use a dentist who knows how to do this.
2. Porcelain Crown: Because you said your tooth is otherwise healthy, I wouldn’t recommend this option to you. Why ground down a healthy tooth?
3. Porcelain Veneers: This has very minimal shaving on your tooth and is more conservative than a crown. One work of caution– Matching a single front tooth takes an expert cosmetic dentist. Make sure you go to one with great credentials. One way to find an expert cosmetic dentist is to look on the mynewsmile.com website. They recommend only the best cosmetic dentists in each state. Dr. Currie is a recommended dentist with them and he had to submit all his qualifications as well as samples of his work, so he knows they don’t do these recommendations lightly.
For future reference with root canal treatment. If your dentist gets all root canal filling materials and cements from the inside of the crown of the tooth, the tooth won’t discolor for maybe ten years. Not all dentists know this so go armed with the information and protect yourself from this incident again.
This blog is sponsored by York Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Donald Currie.