March 2012 | Dr. Currie's Dentistry Blog

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.

I keep breaking off teeth when I’m chewing. My dentist says it is because my teeth are out of line and he wants to do a full-mouth reconstruction. That would be 28 crowns for me! Do you think this is necessary for breaking off teeth.

Deborah- Kansas City

Deborah,

That would depend on why you are breaking your teeth. I might first check for “gorilla bite”. Your dentist can recognize this condition in a profile view. The bottom edge of your lower jaw will be practically parallel to the upper. This causes the muscles on the sides of the jaw, the masseters, to have a much stronger mechanical advantage and can generate much stronger biting forces. People with gorilla bite tend to have squarish faces, and you can see the large masseter muscles that make up their cheeks. Patients like this have a strong tendency to break off teeth, and great care needs to be exercised when restorations are created for them.

I would also be careful whom you pick to do a full mouth restoration. It is a very complicated procedure. Be sure the dentist you pick has extensive training in occlusion (TMJ Treatment). You might look for someone who has training from LVI.

If it is a case of gorilla bite, I would suggest a night guard. You are probably grinding your teeth at night, unaware, which weakens them. Combine that with a gorilla bite and you can see why teeth can break off. I would try this simple procedure before doing such an invasive procedure as full mouth reconstruction.

This blog is brought to you by York Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Donald Currie.

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