Hi, my name is Carrie. I am 25 years old. I just went for a dental visit this morning. My dentist told me that I am having a tooth infection in one of my front teeth. It now causing of decoloration to that particular tooth. He recommenced to do a root canal to that tooth and place a porcelain crown over it. However, I do not feel any pain or anything. I am not sure whether to go for it. I would like to have a second opinion.
Do you suggest to go for it?
Beside root canal and crown, is there any other good alternative?
What will happen if i leave that tooth as is?
Thanks a lot!
– Carrie in Brooklyn
Carrie,
In a case like yours where the tooth is turning dark, you generally wouldn’t feel anything–no toothache, tooth pain or anything, even though the tooth is infected. I saw this a number of times when I was in practice. The inside of the tooth is dead–that’s why you can’t feel anything.
If the tooth is discolored, there has to be a reason, and an infection in the tooth is the most probable cause if you have just one discolored tooth.
And you wouldn’t have to do the crown right away, but I’d recommend doing something, if the tooth is discolored. Is the discoloration bad enough that people notice right away? So do the root canal and then do the crown maybe a few months later, to spread out the costs for you.
When the root canal is done, you’ll probably notice that you feel just a little bit better. And, the infection has probably been there for years, which means that you probably won’t feel anything when he does the root canal, because the inside of the tooth is completely dead. If you don’t do this, you just keep going on with this infection in your bone, and it’s not healthy.
To help reassure you, while you’re having the root canal done, ask the dentist to let you smell the instrument he uses inside your tooth, after he first goes inside the tooth. You’ll be disgusted at how it smells, and you’ll understand what has been going on for years in your tooth and you didn’t even feel it. I had many of these cases where the patient had no pain but they had an infected tooth. I’d always ask them to smell that instrument–it was a good education for them. What happened is that you probably had an incident years ago where you bumped the tooth really bad–maybe while you were playing sports or something, and it quietly killed the nerve to the tooth. That’s what usually makes this happen.
Dr. Hall
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About David A. Hall
Dr. David A. Hall was one of the first 40 accredited cosmetic dentists in the world. He practiced cosmetic dentistry in Iowa, and in 1990 earned his accreditation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is now president of Infinity Dental Web, a company in Mesa, Arizona that does advanced internet marketing for dentists.
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