Tooth Turning Gray after Dentist Visit

May 9, 2019 11:31 pm | Published by
I’m wondering if something has gone seriously wrong with my tooth. I had some pain in a tooth which bothered me consistently. I finally sucked it up and looked up an emergency dentist in my area. He did some x-rays and poked around. He concluded that it was a small crack in a tooth. He did admit there was no diagnostic evidence for that but he was going based on my symptoms. He prepared my tooth for a crown right then, for which I was very grateful. However, it’s been a few weeks and it still hurts some. Now I’ve noticed the tooth right next to it is turning gray. What’s going on? Did he treat the wrong tooth? Mira Dear Mira, A woman holding her jaw in need of an emergency dentist There are a few things which can be going on here. First, I want to address the gray tooth. When a tooth is turning gray, it means the tooth is either dead or in the process of dying. This will need a root canal treatment. I noticed you mentioned you looked up an emergency dentist. Usually, that means you don’t have a regular dentist. If that is because of dental anxiety, I want to take that worry off of your list. In your place, I’d look for a sedation dentist moving forward. They can provide various levels of sedation depending on how much anxiety you face. They can provide you with anxiety-free/pain-free appointments. The biggest benefit of this is it will allow you to get the regular preventative care you need, preventing the need for an emergency dentist altogether.

Three Possibilities with this Emergency Dentist

  • Possibility One: He misdiagnosed you
It may be that the graying tooth is the one which was damaged the entire time and he just misdiagnosed you. The only way to know that with certainty is to get a second opinion with the original x-rays from your first visit. If they can see he was in error, that means you can get the money back on your dental crown. Without the x-ray, there’s really no way to know.
  • Possibility Two: Two Separate Incidents
This is very unlikely, but still in the remote realm of possibility. You could have cracked the tooth the dentist crowned and then later damaged the adjacent tooth.
  • Possibility Three: Delayed Symptoms
The more likely scenario, if your tooth did need the crown, is that both teeth were damaged simultaneously and the adjacent tooth didn’t start showing symptoms until recently. This does happen. Sometimes the trauma doesn’t show evidence for a while. This blog is brought to you by Portland Dentist Mo Saleh.
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