I’ve heard of hair turning gray as we age, but teeth? I don’t know what’s going on with my mouth lately. First, I have a toothache. I go see an emergency dentist. He tells me he doesn’t see anything wrong but thinks a tooth cracked, based on my symptoms. He suggested we do a crown right away. I agreed. Now the pain is still there and the tooth next to the crown has turned gray. Do our teeth develop age-related problems?
Sydney – Missouri
Sydney,
A gray tooth isn’t age related. It’s a sign the tooth is dead or dying. Think of the gray like a bruise under your tooth enamel, signaling something is wrong. It’s important you get this treated right away. A dying tooth is bacteria filled. Until you get a root canal treatment to get the bacteria out, you’re at risk of spreading the infection. If you don’t have a regular dentist, this requires another trip to an emergency dentist.
You may want to try a different dentist this time, but ask for your x-rays from the first dentist. I’d like the other dentist to peek at the x-rays and see if the emergency dentist you went to the first time misdiagnosed you. This tooth could have been the problem all along and just referring pain to the adjacent tooth. If your dentist gave you a crown unnecessarily, you’re owed a refund.
There are other possibilities of course. Maybe both teeth were injured simultaneously. The graying tooth could just have been delayed in showing its symptoms.
A third, less likely, possibility is that the crowned tooth was hurt when you went to see the dentist, then the adjacent tooth was injured sometime later.
This blog is brought to you by Dr. Raymond Bolt.