DS knocked his tooth and is now discoloring?!

[Kallison]

Anyone ever have this problem -- a few weeks ago DS and some friends were horsing around on the ice. DS's friend pushed him, he fell on the ice and knocked his front tooth very hard. It was slightly loose, we took him in for an emergency visit. Dentist x-rayed, said it was fine. DH and I noticed this week it was discoloring especially in the back, so now he has an appt. with a specialist to see if he needs a root canal. To top it off, he is getting braces tomorrow (everyone says that is ok). Just wondering if anyone's child had this happen and the tooth was ever ultimately ok. I'm so steamed at his friend right now for pushing him. I know, I know they are only kids, it was an accident.

 

[jamsmom]

DEEEPPPP BREATH


{{{HUGS}}} Wish I had some answers, but I am not sure. My youngest niece was pushed in the bathtub when she was little by her older sister and she hit the faucet. Her front 2 teeth were discolored also, but the dentist said it would be fine. Those were her baby teeth, though.

 

[nativetxn]

My brother knocked a tooth loose and it became discolored. The dentist said it has "died". It was a baby tooth, though and came out eventually and was replaced.

I hope this isn't the case with your son.

 

[RoutemanDan]

Yep,happened to me.I was in a bad car accident years ago and the trauma caused the tooth to turn color.I couldn't stand the discoloration so I had it filed down and capped.

 

[RitaZ.]

Yes, we have been there...

It happened to DS#2 a week after he turned 3 years old, one of his front teeth was knocked out. His older brother was pushing him in their plastic wagon and they bumped into a wall, which caused DS#2 to fall out of the wagon and onto his teeth. I have never seen so much blood in my life!!!! I wrapped the tooth as instructed and ran to the ped. dentist's office, who said that nothing could be done to save the tooth. The dentist also said that the tooth next to it was loose and that it would probably re-attached itself, but more than likely it would turn grey/brown. At the time, the dentist said that the loose tooth had a greater chance of getting knocked out if another injured occurred. The tooth did re-attach and didn't discolor. However, just as the doctor predicted, DS's previously injured tooth was injured again.

DS (4 at the time) was running, tripped and fell, which pushed the tooth out instead of in. This time, it looked really bad, as he actually tore a piece of his gum and the tooth was VERY loose. I ran to the dentist again with DS... When we got to the dentist's office, there was another boy waiting who had knocked out a tooth. Amazingly, this time DS's tooth wasn't knocked out and re-attached itself once again. It turned grey, though.

The dentist said that his permanent teeth would come in and wouldn't be affected in any way. As bad as it looked, he said that when DS's permanent teeth came in, the gum would grow along with it. DS is now 7 and his two permanent teeth have come in. Unfortunately, the gum isn't growing along with the tooth and there appears to be an indentation/bend on the tooth. It's hard to explain, but I just don't know how this is going to be "fixed"or if it can be.

It may work out differently for your DS, though. I was really upset when the injuries happened.... Dentistry has come a long way, so I'm hoping that there will be a "fix" to DS's permanent tooth. Hang in there.

 

[BethR]

We've been there Kallison. DD was in 5th or 6th grade - about 10 years ago or so - and was hit in the mouth by a softball on a bad hop.

After a few weeks it started to get gray. Took her to the dentist who did an x-ray and he said that the tooth had "died."

We were referred to an endodonitist (root canal specialist) and DD had a root canal in that tooth. It was the first time that she ever had to have any dental work other than her braces, but she did fine. It was not painful for her at all. They will end up bleaching your son's tooth to get it to look the same color as his other teeth. DD had the bleaching done when it first happened, and then again about 5 years ago or so. Unfortunately the tooth is turning dark again, so it looks like she will need it bleached again.

It is a shame that this happened, but there are so many WORSE things that could happen thoughout childhood. In the big picture of things, this was nothing.

Hope that this helps.

 

[4greatboys]

My oldest ds had a bad accident where he fell off the bleachers and hit his mouth on the metal cart they keep the basketballs in. He broke one tooth so badly it had to be pulled and the dentist said he probably damaged the other tooth too and it would need a root canal. Sure enough he now needs the root canal.
if its a baby tooth he will lose it anyway so no big deal but if its a permanent tooth he may need a root canal too.

 

[cgcw]

When I was in 6th grade (many moons ago) I was hit in the mouth with a metal door -- my family always said I had a big mouth and it just happened to be in the wrong place. I had a tooth broken which was eventually capped. As an adult, I changed dentists and although I never noticed until he pointed it out, my real tooth next to the capped one was many shades darker and very discolored. The dentist was able to bleach it back to almost the same color as my original teeth. It's been probably 10 years since it was bleaches and still blends in nicely with the others.

DS3 is now going through a front tooth which is darker and seems to be getting darker as time goes on. We have no idea how or when it was injured. Our dentist (the same one as above) said that teeth can be bruised and turn back to their original color when heeled. I hope this turns out to be the case for him.

DS8 knocked both his front teeth in when he was 3 by running into the back of DH's head. It was quite tramatic and our dentist was certain he was going to have problems after they were put back in place. But, low and behold, he didn't.

Best of luck.

 

[kinlaw6450]

2 years ago Dakota knocked his front tooth on the playground. Within days it was gray. The dentist said he wouldn't do anything about it unless it became absessed (which it never did) now we are just waiting for the ugly little thing to finally get loose and come out!

 

[LuvTigger]

Not quite the same situation, but over the past maybe 10 years or so, one of my front teeth has been slowly becoming discolored. I never really noticed, but the past few years, my dentist has been asking if I ever bumped it, and I couldn't remember anything like that happening.

I ended up seeing a root canal specialist...he said that had I seen him earlier, we could've done a root canal without many problems. However, at this point, he said it might help, or it might open a can of worms. He left it up to me, but basically he implied that if it didn't bother me, it's actually stronger than my other teeth because the part where the root is supposed to be has actually filled with teeth material. The only thing is it's discolored, so when it really starts to bother me, my dentist will "shave" off a little bit of the front of the tooth and put a panel (sorry, can't remember the technical term!) on it.

 

[GoofieRuthie]

front teeth almost 4 years ago. Her younger sister was pulling her around on her stomach on a sheet. She let go of the sheet and Kaysie's front teeth hit the hardwood floor and broke off. Ugh, it was awful. We rushed her to an emergency dentist and he said that for now the nerves were still alive. If the tooth started the darken then it meant the nerve had died and she may require a root canal. So far she has been lucky and no discoloration. They wouldn't do anything to it then because they said they didn't want to effect the growing nerve. She went to the dentist recently and they are finally going to cap them. Good luck at the dentist. I'm sure they will be able to take care of him and get him back to normal.