Darkened Front Teeth

Hello. Just some friendly words from a mom of a 4&1/2 year old lovely daughter... Yes, you should definately bring you son to the dentist. Darkened teeth can indicate an infection and could effect his permenent teeth. Take care and good luck!!

Call your dentist. If he fell and hit it there could be trauma to the adult teeth underneath. My son fell and our Dentist told us to come in and just get a quick check. One thing he said to check for was discoloring of his teeth as this was a sign of a problem. Better to be safe then sorry esp. with teeth.

if they are baby teeth nothing to worry about.

Hi S.,

There was a couple of my son's teeth darken also right before they were ready to come out. I assumed it was because of that and didn't do anything about it. His permanent teeth came in fine w/o any odd coloring.

L.

Absoluteley call your dentist. if he bumped them they can take a few weeks to turn dark, and they need to be followed by your dentist. You don't want to risk any problems with the permanent teeth.

S.,
O. of my son's front teeth is very slightly darker and my dentist said it was most likely to a bump when he was younger. She said it would not have any effect on the secondary tooth.

I would wait until his next check up. Hopefully when he loses the baby teeth the new ones will come in nice. My dentist just really told me that them brushing before bed is even more important then the morning so make sure you have him brush before bed.

Hi S.,

Here is a web site:

http://cyberdentist.blogspot.com/2006/03/my-childs-tooth-...

Hope this helps. D.

did they become loose from trauma? If not, then they are probably getting ready to fall out.

When my 13 year old was 3 he hit his front tooth on the monkey bars and it turned brown. It didn't get loose. When I took him to the doc and asked about it, the doc said that it turned brown because of the blood inside. Blood turns brown as it gets old. You don't have to hit your tooth for this to happen. If the baby teeth are dislodging themselves ready to fall out this can happen as well. Sounds normal to me concerning your son. He could have bumped his teeth the day before and you didn't know it, but was enough to disrupt the roots and then cause them to bleed inside and loosen.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/harrisburgpachat

If you are interested in a toothpaste for children that cleans beneath the gums without any harmful ingredients as in other toothpastes, please let me know.
J.

Did your son bump his face the night before? If he did, he may have hurt his teeth, and they essentially "died". My daughter has had a darker front tooth for 3 yrs now because of this. The dentist said that it's common, but he did and still checks her for infection and other ailments. He says that it will not affect her adult teeth (she hasn't lost any teeth yet), and so far it's purely cosmetic. I would suggest visiting the dentist again to rule anything else out, and then if everything's ok, just wait it out until they fall out.

My sons tooth darkened when he hadn a mouth injury. His tooth basically died. It went brown. I called the dentist and nwas told to bring him in if it hurt or started abscessing which is the greatest risk from an injured tooth. It didnt hurt at all and now finally 4 years later it came out annd his new tooth was fine which was my greatest worry as I was worried he damamged the new tooth too. Call your dentist and see what they say. They may want to check it out or can give you info to let you kinow what to look for.

Hi S. !

We had that problem when my daughter was 4. One front tooth turned gray, but there were no other symptoms. I took her to our dentist, (esp. cuz we were about to move), and he said she had probably fallen down at some point while young, and hit her mouth, and the baby tooth had finally died. He said not to do anything about it unless it hurt her. It would eventually fall out and the adult tooth would grow in and be fine

As it ended up, a year later, her tooth hurt, and it had abcessed. It was very obvious, with reddened and a pea sized swollen spot above the gray tooth. At that point we took her to a dentist who referred us to a pediatric dentist who pulled the tooth.

the pulling part ended up being a rather horrible affair, because the novacaine went into the abcess and streamed right out. Worst of all, the dentist laughed about it. And he didn't realize (I assume) that while he was laughing, he was also inflicting pain via the needle. hmmmm .... Dad had gone into the office with her, and he had all he could do not to punch the guy. Anyway, the tooth came out, she laid around on the couch all afternoon until finally I told her she could get up and run around. then, it was as if a light went on, that said, "Oh, I'm fine?" and she was.

Later, when having some teeth pulled when she had braces, we went to a dental surgeon I knew and trusted, and he explained to us that it's very hard to numb baby teeth.

So, my advice ? (LONG story to the punchline). Don't worry about the gray teeth (although they look awful in pix), unless they hurt. When they hurt, be very glad you aren't in a new town where you don't know people. It's a whole lot easier to get medical/dental care and feel good about the care when you know the players. Since your son is 5, he should be losing his teeth soon anyway, so hopefully they'll come out before he has any problems with them. :-)

Hi S.,
I am a dental hygienist. It is best to go to the dentist to have the teeth x-rayed to check for an abscess.. It may be ok, your son probably just fell at some point and bumped the teeth. They will probably be ok but I would have it checked out.