What To Do About A Dark Tooth After A Root Canal

Do you have a tooth that needed to have a root canal, and now looks darker than the surrounding teeth? This can often happen due to how the tooth was damaged and as a result of the treatment used to fix it. However, there are ways to fix it so that your tooth looks natural once again.

Bleaching

Teeth can become dark when the pulp of the tooth is removed during the root canal. The dentin found inside the tooth is not alive anymore and will cause the tooth to become dark over time. Thankfully, there is a way to change the color of the tooth by putting bleach into the tooth's pulp chamber that is now empty.

A dentist can do this with sodium perborate, which is a safe and common bleaching agent. When it is combined with hydrogen peroxide, the two ingredients will speed up the color changing process that will happen to the tooth.

Teeth that undergo root canals will not all become white at the exact same rate, but they will become white over time. The biggest problem with bleaching is that the treatment is topical, meaning the bleaching agent must penetrate the surface deep enough in order to cause a stain under the tooth's surface to become white.

Crowns

While the tooth looks dark now, a whitening procedure may not even be necessary one the crown is placed on the tooth. Dental crowns will cover the exposed part of the tooth and be made into a color that matches the surrounding teeth. One thing to keep in mind is that the crown's color will not change, so if you are unhappy with the color of your teeth and wish to have whitening done, the crown color will not match the new color of your teeth.

Veneers

One method that is guaranteed to fix the color of a tooth is dental veneers. These thin shells made of porcelain are attached to the front of a tooth and will match the existing color of your teeth just like a dental crown would.

You may not like the idea of dental veneers because it requires shaving off part of your tooth's surface to make room for the dental veneers. It is something you must maintain for life, especially if the veneer falls off and leaves the front surface of your tooth exposed.

For more info about bleaching, crowns, or veneers, speak with your dentist.


Share