Metal Mouth Message Board

Got my braces on almost two months ago and today I noticed as I was sort of looking around my teeth that the backside of one of my lower incisors was significantly darker than the teeth around it. Got curious I started pushing on my teeth and noticed that this tooth seemed to be numb to any kind of pressure (all of the other teeth are slightly sensitive to pressure). Finally I did the icecube test to see if the tooth had any kind of sensitivity. All of my teeth were extremely sensitive when I rubbed the cube on the tooth around the gumline - except the one tooth. The front visible part of the tooth however seems normal colored, though its hard to tell since half is covered by a bracket.

There is a fairly decent sized filling in this tooth. I attached an x-ray which about 6 months old but it gives an idea of the kind of filling in this tooth. Also of question is a sort of dark area that is below the tooth, but I don't know if its just the image or not.

Could this loss of tooth vitality be caused by the braces?

Tooth movement generally doesn't cause devitalization of a tooth, but root resorption internally and externally can occur. Internal resorption can change the colour of a tooth, but the etiology is usually unknown.

The most diagnostic x-ray to take would be a periapical x-ray. Pans are not great for located cavities or abscesses. You do have some large fillings on those teeth, so the cause of devitalization could have been from the time the cavity was removed, and filling was placed. It would be a good idea to have your general dentist take a look at it.

Good luck and keep us posted!

To follow up...I went to see my dentist and after doing the vitality tests he determined the tooth was indeed dead and he put in a medicated filling. Since my insurance is pretty much maxed out for the year from all the other work I had done prepping for braces I pretty much have to wait until next january to get a root canal.

I am worried though about doing root canals during orthodontics. Is this going to affect my progress at all, and could it be bad for the ligaments having to go through root canals and braces at the same time?

ortho movement can be the straw that broke the camels back in regards to devitalizing a tooth (usually tooth has had trauma or cavities,etc first)

If it is a front tooth you may not want to wait as the tooth can discolor and then be difficult to whiten to match.

RCT should not slow down orthodontic progress

This happened to me too. I broke my teeth when I was young and one of my front teeth died as a result. But ever since I got braces another tooth has died - one of my top canines. The dentist said it's probably due to the trauma I had years ago, and now it has finally carked it. I just hope no more of my other teeth will die also. I will get a root canal soon but I just have this hope it'll come back from the dead somehow - wishful thinking I know.