Metal Mouth Message Board

I have been out of braces for 7 months now. I have an upper Hawley and a fixed retainer on the bottom front 6 teeth. I had a regular cleaning today and got the good news that I am keeping my bottom retainer clean and plague/tartar free. Yeah.

My dentist talked with me about one of my top teeth that is discolored due to a fall I had when I was a kid. He said to fix it he would have to do a root canal (though he also said this might not be necessary once he looked at my x-rays) and then bleach it from the inside.

Have any of you had this done? If you have, how much did it cost and was it painful/uncomfortable? Also, would that tooth end up looking whiter than the other teeth? I have no plans to do teeth whitening on all my teeth.

I told him I wanted to think about it and bring it up again at my next cleaning.

Becky

Hi Becky,

Well this is too weird! I just had this done on Wednesday (in full braces no less) and I was on here Monday looking for someone who might have had it done.

Last week I was brushing my teeth and noticed that my upper front left tooth (#9 I think) was completely gray. I freaked out a little... okay, a lot. It had happened so suddenly! Anyway, long story short, I needed a root canal and then internal bleaching to get the tooth back to its normal color. I was pretty upset about the root canal, but I just wanted my tooth to look normal again.

The procedure wasn't so bad. The whole thing only took about half an hour. I had no pain during or after. The bleaching will take 1 -2 weeks to take full effect, so the final result remains to be seen, but even after 2 days there is a big improvement. I go back to the endodontist next Friday for follow up. At that time we'll decide how the tooth color looks and whether to leave the bleach in a little longer or take it out.

As for the cost, my dental insurance covered 80%, so I only had to pay $329 ($229 for the root canal and $100 for the bleaching). The full cost was almost $1200. I live in Boston though and everything seems to cost more here than anywhere else.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Kellybeans, your info was very helpful. I didn't know you could control how long the bleach stayed in your tooth...I'm sure that can help keep it from looking whiter than the surrounding teeth.

My tooth is more brownish than gray and when my teeth were crooked it did not seem as noticable as it does now. So I am sure I will be getting it bleached...it seems once you start down this tooth improving path, more things keep coming up to fix! : )

Thanks again for your feedback.

Becky

Hi- I got kicked in the mouth as a kid and over the years my left front tooth also became very discolored. Before getting my braces I had a root canal done and internal bleaching. The root canal was not painful, actually an easy root canal compared to one done on a molar where there are multiple roots. Initially my dentist thought the internal bleaching would take 3 or 4 weekly trips back, however, my tooth was the same color as the other after ONE WEEK. I was amazed it lightened back up so quickly. I had put up with that tooth forever. I have insurance (not great dental insurance however) but it seems like the root canal and composite filling still cost me about $700 out of pocket and the insurance picked up about $400. The bleaching was like $200 out of pocket because it is considered comestic. See a picture posted in this section under the thread "I am smiling", the left front tooth was done. I am told there is a chance the beaching will have to be redone very 5-7 years Did you receive the same info?

Wow, smile2006, your teeth look fabulous. I would never have been able to tell that tooth had been discolored. That picture makes me want to get mine fixed. My dentist did not mention needing to have the bleaching done every 5-7 years, but I will ask him about it the next time I talk to him.

Becky

I would suggest gettting it done. I think you'd be pleased with the results. It turned out better than I could have imagined. If I knew it would have produced that type of result I would have done it much earlier Good luck and let me know if your dentist thinks the bleaching needs to be periodically redone. What bothers me about that is they would need to remove and then replace the filling which gets $$$$$$!