Walking bleach, crown, root canal? What is NECESSARY? (photos)

Question

I have a front tooth with a dead nerve that has slowly yellowed for the past 5 years and is finally too noticeable to ignore. I looked into getting it fixed and was told I need: root canal, walking bleach and a crown. All 3. What I want to know is what is necessary to just improve the color? I don't want to go thru with a crown if it's totally unnecessary and I'm afraid it just will not match. My dentist said a crown is best as the tooth gets brittle after a root canal and bleach. What to do?

Robert L. Knudson, DDS · Answer

If you can, stay away from doing a crown or veneer unless you do both front teeth.  The crown rarely matches and even if it does when you get it, your teeth change color over time and the crown won't.  The root canal is needed if the pulp of the tooth is dead.  Otherwise it is not needed.  "Walking bleach" is no longer recommended as there have been too many incidences of root resorption occurring.  If the root canal is needed, the dentist should leave the access hole open, make you a bleaching tray, and you place home use bleaching gel in the access and wear the tray to keep it in for a couple of hours at a time.  If you need just to change the color more after that or if the root canal is not needed, have the dentist simply use "bonding" to change the color to match.  That can be easily changed every few years as the teeth change color for a lot less money.

Zev Kaufman, DDS · Answer

Your tooth is of perfect shaped and is only slightly off in color.If you do not have root canal treatment in it already, you must get one done as soon as possible or it will get infected.  The best thing to do is to go to an endodontist, the root canal specialist and have the tooth evaluated. The endodontist can also bleach the tooth for you, and all you will require is a small filling in the back of the tooth. It is absolutely not necessary to have this tooth crowned.  It is not bearing the stresses of the bite that your back teeth do.  As a matter of fact, matching a single incisor is one of the most difficult things to do in dentistry, and chances are your dentist cannot give you a better result than what you have right now.  I'm not judging anyone's skill, but just going by statistics. Do nothing before you speak to an endodontist! Best of luck,

Susan Hollinsworth, DDS (retired) · Answer

If the front tooth  with a dead nerve is totally calcified(no canal) then a root canal is not needed usually. If the canal is still present, then a root canal would need to be done. The single tooth can be bleached/whitened some from the inside and some from the outside..there are different approaches to do this so consult with your dentist. A crown would not be needed even if a root canal were done.

Walking bleach, crown, root canal? What is NECESSARY? (photos)

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Walking bleach, crown, root canal? What is NECESSARY? (photos)

Answers (3)

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Everything you need to know about Dental Crown

Our mission is to create a world where every investment in modern beauty is Worth It.