Root canal treatment is a very useful procedure and wit it we have the chance to keep highly injured teeth also. Besides this it has several disadvantages and side-effects. The most common problem is the discoloration of the tooth which could cause a big problem if the tooth is located in a visible area. What causes this discoloration? How could we whiten the root canal treated tooth? Read on for some clues:
Why the root canal treated tooth can get discoloured?
The discoloration of the root canal treated tooth is a common problem, which can occur because of several reasons.
Medicines used for root canal treatment and possible side-effects
The root filling, whereby the dentist finishes the root canal treatment, contains stain. These stains trip out of the filling and could cause discoloration. The tooth could become red or orange because of this. As the filling is directly related to the tooth the whole tooth could possible discolour over time.
If we get amalgam filling, the whole tooth turns into bluish-grey colour. That is the reason why amalgam filling is not recommended in the visible areas. In addition it is very difficult to whiten the amalgam filling caused discolorations on the tooth.
Medicines and fillings which contain silver-nitrate or zinc-oxide more likely cause discoloration of the teeth.
Necrosis in the tooth
The most common cause of discoloration is the necrosis. When the tissue resolves, decomposition product generates and when it meets blood colours the tooth to russet.
If the root filling do not fill the root canal completely, in the holes also decomposition product generates. These could discolour even the crown. Usually the tooth becomes greyish.
Whitening the root canal treated tooth
Whitening the root canal treated tooth is a special tooth whitening method because in that case we do not whiten the whole denture, only one discoloured tooth: an internal bleaching is done and the result of that depends on the time passed since the root canal treatment.
When we try to whiten a tooth which was root canal treated long time ago and the discoloration is very strong it is better to choose a metal fused or zirconium crown for a better result.
Procedure of internal bleaching
The treatment starts with a consultation, when the dentist diagnose the reason of the discoloration, takes an x-ray and decide if the root filling is right because if it is not, it should be changed before the whitening session.
The treated tooth should be opened to the pulp chamber with a drill and should be separated well from the other teeth. After the opening the pulp chamber is filled with whitening gel. 3-5 days later, if everything goes the right way, the dentist changes the whitening gel.
After the last session the pulp chamber has to be cleaned. When it is done, the dentist puts temporary filling into the tooth and the real filling is put in two weeks later as a final procedure.