Theriot Family Dental

Discolored Baby Teeth

Posted by writeradmin

My four year old son had a bike accident. He hit his mouth but the teeth seemed fine. Now, they’re starting to turn dark. Is there anything I can do to get them back to their pretty, white color? Does teeth whitening work on children?

Stephanie


Dear Stephanie,

boy with toothbrush

I’m glad you wrote. I can tell that you care a great deal about your son and are worried. The discoloration is from the trauma. The pulp inside the tooth is dying. Teeth whitening will not help this. Additionally, his teeth are so small at this age that there really isn’t anything practical that can be done.

This isn’t a tragedy because his baby teeth are already starting to lose their roots anyway and will start falling out soon. My advice is to just leave it alone. The tooth will be out soon enough. Make sure he continues to brush and floss, even if you still have to help him. What you don’t want is for decay to set in for for the tooth to develop an infection, leading to a dental emergency.

Other than that, you’re fine to let the tooth just fall out. Let me stress that my advice would be completely different if the tooth was a back molar. In that case, it would be super important to do everything you can to keep the tooth in place until your son is around twelve years old. Sometimes that requires a pulpotomy, which is a child’s version of a root canal treatment.

On the off chance a back tooth cannot be saved, then after the tooth is extracted it will be important that your pediatric dentist places a space maintainer. This keeps the space, where the tooth was, open and available for the adult molar. If you do not do that, then the adjacent teeth will shift or even tip into the open space. This will lead to over crowding of his teeth and the need for braces when he gets older.

As your son is only dealing with his front teeth, then you don’t have to worry about that. Just let the teeth fall out.

This blog is brought to you by Lafayette, LA Dentist Dr. John Theriot.