I have a 40 year old root canals with discoloured and fragile teeth

Q. Dr Tennet, My upper two front teeth have 40 year old root canals. What is left of the teeth themselves is a very fragile & dark brown. What is the best cosmetic choice for covering them? I currently have porcelain crowns with white (titanium?) cores. They are ok, but not super. Any other options? Also, the gum above one of the crowns protrudes a bit more than its neighbor. That developed after the crowns were replaced a few years ago. My doctor has x-rayed and it doesn’t show an infection. I’m guessing a lot can go wrong with old dental work? Any advice would be appreciated

A.

Discoloured Root filled teeth can be a problem to shade match All ceramic Zirconia cores are a good route but the level of opaque will need to be judged by trial and error it usually requires a few visits. The crown margins should be about 1mm below the gum line to hide the dark root emerging. If this is not possible then some periodontal plastic surgery  to reshape the gum using grafts  / emdogain etc might be an option.
Rob

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Dr Rob Tennet
St Johns Dental Practice
18 Bennett’s Hill, Birmingham, B2 5QJ
Web: www.e-dentalpractice.co.uk  Tel: 0121 643 0610

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 4:56 am and is filed under Dr Tennet's Answers, Experts Answers, Q. Cosmetic Dentistry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.