Is the colour of the permanent tooth affected by the colour of the baby tooth

Q. Hi, when my daughter was 2 she fell with a dummy in her mouth and hurt her upper front tooth. At first it seemed fine but gradually changed to a grey colour. I asked our dentist about it on each check up and he said it was fine but the nerve had died, but that it wouldn’t affect her adult tooth. It has never caused her any problems or shown any signs of infection (she has never had it xrayed). She is now 7 and still has this baby tooth but the adult tooth is now pushing through the gum above and is now about 1/4 through and i think this too looks slightly greyish (her other upper tooth is pushing through the gum in the same way, with the baby tooth still in place and is about half way through, so i can compare the colours and i do feel that there is a difference). I am not worried about the baby teeth not falling out yet as this happened on her bottom teeth and they are fine now but i am worried about the colour. Is it likely to be grey and if so will it be permanent or can something be done about it, i have now read that maybe her grey baby tooth should have been pulled years ago? Please let me know what you think as our next dental appointment is still several weeks away.

A. There is no reason for the permanent tooth to be grey, as the colour of the baby tooth has no impact on the new one. She would be very unlucky if the damage to the front tooth has caused a problem with the new tooth. I guess you will need to wait until the tooth is fully erupted to be able to assess to colour properly.

Dr Andrew Moore Advance Dental Clinic 104 Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 0JG Web: www.advancedentalclinic.com Tel: 08443 87 87 88 View My Profile Dr Moore

Leave a Reply