Tooth Trouble!

M..

hi, my name is C.. yes, i had a 2 yr old fall, and chip a tooth, ect. i also had a granddaughter fall and damage her 2 front teeth.

the grayness is probably nerve/root damamge from the fall. it will probably remain that way until they loose the tooth/teeth later, to get their permanent teeth. we never had any other problems. just the fact that it looks kinda yucky! health-wise they were fine.

take care, and good luck!

C.

My DD who is now 22 did the same thing when she was 2. Her front tooth remained gray until it fell out - which unfortunately for her did not happen until 3rd grade!!!!!!!! You just have to live with it. Unless I guess you would spend the money for cosmetic dentistry and they could do something.

Wow, I thought I was the only one...my son banged his mouth somehow in his crib one night because the next morning his front tooth was grayish. I consulted a dentist, but they said was not to worry. It was a slight discoloration like that for about two years. Just a few months ago both front teeth started to discolor and got darker, I freaked out and went to the dentist again. They said it can do that or maybe he banged it again (my son is fearless), but not to worry unless above the tooth you ever notice a bump in the gums. They'll just have to be that way until the fall out I am told when he's about five or six. It's unfortunate, but he still has his smile right?

Unfortunately, a friend of mine has a son who fell and damaged his teeth. She took him to a pediatric dentist and was told that his two front teeth were "dead" and that they would turn gray and then black and fall out in their own time. What they did want to check was whether there was damage to his premanent teeth. So, I would suggest that you get her to the pediatrician or a dentist if her teeth are turning gray because she may have done more damage that you may thought.

Hi! my name is K.. I work at a dental office where we do root canals. it sounds like she injured the nerve in her tooth that's why it turned gray.she may need to have a root canal .you might want to talk to her dentist since they are her baby teeth they may just tell you that they will just watch & wait .

I'm amother of a 6 year old daughter .also a dental assistant for a root canal specialist.

M.,
I know you have gotten a lot of responses and advice, but here's mine too.
My son fell when he was 2 years old, going up stairs at his grandmother's house. His Dr. said to just watch them and see what happens. His gums were swollen, bleeding, he complained for a few days the 2 front teeth hurt. When all was said and done his Dr. and dentist agreed, his tooth went dead, the gray coloring, but since it was his baby tooth he would be ok, we just have to watch as the new ones came in. Well, he's 8 now both front teeth fell out in Kindergarten and the adult teeth look fine. No scarring, discoloration, chipping, visible damage at all. The x-rays show they're ok too. Just coming in a bit crooked, but they say that they can't tell if that is form the impact or not. I truely hope all is ok with your little girl......good luck
K.

Hi M.,
My little age 17 months fell when she was actually only 12 months or so. She climbed one of those very unsteady child size lawn chairs in our cement floor basement. I was working out to a video down there and the s were playing great when I heard a crash and scream. She had tried to stand on it, it tipped and she broke her fall with her face!! There was a lot of as the mouth tends to do that but when I cleared it away I saw her left front tooth was severly displaced. And her lip was swelling more and more by the second. I took her to the ER where they did nothing except send me to pediatric specialist dentist the next day. The tooth had been dislocated and he tried to push it back into the socket. (needless to say she D that!) Somehow today the tooth is still there but looks lower than the other and a little discolored. I'm thankful for every day that it hangs in there though. 6 years as the "toothless wonder" would have been a bit much. It is actually in there pretty good. She tugs on thing with her teeth all the time and it stays put. He did say that it would probably fall out sooner than usual but that the permanent tooth would also come in quicker without having to push another out as it decends.

It sounds like your little one's teeth are just bruised. That will heal and the color shoud return to normal with time.

You should have her checked out by a dentist just to be on the safe side, my little guy fell in a resturant on a tile floor and hit his front teeth his started turning gray ,the dentist checked them out and said just to keep a close eye on them .
So far so good he is three now .

But my girlfriends little guy fell when he was four and 1 and 1/2 years later he woke up to his face swollen and she called the dentist the teeth died and were infected and they had to pull his front teeth out, lucky he is five and his new ones should be coming in soon . Good luck

Hi M., Yes I had the same thing happen to my daughter when she was about 2. She is 8 now but I'm pretty sure the gums turning gray was something the dentist said to watch for I think it means root damage. I could be totally remembering wrong so dont panic but I would definitely call her doc. Good Luck.
K.

my son fell two week after learning how to walk chiped his front tooth almost in half and has to get a cap so that he would learn how to eat thank goodness that it never changed colors but he dose see a dentist every 6 month to make sure there is not damage

Hi M., My daughter fell when she was 2 and hit her front tooth. There was blood everywhere, but no tooth. I couldn't find the tooth anywhere on the ground. I was totally freaking so I scooped her up and took her to emergency. After all the blood was cleaned away there was visibly no tooth. They kept asking me where it was, and if I had found it, but I never did. They decided to take xrays, and sure enough there it was. She hit that tooth so hard that she pushed it back up inside her gums. I took her to an oral surgeon who did nothing. He said to leave it alone and it will come back down. She is now almost 6 and her tooth came back down but it is twisted, and little black. I took her to the dentist last week to have a cleaning and they did some nerve testing on it....and can you believe that she stll has feeling in that tooth? She has never had any complications with it. Her gums have never been sore, and she has never had an absess. We are now waiting for it to fall out and get her adult teeth in, but the dentist said that usually doesn't happen until about age 8 so we have a few more years of a crooked tooth. I am sure your little one will be fine. They will not pull her tooth unless it gets an absess. Just watch it, and if you see anything strange take her in immediately. Hope this helps.

My little lady (2) fell last summer in the bathtub and hit her 2 front teeth loose on the edge. A dental assistant friend of ours said that kids mouths are resilient and that the teeth may be loose but should tighten up in a bit. They were loose for a few days but no damage otherwise. But then, later that week, she fell into a door jam while w/ a babysitter (brother chasing her :), completely knocking out one of her front teeth. We took her to an e-dentist and he said to expect her other front tooth to turn gray and die then need to be pulled. She's not old enough for a "flapper"- a retainer w/ little teeth in it. Apparently, an Olsen twin had one of these on Full House... who knew? Having an injury like this usually means the teeth lost are especially late to come in, so, she will likely get one of these "flappers" when she starts school, or sooner... possibly around age 4 or 5, until her real teeth come in, prolly around age 7-9.

BTW, her other tooth never did die... we're still waiting...

You shouldn't worry because it is really common. My neice did the same thing as a three-year-old. The dentist mentioned either do nothing or remove the tooth. Usually, the tooth is not dead. What you're seeing is in effect a bruised tooth (blood inside the tooth). His suggestion was to do nothing and watch the tooth. If it's still gray in a few months, then it's probably dead and they may pull it. My neice's tooth returned to white in about two months. The main thing to watch out for is any type of absessing/pain. If you decide to have it pulled, it may be a lot harder for her to eat without those 2 front teeth. I would still call the dentist and have it looked at, but, more than likely, they will tell you just leave it be.

I didn't finish reading all of the responses so I am sorry if someone has already said what I am about to say. A friend of mine works for a pediatric dentist and she says that you can bruise your teeth and that it is nothing to worry about. However, a lot of continuous falls and injury to the teeth may cause problems. Hope this helps!

Hello! I have a four year old duaghter who was in a similar situation. Last year,(she was three at the time)she fell while at her daycare and hit her mouth on a bookshelf. She ended up having four damaged teeth. I delt with the Childrens Hospital dentists and they watched her teeth for about three weeks waiting to see if they would heal. Her teeth did not turn grey immediatly it took a couple weeks.The dentist told me that if the tooth turns grey immediatly that it was a good sign because it would most likely, after time turn back to white. In my case however her teeth waited to turn grey and they said that it meant that the tooth was going to die off eventually. I hope this helped at all!
M.

Yes, I have had this experience. About 6 months ago when my son was 2.5 he fell and hit his lip. Sometime after that, his front tooth started turning a darker color. I took him to the dentist, and his was turning more of a yellowish color, as opposed to grey, but she did tell me at that time, that they prefer to see them turn the yellowish darker color as opposed to the greyish darker color. They did xrays, and said it didnt look like there was any root damage or damage to the adult tooth, but that I had to bring him back in a month for another xray. That one still looked promising, so then we went three months. So far, his tooth has been salvageable, but she said that the concern is making sure that the adult tooth and root remain salvageable which is why they want to xray it and check it. If they felt that the baby tooth was an issue, they said they would have to take it out in order to save the adult tooth behind from being affected. She also told me to look every day when I brush his teeth for little white "blister or pimple" looking things along his upper gum/ lip and to call her immediately if we did, as that indicates an abscess and is dangerous. I would definitely get her into the dentist for an xray so they can start monitoring it. They explained that the reason it turns color like that is just from the bruising/ bleeding that occurs behind the tooth and goes down into the tooth....and quite often it will get better with time...(my sons has turned whiter over time)- but its better for them to be able to monitor it from the beginning. Unless there is serious damage, chances are they will just do an xray and watch it for the next 6 months or longer.

My son has done this twice, falling on his face and hitting his two front teeth. Both times, the teeth were a little loose. The first time it happened, I immediately called my dentist and she said to leave them alone and they will reattach themselves. They are both a little discolored and pushed back/slanted from the fall but they never "died". He just turned 6 and 1 of them is now loose, so I can't wait for them both to fall out.

Hello!! When my daughter was in pre-school, she was hit in the mouth by another child. Her front tooth turned gray and black. I took her to the dentist and they said the tooth turned that color because the tooth had died. They wanted to remove it just for the reason of looks. I opted to leave the tooth in and let it fall out when it was time, after all it was a baby tooth. I did not want her to have to go threw the pain of having it removed only because of the look of the tooth. I hope that helps!!

Hi M.,
Both of my kids did the same thing. We took our daughter to the dentist when it happened and he said to make sure that it doesn't abscess. As long as it didn't, we could just leave it alone. Actually, my daughter sucked her thumb and I told her that putting pressure on her front teeth might make it abscess (which of course it wouldn't) and she might have to have it pulled. She didn't like that idea, so she immediately quite sucking her thumb. Kind of mean, but it worked. Anyway.... her tooth eventually reattached itself and the black went away. She has since lost both of those front teeth and now the new ones have grown back. When my son did it, we didn't take him to the dentist. We knew what to look for and eventually his must have reattached themselves because it isn't black anymore either.

my 3 y/o hit her front tooth on the landing of the steps in February....I took her to the dentist and and she had no root damage so the tooth didn't need to be pulled. they did say that her tooth probably would turn gray due to nerve damage. It has not changed yet and have been to the dentist since then for her exam/cleaning. Having good teeth care doesn't help when there was a trauma to the tooth.