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Additional black spot question

02/06/2009

Question:

I recently had the prep work for 3 crowns done. Since one of the crowns was a front tooth, I asked the dentist about whitening my teeth before the permanent crown was done. I started using the trays right away but had to take a break because the material irritated my gums where the crown prep was done. The break I took was for about 6 days.

The first morning I went to take the trays out, one of the tooth molds had a black substance in the form. When I looked at my mouth, that tooth is one of the old silver fillings that still needs to be replaced; so I thought the silver and the whitening substance just did something goofy. It has been 2 days now, and directly behind that tooth, I am missing a tooth. There is now a black spot on the gum, and I cannot get it to go away. My dentist is on vacation, but I am going next week to have the 2 crowns seated and the color matched for the third. Of course, I am worried about the spot and don`t want to wait for my dentist to get back for an explanation. Any ideas?

Answer:

It may be what we call an amalgam tattoo (from the silver filling).  This is not harmful, but it may be permanent.

For more information:

Go to the Crowns, Bridges, Dentures, Implants health topic.