This patient came to see us because there was an infection next to a tooth which had also discoloured. The infection was draining through the gum and the tooth had previously been root filled.
The root filling in the tooth had failed to remove the bacteria which causes infection. As this bacteria proliferates over time, the abscess next to the tooth continued to grow and regularly pus discharged trough the swelling next to the tooth.
The bacteria in the tooth had also badly discoloured the inside of the tooth making the tooth look dark.
To treat this, we removed the old root filling and thoroughly disinfected inside the tooth to remove all the bacteria. This removed the source of infection which had been causing the swelling in the gum and after a few days the gum had healed. The dark tooth was treated with 'non vital bleaching' procedure where the tooth is internally whitened making it look like a normal tooth again. By internally whitening the tooth, the colour doesn't need to be disguised by a crown which can be very difficult to get a good aesthetic match.