Silver diamine fluoride stains

[Greg9840]

When my son was 2, around a year ago, he had bad decay on his 4 top front teeth, possibly due to a genetic disorder. At the time, we felt that silver diamine fluoride (SDF) was the best option because he was too young to sit still for drilling 4 teeth. The SDF made his teeth black, which the dentist had warned us about. Now that he is older, he is complaining about having black teeth. What are my options for fixing them? The dentist said his teeth are very malformed and thin, and because the SDF makes teeth extra brittle, drilling is not an option. She said his teeth could break. What are my options? We definitely don't want to spend money on veneers or crowns since these are baby teeth that will be falling out over the next few years. I was reading about "opaquers" online, but I'm not sure how that would work or help.

 

[Dr M]

Good day

How old is your son now? You can get preformed crowns that they sometimes place over front teeth in children in order to give a more aesthetic appearance, although the bonding with the baby teeth might be a bit compromised, due to poor enamel quality.

 

[Greg9840]

He is 3 now. I forgot to mention in my post that we already tried resin crowns and one has fallen off twice within one month, so the durability seems very poor. I'd prefer to just cover the front of the teeth with opaquer and bonding if at all possible, or some other method.

 

[Dr M]

You can try, although the bonding might also be compromised due to the quality of the enamel on the tooth. Unfortunately bonding to these type of primary teeth is very difficult.