Any dentists about?

[Hotandbothered222]

My husband had a slight swelling in his gum and went to the dentist to be told he has internal tooth resorption, where the root is being reabsorbed into the gum. It was confirmed on a X-ray. What has freaked me out is that the dentist has said there’s no obvious cause, but he’s 99% sure it isn’t cancer. Even mentioning the word cancer has sent me into a bit of a panic though.

DH has an appointment with a specialist in 2 weeks but in the meantime we’ve googled to find that this generally happens if there has been trauma to the face or orthodontic treatment. What Google doesn’t say, is if these things are recent, or in the past. DH did fall off his bike onto his face, and did have braces, but both were 20 years ago. The dentist said he’d never seen this before without obvious cause, hence the cancer worry. How could this have happened? Help!

I’ve seen this a few times. It’s usually historical so could be due to the fall or the braces. Sometimes it can be due to a cyst - seen that too. Never known it to be caused by cancer though

thank you for replying, that’s a relief. Why would it suddenly happen, after being fine for a couple of decades? Or might the tooth actually have worn at the root years ago, but never have been noticed before? DH has had X-rays before, but he thinks they didn’t go low enough on previous ones.

No ECIR (internal resorption of tooth) can happen decades after trauma or orthodontics or internal bleaching. It very rarely happens soon afterwards L
It can be very slow , it can be very fast .

What you are looking for is not wearing of the root but an abnormal,appearence at the root /crown junction ie where the top of the tooth joins the root or an abnormal appearence of the inside of the tooth , or very often there is not much to see on X-ray but the tooth looks slightly punk at the gum line and is a bit sensitive . All of these can be very subtle signs .

Thank you! That’s very reassuring. I’ve had 2 family members die from cancer very shortly after diagnosis so the very mention of the word spooks me. Perhaps the dentist DH saw was trying to be reassuring but actually did the opposite!