Sometimes we see what we wanna see, and disregard what may be very obvious to someone else.

This patient constantly had food stuck in her front tooth for years, but dealt with by flossing or brushing. But no matter what she did, and how well she kept her oral hygiene, food still got stuck at the same place. And after a while, a hole started developing on her two front teeth.

Looking at the pictures here, greyish discolouration on teeth give us dentists a good clue of a hole/cavity developing on the tooth. It indicates active caries (tooth decay caused by bacteria) inside the tooth that will just spread and spread until it reaches the pulp (life of the tooth).

So when I saw this young lady, I showed her the mirror and explained to her that her problem was that she had a developing hole on her two front teeth and it needed cleaning and filling.

All I had was 30 minutes as I also needed to complete her scaling and polishing. But I thought I’d her surprise her by closing the gap too so that she need not worry about food getting stuck on her front two teeth anymore.

I agree, yes, it could do with a bit more polishing and maybe a slightly more recontouring. But that’s all in the review visit! Remember, the trip to the dentist is not a once in a lifetime! Make it a habit to schedule review visits so that we can keep your oral health and teeth in optimum condition!