Dental Problems? - unexplained tooth death but no decay?

Long story short, I recently had root canal therapy (also called endodontic therapy) on a tooth that had, for no apparent reason whatsoever, died on its own.

Interestingly enough, the tooth did NOT have any cavities of any sort and had never experienced any trauma to it that the dentist could detect.

The reason for the root canal therapy was because the dead tooth caused an abscess/infection to form at the tip of its root and the only way to take care of that effectively is to have a root canal.

This single incident on its own is probably not particularly remarkable... but this is the second time that this has happened.

Several years ago, I had the same tooth on the other side of my jaw die for no apparent reason (no cavities, no trauma, etc) and I also had to have a root canal performed on it.

My current dentist is concerned about this 'trend' with my teeth and is wondering if perhaps my thalassemia is somehow involved - perhaps by affecting blood flow to my teeth?


My question to everyone here is:


Have any of you experienced any particular dental problems?

In particular, have any of you had teeth that died on their own for no reason (meaning, there were no cavities, there was no trauma to the tooth, etc)?

What sorts of dental problems have you experienced that can be/could be linked to your thalassemia?


Teeth dying for no apparent reason (which results in consequential extensive dental work which then may need dental implants/false teeth) is very alarming to me and I am trying to investigate why this is happening to me.

Before anyone asks, I have had extensive blood work done and I am not deficient in any vitamins and minerals as far as the numbers go and I regularly supplement calcium and magnesium and vitamin D when I can.

Also, my dental history is fairly unremarkable otherwise and there is nothing in my teeth that my dentist can detect - eg: fragility, cracked teeth, cavities/caries in hard-to-see locations etc - that would point to me having such issues.

If anyone can share any experiences or lend some insight, I would be more than grateful.

Hi,
Today at the TIF conference there was a presentation on dental problems in thals by a dentist who has set up a dental centre specificaly for thals in the UK. I didn't know thals have many problems in this area such as necrosis due to bisphosphonatesor decay b/c of dry mouth due to iron deposits in saliva producing glands or shifting of teeth due to bone marrow expansion. They listed I think 12. I will post more later.
Zahra

This is such an old thread, but I WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting a response to it.

 

I keep up with the research mostly but I missed this one!

I will go see if there are any articles about this now - thank you!

And yes, I am still really puzzled that this happened.

Funny enough, I saw my dentist recently and he commented that he ended up sharing my situation (anonymously) with his colleagues to see if anyone had a better idea and everyone was just as shocked as he was when presented with the issue.

Losing one tooth to unexplained tooth death without decay we could explain away as 'just one of those things that happens' but then it was two and the same tooth but on the opposite side was kind of suspicious.

As it is, he still has no advice to give me on how to prevent such a thing aside from continuing with good dental habits and having regular checkups.