This blog is inspired by a good friend, recently diagnosed with internal resorption...who's wife happens to be a hygienist! Internal resorption is an unusual condition where the dentin and pulpal walls begin to resorb centrally within the root canal.  Basically, your body's own cells are eating away at the tooth structure.  Patients suffering from internal resorption will be asymptomatic early on.  Teeth with internal resorption typically respond normally to pulpal and periapical tests until the lesion grows significantly in size.  The first evidence of the lesion may be the appearance of a pink-hued area around the crown of the tooth, this is the vascular pulp tissue filling in the resorbed areas.  Once necrosis (death) of the pulpal tissue takes place, the typical signs/symptoms of an abscessing tooth occur.  Some of these symptoms include; bitter taste, bad breath, fever, pain with chewing, sensitivity to hot and cold, swelling of the gum or a pimple on the gum. So now you're … [Read more...]