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My 8mo baby has his upper front teeth on the way. Today, I noticed that one of them was black and blue in color. This is scary to me. It looks like one of the teeth is black, but it might be that the gums near this tooth is black/blue. I haven't been able to make him sit still to look at it more closely.

Does anyone have any insight as to what might be happening?

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  • The problem didn't really exist.
    – Marc
    Dec 27, 2014 at 0:41

3 Answers 3

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Are you giving your baby iron or mineral supplements? It may be deposition from that:

Medication use. Infant medications containing iron, such as supplemental vitamins, may cause dark stains on baby teeth. Taking the antibiotic tetracycline during pregnancy can cause a child to have discolored baby teeth, too.

If you're very concerned, take him to a pediatric dentist. You may want to make sure he has insurance for that; all of the dentists in our immediate area charge ridiculous amounts (in excess of $150) to do a checkup.

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  • the only vitamins we give (as per doctor's recommendations) are: vitamin D and fluoride supplement(starting from 7month since our area doesn't have it added to the water) could it be flouride?
    – Nat
    Aug 2, 2012 at 17:42
  • Well, according to that article, "Excessive fluoride. Too much fluoride (fluorosis) may cause bright white spots or streaks on the teeth." Maybe there's iron in that Vitamin D supplement? I seem to recall our boy had those two combined. It might also be time to talk to someone not on the internet :)
    – mmr
    Aug 2, 2012 at 18:02
  • yes, we already scheduled an appointment with a doctor. I checked the type we are giving - its just vitamin D. Thanks for advices!
    – Nat
    Aug 2, 2012 at 18:06
  • @Nat Why would you supplement fluoride? It's not like adding it to water is a good idea either... See this review of fluoride supplementation. If you want your kid to have strong teeth, don't give it any sugar ever and make sure they get Vitamin D and K2 (e.g. from sunlight and butter).
    – w00t
    Aug 6, 2012 at 19:49
  • @w00t, few if any dentists would agree with you. Speaking for myself, my parents had tons of cavities; I have had none. The difference is flouride. I don't see a question about the merits of flouridated water; perhaps you can ask one, to give the community an opportunity to share the numerous studies which support routine water flouridation?
    – Reid
    Aug 11, 2012 at 22:30
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So on the next day I checked the tooth and there was no black/blue color on it. Gum was bright red color and tooth was barely noticeable. An it was ok color.

Doctor said it was a little hematoma there. Either my baby bumped into something, or the tooth while growing touched some capillary in the gum.

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    Ah, so the tooth wasn't black, the gum near/over the tooth was black. Slightly different problem :)
    – mmr
    Aug 6, 2012 at 14:43
  • Right. The bruise had shape of a tooth, may be a bit bigger, and was right on the place were tooth is supposed to be. So until it was gone I couldn't figure out if it was a gum or tooth.
    – Nat
    Aug 6, 2012 at 18:20
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It may well be that what you're seeing is an eruption cyst:

enter image description here

It may look like a black tooth, but it is just a small collection of blood under the gum surface that sometimes persists for a bit before the tooth (normal, white) erupts.

Most articles (like the one below) state that eruption cysts occur most commonly in the upper jaw. They most commonly occur with the baby incisors, the baby molars, and the permanent first molars.

Eruption Cyst: A Purple Blue Bump on Your Baby’s Gums

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