This 19 year old was home from college for a few weeks and wanted me to do veneers to fill in the spaces between her upper front teeth and give her a pretty smile.  I took x-rays prior to starting treatment and noticed a large abscess at the root apex of this lateral incisor tooth. The tooth was asymptomatic and the patient said the tooth never hurt or felt sensitive. The tooth must has been traumatically injured when she was young.  It’s good we discovered this abscess and can take care of it before it destroys more bone and adjacent teeth.

At the same time in a different dental operatory was this other patient who was here for her cleaning and check-up appointment. Notice the resorbed root on the maxillary lateral incisor. The root is about half as long as it should be. This was caused by her impacted canine tooth, stuck above this root, that was later brought down into place orthodontically.