Amalgam restoration or just a deposit? A riveting incidental finding- a case report

BACKGROUND: Parafunctional oral habits are known to cause deleterious effects on maxillofacial structures. One such effect is traumatic injuries secondary to chewing inanimate objects like pencils. Following trauma, the lead of the pencil has been reported to embed in the soft tissue of the oral cavity, appearing as a grayish pigmentation (graphite tattoo). However, such pigmentation has never been reported in the hard tissue (teeth). CASE PRESENTATION: We hereby report an interesting, first of its kind case in a four-year-old female child. She had been misdiagnosed and referred for the management of a carious tooth; which was, in reality, an exogenous deposit. CONCLUSIONS: The authors highlight the impact of comprehensive history taking on arriving at the diagnosis. Counselling of the child and the parents goes a long way in flouting such deleterious habits.