Hi there. Thank you for contacting me. You are most likely having pain due to the black colored tooth. I would suggest finding out if the black colored tooth is restorable (fixable). If the tooth has a good prognosis with treatment, you will likely need a root canal treatment. This is not a problem. Basically, they will numb you up to be comfortable, then they simply remove the nerve and blood vessels from inside the tooth. You don t feel anything because the nerve is removed. They fill the empty canals with a filling designed for the canals. Then the tooth will be built up to be able to replace the missing tooth structure with a crown. If you can save this tooth, I would advise you to do so. Once you lose one tooth, it s almost like a domino effect and others will fail as we are now asking less teeth to do more work. The most likely reason for this tooth to turn from gray to black, is that as the dentist was removing the decay for your health, the black part was the problem all along being hidden by the enamel that remained. As far as the constant pain: Until you can get into see the dentist or the Endodontist (a specialist in root canals), you can alternate between advil (also known as ibuprofen or motrin) and Tylenol (also known as acetaminophen). Start with the Advil. It s an anti-inflammatory to keep the inflammation down that is putting pressure causing the pain. If that doesn t work within about 45 mins, then go ahead and take the Tylenol. They are excreted (removed from the body) different ways, so you don t have to worry about overdosing if you take the recommended dose for your age. Thank you for contacting us.