Crown vs filling

MiserlyMartin

I have a lower back tooth which was cracked then part of it broke. I think it was only one of the four 'corners' that broke. It has been filled before. One private dentist I saw for something else noticed it and says it only needs a filling and quoted (a lot) for that. The NHS one I saw recommends a crown. I have no pain or infection.

I know that if you have a crown you run the risk of additional tooth trauma leading to a root filling later and of course the cost is a lot more.

If you have the filling the tooth is weaker and I guess you may need the crown eventually anyway, so you might argue it will cost you more in the long run so might as well go straight to the crown. Though the risk of a root canal being needed is less and maybe the tooth will be strong enough for years to come.

Is there any best thing to do in this situation or it is really the luck of what happens to your tooth going forward?

Hopefully there is a resident dental expert on MSE, grateful for any replies

Toothsmith

You can't just say without seeing the tooth, and also what's going on in the mouth around it!

Even then, as you've found, if you asked a few dentists, it would be extremely unlikely that you'd get any sort of consensus or agreement amongst them!

Sometimes, the more opinions you get, the more confused you will be! There's not really a right or wrong answer. Each dentist you see is likely to have their preferred way of solving it - and the reason they like that way, is because they find it generally works for them.

So what would be wrong would be asking a dentist who recommends filling it, to crown it, or a dentist who recommends crowning it to fill it!

MiserlyMartin

Ok thanks. Well I wanted to avoid the situation where I went for a check up, with no pain or problems. The dentist wanted to redo 2 'old' silver fillings - suggested white ones for extra. I ended up in terrible pain afterwards, had to drink from a straw for a week. The sensitivity hot cold pain never went away. The drilling even hurt. I think the dentist was dodgy as I had never been drilled for 45 minutes before for a filling. He even stopped and had a private patient in then put me back in the chair. Eventually 6 months later one tooth became infected, I needed a £600 root canal from a private dentist. It became infected again so the root canal was redone. NHS this time. Then it broke so I had it crowned. More expense. The second tooth broke so to avoid all the root canal expense and crown I had it extracted.

So you can see why I question giving a tooth more work than it might need

Toothsmith

And a valid question indeed!

But I would say the most important thing is to find a dentist you trust, and make sure it's in a practice that doesn't seem to have a revolving door and different dentists offering different ways of doing things every time you go.

MiserlyMartin

I've yet to find that on the NHS. My recent regular NHS dentist was ok but they were awful at doing anything involved like crowns. The crown fell off 3 times in a week, then wouldn't last for any longer than a few months. Eventually it fell off while I was working abroad and I had it fixed on there and it lasted 4 years. Last time I had it fixed by a private dentist. The practice has a constant stream of student dentists and I hardly ever see the same one twice. The good ones leave. The root canals are too complex so they sub contract out to a private dentist who is very good. The only problem is the wait in between the treatments at the two dentists. They don't fit temporary crowns either while you are waiting for the crown to come back from the lab.

So now I'm trying a new NHS one a good drive away. Too early to say if they are any good.

goodone2

And what it shows is that nothing will be as good as your natural teeth.