Dentist Gave Me a Filling Instead of a crown on root canal tooth?

November 15, 2014 9:03 PM

I went in to get a fitting for a crown today on a tooth that had a root canal 2 weeks ago and the doctor decided to do a filling instead of a crown. He said he would watch it for a year and determine if I would eventually need the crown. I didn't complain too much because well the out of pocket for the day was supposed to be $500 today and $500 at the time of the final crowning but, the filling only cost $150. I'll have dental insurance through work starting January 1st so either way I'll probably end up ahead in the financial department. Is this something dentists usually do? Is there anything I can do to prevent it from needing a crown in the future? Should I be extra paranoid about the tooth/
posted by mamamia88 to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

This doesn't seem unusual to me. Most conservative dentists would rather fill a tooth than put a crown on it in my experience. Keep it as clean as you can.
posted by town of cats at 9:14 PM on November 15, 2014

As a random data point, I had a "temporary" filling put in after a root canal that lasted a good decade or more (I lost count how long it was in there) before it finally split and I needed the crown. I did absolutely nothing special to keep it, just went with my usual dental hygiene routine.
posted by cgg at 9:14 PM on November 15, 2014

I had a "temporary" filling after a root canal. I was told to have a crown in 3-6 months, but I kept the filling for 2 years (until I had dental insurance). It was fine, but in my case it wouldn't have been fine for too much longer. I kept an eye on it on a regular basis, but no other unusual care.
posted by snorkmaiden at 9:38 PM on November 15, 2014

I also had a "temporary" filling over a root canal for hm, maybe 10-12 years?

In my case I put off having anything else done to it because I was mostly broke and insurance-less and it all went terribly wrong with bone abscess and gross infection and a hillion jillion bone grants so yeah, I don't think a year will kill you.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:38 PM on November 15, 2014

Is it a front tooth? Those are less likely to need crowns after root canals. Even if it isn't, it sounds like you have the rare conservative dentist who practices "watchful waiting."
posted by Violet Hour at 10:42 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

I had a tooth that was very big, and nearly all of it had to be carved out to be filled. This was not a root canal, though. They put a temporary filling in there and told me I'd need a real filling in a year. I was quite young and have a vague memory of the dentist telling me the tooth needed to settle or something before I got the real filling.

Well, whatever it was, I went about 10-15 years with the temporary filling. :)

I'd just be sure to ask the new dentist (or the current one) to check it carefully each time you go in. If that tooth is ever very sensitive to hot or cold, go in ASAP. According to my dentist, that's a sign you need work done very soon.
posted by AllieTessKipp at 11:03 PM on November 15, 2014

I went a good 5-10 years with the filling, until it cracked. My dentist initially thought I needed a crown, but instead used a technique called CEREC to create a ceramic piece that would make up the "missing" portion, and bonded it into place. I've had it for about 6 years now; he checks it yearly and says it continues to look good.

It was also significantly cheaper--for a filling, a couple non-routine x-rays and a few other things, it was < $500 out of pocket (my insurance blew at the time, too).

My husband, on the other hand, had a root canal with filling for about 2 years, then it cracked at the gum line and he had to have the tooth removed. So, YMMV (he caveats this experience with "that dentist was lazy, though").
posted by Verdandi at 11:30 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have one root canal with a crown and another with a filling. They're both on molars, but they were done by different dentists. In the case of the crown, the infection was quite bad and my tooth was in bad shape. The dentist had to remove a lot of the tooth, so a crown made sense. In the case of the filling, I caught the infection early and treatment was fairly easy. My dentist didn't even mention the possibility of a crown in that case.

My crown has held up for eight or nine years so far. I've had the filling for less than a year. There was no difference in the aftercare instructions I received from the dentists. However, I do try to keep an eye on those teeth and on the gums around them, just in case.
posted by neushoorn at 3:59 AM on November 16, 2014

Like many of the above, I've had a filled root canal for quite awhile (around 10 years, I think). In terms of aftercare, I was told at the time (and am reminded when I see the dentist for cleanings) to avoid chewing anything super hard on that molar (nuts, ice). That's about it, nothing really to be paranoid about.
posted by dayintoday at 6:17 AM on November 16, 2014

Not unusual, although I definitely did need to get a crown on the tooth eventually, and I put it off for long enough that the work was maybe more extensive than it would otherwise have been. I've had four crowns and will be getting a fifth in 2015, and the one that I had a filling on first was definitely the most involved of them all.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 8:42 AM on November 16, 2014

I had two root canals in one year, both with fillings installed afterward. I waited 3 years before starting the crowning process - at a dental school, as I couldn't afford the process with a regular dentist. I got into my PhD program and had to move before we could start the second crown, so I ended up with one crown, one filling, in 2008, and I remain that way to this day (no dental insurance). I've had zero problems, and though there's a part of my subconscious that knows that filled tooth might be more delicate than my other chompers, I don't do anything special at all either in eating or cleaning.
posted by AthenaPolias at 2:26 PM on November 16, 2014

As yet another data point, I had a temporary filling done after my root canal. The dentist at the time said that I should get a more permanent crown put in within a year. About 1.5 years later, the filling fractured badly and at then point I got my gold tooth.

The root canal was expensive enough; at the time I was really happy to not have to pay the full price for the crown right after. However, my dentist at the time seemed to feel that it was normal to do a filling for a while before the crown (I.E. I didn't specifically adopt this route because of lack of funds). Perhaps it's to let any potential gum inflammation really die down, and maybe give time to see if they tooth root will be stable before putting in the cost of a crown. That's pure conjecture.
posted by nobeagle at 6:56 AM on November 17, 2014