Debating Crown, Conflicted

My second lower molar from the back, on my right, had always given me
trouble since a dentist put a truly massive filling in it when I was a
child. I had sensitivity to cold in it as many as 15 years ago. It
didn't feel "right" in other ways over the years, but wasn't a problem
either. Then a fragment of it came off while chewing gum about four
years ago. I had it patched, and then another fragment came off a
couple years ago and I had that patched.

I didn't want to have major work done but the writing was on the wall
when I lost either a patch or another fragment about three months ago
so I went to a highly-recommended dentist who planned to do an onlay
but that plan changed to a crown as he discovered much more advanced
decay than thought during the drilling. He warned that he might have
to do a root canal as he went quite deep, but a crown turned out to be
sufficient. He took the casting and had the crown prepared and then
put it in 10 days or so later.

I's been a couple months and I regard the result as nothing short of
brilliant. The molar feels and looks wonderful and solid. I know that
time will tell but I'm optimistic they'll cremate me at the age of 107
with that tooth and crown still in my noggin. It is not sensitive at
all and feels better than it did even before it started falling apart
five years ago. It was quite expensive but I am an entirely satisfied
and grateful customer.

So why am I posting? My newly beloved dentist wants to do another
molar, the one behind the aforementioned. He sees some shadow (I
forget the word) in it and regards the previous decay of the repaired
tooth as indicative of what's going on in this other one. But I never
had any similar trouble or sensitivity with this one. True it has a
large filling, though not as massive as the other was. But there was
always something going on with that other tooth, I could "feel" it
wasn't right, and I never had any of that with this other one. My
dentist is unconvinced by these sentiments, but neither did he tell me
why they might not be meaningful. He says "I guarantee you there's
something going on in" the other tooth.

As wonderful as my crown is, I am unenthusiastic about getting
another. I trust my dentist and take much note of the great work he
has done so far but all the same I am greatly resistant towards fixing
something that hasn't given me any problems. Should I have the work
done?

.

Relevant Pages

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