I was told about a year ago that I should gave a crown for my large molar on the bottom right side of my mouth, but I didn't have the money to pay for it, so I waited and saved up the money. When I returned to the same dentist about 8 months later he said that not only would I need the crown, but now a root canal.

Considering that I didn't like how I was treated by the receptionist at this dentist's office, I began to consider that perhaps I should seek a different dentist, as I had a very negative feeling about the whole situation. The dentist spoke with a thick accent and I could barely make out what he was saying, and he wasn't someone I could converse with to ask questions. Along with the receptionist being a total feeb, I scheduled to see a different dentist.

Yesterday I saw that different dentist and it made all the difference in the world! The dentist I saw looked at my tooth and said that the original filling had wore away, and that all that needed to be done was simply remove that old filling and patch up the spot of decay with a new filling! No crown, no root canal!

He did say that he may find that the decay goes a little deeper and a root canal is a small chance of possibility, and he won't know until he gets into the process of doing the filling—but he seemed to think a simply filling was all that was required.

Which makes me think of the original dentist wanting me to have a crown and then bumping it up to a root canal. My impression is the first dentist either isn't very good or money-hungry, or both!

My co-pay for the filling will be less than $40, which surely beats the $600 I'd have to pay for the root canal. I'm still in a state of disbelief and shock over the difference in diagnosis and treatment!