chances of tooth surviving crown after 2 large fillings?

[FearfulInMA]

Just saw the dentist and he says I need a crown on #2. I already have 2 large fillings in this tooth and it's decaying again despite good hygiene practices, limited sugar, etc. I trust my dentist (I've been going to the same one for the last 6 yes and he's the only dentist I've ever gone to see regularly).

My question for the dentists on here is what do you think the chances are that I can have more drilling on this tooth and not need RCT? I've needed RCT before after a crown preparation and after a second filling on #31. I know I need to try to crown or else there is likely no hope of keeping the tooth free of RCT, but I'm just trying to get a sense of what my odds are that I won't need RCT as a result of more drilling I this tooth.

I would appreciate any thoughts you could offer as this is only increasing my very high level of dental anxiety.

Thank you

 

[Karenw]

I'm not a dentist but I've had multiple fillings in my teeth long before they were crowned.

Between the ages of 10-16, I had large amalgam fillings in all of my molars and at my next check-up, the dentist would drill 2-3 of them out and replace them. At the next appointment, another 2-3 fillings would be drilled out and replaced so it was rare for any filling to be in situ for more than a year and all my molars were drilled and filled/re-filled multiple times. This was in the 60-70's when NHS dentists were paid by the amount of work they did, hence they did a lot, much of which was probably unnecessary.

I changed dentist at 16 and they weren't filled again until they began to crumble apart with cusps breaking off and last year they were crowned. I've never had a root canal.

 

[FearfulInMA]

I wish I would have your luck, but so far I've been quite unlucky with having multiple fillings in the same tooth

 

[Karenw]

I've had up to 4 separate fillings in a molar at a time - one over all the fissures, 2 buccals and a lingual....

 

[FearfulInMA]

Well... About it's more than 24hrs after the crown preparation and (fingers crossed) so far so good. I have a tiny bit of soreness (mostly from the injection sites), but no pain at all! This is so strange for me since each of the other 3 crown preparations I've had done have all been (at the very least) quite uncomfortable for several days after. The other 3 have all ended root canal.

I asked my dentist, given my history with this, what I can do I prevent irritating the nerve of the tooth. Aside from the normal stuff, he said to avoid chewing on that side -- I have been successful with this so far, but I'm sure I will forget at some point.

I go back in 2 weeks for the permanent crown, but for right now, I'm feeling very hopeful!