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My parents never saw the need to take us, children, to the dentist unless we had a problem, so subsequently, as an adult I had to get several large fillings in my back molars, up and down. Most were done in my early 20s, and I am now in my early 50s, so that makes the fillings at least 30 years old.
I have had to have a few fillings redone and my dentist is always conscientious about assessing the health of the tooth. He contends you'll never have anything in your mouth as good as your own teeth, and advocates doing whatever you must to keep them. He is not, however, a happy-to-make-money off you doing dental work type of dentist, and doesn't think you mess with your teeth until you need to.
When I saw a dentist here, where I live now, he was telling me the same thing -- get these teeth crowned. He wanted to do four of them, right off the bat, which concerned me too. The dentist here said the danger with large fillings is the chance of cracking/breaking a tooth, but after driving two hours to my former dentist, he said I didn't need the crowns 'until I needed the crowns,' and I appreciated his honesty and professionalism.
If you are concerned about the fillings, maybe go for a second opinion -- just to see if you get told the same thing?
I've had some of my fillings for 35 or 40 years, but some have had to be replaced by root canals/crowns. One filling cracked and came out when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in west africa. The dentist I went to there had the best novacaine injection technique (I barely felt him putting in the needle) and that filling has lasted since 1984. I was concerned that the materials may not have been up to par, but that filling has been deemed by my current dentist to be quite strong and the tooth otherwise is healthy.
IMO, Dentists are SHADY!!! They will try to tell you everything is wrong & take you for all you got. When I was young & stupid, I paid over $3K for some crowns & fillings--and that was AFTER insurance. I'm still paying for it today. For someone who doesn't drink soda, eat candy, has a Sonicare toothbrush & regularly flosses, they sure like to tell me every time that I have a cavity--HMMM...last dentist couldn't explain to me why, 'just was.' Get a 2nd opinion!!
After reading everyone's posts, I know I will. The crowns & fillings that I had put in just a few years ago they are trying to say they are decaying & need to be replaced--and there are people here who have had theirs for 10+ years? Hmm....if I were you, pay the extra $ for an electric toothbrush--it is well worth it if you don't already have one--and find a good dentist.
I have a lot of fillings, most are 30-35 yrs old. Ten years ago I had a dentist tell me I should think about having some of them replaced. Wish I had listened to him then, could have saved some myself some money and some pain. Instead I have had to have five teeth crowned over the last two years, and yet another scheduled soon, because the old fillings have caused my teeth to crack or break. Unfortunately my dental insurance only covered a small portion of the cost. After hitting my yearly limit the rest was out of pocket. Ouch! Had I taken the advice of the first dentist I could have had the work done over a number of years and insurance would have covered most of it.
If you are uncertain, it wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion from another dentist.
Oh, and my dentist has this nifty little camera, he projects pictures of my teeth onto an overhead monitor so that I can see exactly what he's talking about when he points to the various problems he's concerned about. No having to second guess whether he's exaggerating a problem in order to line his pockets.
I just had my very first filling redone. The tooth was filled when I was 14. That was 63 years ago. It had simply worn down and was on the verge of cracking.
I had my second filling when I was 28, and my third when I was 40. I had a baby tooth that never came out (no permanent tooth), it started cracking.
So it could be that fillings last if the teeth are very good. However, when we married, my husband was going to a dentist that was changing the fillings over and over again. Told him his teeth were bad like all the rest of his family. I insisted that he see my dentist. It's funny that since then, the fillings managed to stay put. It could be a matter of the dentist not being skillful, or, as some of the other posters have mentioned, he's looking to make a fast buck the easy way.
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