Dentists claiming I need a procedure. Looking for advice from other dentists.

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Jun 5, 2017
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Unedited: https://ibb.co/cn1f0v
Edited: https://ibb.co/giLJna

I visited my dentist last week simply for a check up because I have not been to the dentist in some time. I don't have any particular pain in my teeth that is worrying other than the slight soreness in some teeth that I get very rarely and only lasts for a short time.

On inspecting my teeth, he said they look healthy and then he took two bitewing x-rays which I took pictures of with my phone, which is not perfect image quality but is an accurate representation of the x-ray. I have uploaded the left x-ray both unedited and the edited version to help explain what he said below.

The right side he claims is fine.

On the left bitewing x-ray, he says "something is about to cause a lot of pain". I have uploaded the image of the left bitewing x-ray. He says that the tooth circled in red on the image is abnormal and claims that the disease process has gone through the enamel of the tooth where there is a dark spot (red arrow) and to defend/compensate against this process, more dentine has been deposited on the top right section of the image of that tooth (within red triangle) and that is why it is a different density and why you can't see part of the pulp on that side.

He also says that I should not leave the decision as to whether to get a filling or not for any longer than a month otherwise it will proceed and get worse and claims that if I leave it for 3 months, it's likely I'll need a root canal procedure done on the tooth. I was taken back by this because I have absolutely no pain in that tooth and it is not causing me trouble.

This dentist is very recently graduated and was scaring me so I asked my mum, who happens to have been a dentist for 20 years before she retired. She says that there is nothing particularly concerning about that tooth and a filling is unnecessary. She assures me that the caries process in my teeth are "arrested" and says that if the tooth was in as bad a condition as he claims, I would be in severe pain.

So now I am stuck between the opinion of two dentists, one of whom is young and inexperienced. If he turns out to be right, it will progress and I may need a root canal procedure done. If she turns out to be right, I will have had an unnecessary filling which I obviously don't want.

I thought some dentists could give me their advice as to what is going on and what the best course of action would be.
 

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