Procedure for diagnosing cavity?

[frosty]

I'm in my early thirties and have never needed any dental treatment before. At my most recent check up I was told I have a cavity and need a filling. This was all diagnosed quite quickly purely using the little "explorer" (?) probe. My dentist was very rough and forceful on all teeth with the explorer and I remember thinking at the time that this was different to previous check ups (not sure if relevant to anything).

Because I've never had any dental work before and it all happened in the space of a few minutes I didn't have think to ask more questions at the time.

Is it normal to diagnose a cavity like this, without x-rays or other confirmatory techniques? I have no pain or sensitivity and I have no idea which tooth is even affected.

I'm not necessarily doubting my dentist but I just feel reluctant to go ahead with the work and to lose natural tooth without greater confirmation - or is this more normal than I think it is?

I was told my other teeth are all good and my gum health also excellent. I don't smoke etc so I assume my mouth is "stable" if I ask to postpone this filling and get a second opinion?

 

[Dr M]

You can pick up a cavity with an explorer only. A lot of times a cavity is so obvious, that the explorer hooks into the cavity. The depth of the cavity can be confirmed with an x-ray, once the filling is done.

 

[frosty]

You can pick up a cavity with an explorer only. A lot of times a cavity is so obvious, that the explorer hooks into the cavity. The depth of the cavity can be confirmed with an x-ray, once the filling is done.

Just bumping to respond/update this post to say that I got a second opinion and the second dentist said (after a much more thorough examination than the first) that there are no categorically no cavities at all and definitely not in the supposedly affected tooth* (not even something borderline), so I have no idea what my first dentist was talking about. It's unsettled me a bit in my faith in dentists but it has been a good lesson in getting second opinions, especially in cases where I have nothing objective to go on and rely entirely on trust.

*I was able to contact my practice and find out which tooth was the one with the "cavity" after my initial post here (where I didn't know because the dentist didn't tell me!)