The most common borderline call in dentistry, and the reasoning that should be shown to you, not just announced.
A filling repairs a tooth that is still mostly tooth; a crown protects one that has lost too much structure to hold itself together. The line is drawn by how much sound tooth remains and what your bite demands of it. Family Dental Care Missouri shows you the reasoning and prices both in writing. Call (816) 439-7715.
Reviewed by Dr. Navkiran Warya, DDS - August 2026
The physicsA filling is a repair set into a tooth, and it borrows all its strength from the walls around it. While those walls are thick, the arrangement is excellent and lasts years. As decay, re-repairs and time thin them, the tooth flexes a little more with every bite, and thin flexing walls end one way: a fracture, often below the gumline, which converts a crownable tooth into an extraction conversation. A crown ends the flexing by wrapping the whole tooth and taking the force itself. That is the entire physics of the decision, and it is why the honest answer changes as a tooth's biography accumulates.
| The tooth | The honest call |
|---|---|
| Small to medium cavity, strong walls | Filling, comfortably |
| Large cavity, walls intact | Large filling - legitimate, with the trade-offs explained |
| More filling than tooth, or cracked walls | Crown before it fractures |
| Root canal treated back tooth | Crown, almost always |
| Fractured below the gumline | Usually beyond both - see extractions |
Because this is dentistry's most common borderline call, it is also where trust is most tested, so our rule is that the evidence is shown, not summarized: the X-ray, the photo, the proportion of the tooth that is already repair. You hear the alternatives with their real risks, including watching a borderline tooth for six months when that is legitimate, and both paths are priced in writing. A recommendation that survives being explained is the only kind worth accepting, here or anywhere. If pain on biting is what raised the question, read the cracked tooth page too, and a night guard protects heavily restored teeth in grinders.
Because past a certain point, a filling is cheaper the way a patch on a bald tire is cheaper. A filling relies on the surrounding tooth for strength; when decay or old repairs have hollowed too much of it, the remaining walls flex and eventually fracture, and fractures are what cost people teeth. A crown wraps and reinforces the whole tooth. The honest question is not price today but which choice you buy twice. Call (816) 439-7715.
Sometimes. For teeth in the borderline zone, a large well-bonded filling can be a legitimate, clearly explained gamble, and in some cases lab-made partial restorations that cover the chewing surface offer more protection than a filling without full crown coverage. What you should expect from us is the reasoning: how much sound tooth remains, what your bite does to it, and why the recommendation lands where it does. Call (816) 439-7715.
Ask to see it, and any dentist worth trusting will show you: the X-ray, the photo, the sheer proportion of the tooth that is already filling rather than tooth. Our standing rule is that you hear the reasoning and the alternatives with their risks, in plain language, with costs in writing, and watching a borderline tooth for six months is a legitimate option we will offer when it genuinely is one. Call (816) 439-7715.
Back teeth, almost always: a root-canal-treated tooth is hollower and more brittle, and molars take the full force of chewing, so a crown is what makes the investment in saving the tooth last. Front teeth escape more often, since they shear rather than crush, and a filling can suffice when enough structure remains. Both costs are put in front of you together, before the root canal starts, never as a sequel. Call (816) 439-7715.
Commonly published national ranges put fillings in the low hundreds of dollars and crowns around a thousand or more, varying with material and region, and most insurance plans cover fillings more generously than crowns, some sharing crown costs only when enough tooth is gone. Those are orientation figures, not quotes: your written estimate, after an exam and a benefits check, is the real number, and you get it first. Call (816) 439-7715.