Sedative filling - how long?

[elspouse]

I had an enormous cavity in one of my upper molars that went undiscovered at my last checkup a few months ago because the outside of the tooth was almost completely intact.  Then last week the tooth enamel started chipping off.  I hadn't felt any pain in the tooth, and after it started chipping, I still didn't feel any pain when I rested or clenched my teeth, but did feel a lot of pain if I tried to bite down on anything.

I'd just moved, so I found a new dentist who could see me the next day.  He had to remove a huge amount of decay from two sides of the tooth.  He said it didn't go all the way to the root, but that he could see the tip of the nerve through the remaining hard tissue.  He was about to do RCT, but after asking me about the pain, he decided that a sedative filling might help me avoid a root canal.  So he put in the sedative filling that has oil of cloves.  He said that there's a 50-50 chance I won't need a root canal, and that if I don't within two months, he can put in a regular silver filling, leaving a thin layer of the sedative filling below it.

My old dentist says that he thinks it's better to wait six months because putting in the new filling too soon can re-iritate the nerve and send it into necrosis.  Can the temporary filling last that long?  Is there anything I can be doing in the meantime to up the odds that the tooth will be able to heal on its own?

[scottma]

6 weeks to 3 months is generally long enough to see the end result. 6 months is not going to result in any damage as long as the semipermanent filling does'nt break down.