Why am I getting two different treatment plans when I go for a second opinion? The question is difficult to answer.
For the same reason that one person may say the sky is light blue and another may call it dark blue.
For starters, clinical experience plays a major role in this situation.
One dentist may feel obligated to be as aggressive as he can with taking care of any type of lesion or fracture to prevent any further progression of the problem at hand.
Another dentist, during his many years of taking care of patients, may have seen something very similar to the tooth in question before and can, with a reasonable degree of safety, decide to play the wait and see game with that same tooth to see if it shows any sign of change in the coming months or even years.
A patients ability to maintain an area healthy through proper brushing and oral hygiene also plays a heavy role.
If I were to see a patient that has no tartar build up and shows signs of flossing routinely than I personally would not work on an incipient lesion(baby cavity).
But, if another patient came to me and had terrible plaque and tartar build up and showed he didn't care to change his dental hygiene than I would recommend working on an incipient lesion.
For the reason that I didn't know when the patient would be back for dental care and I would hate to tell them that they now needed a root canal and a crown on the same lesion that last year only needed a small filling.
Another reason for receiving different treatment plans is due to the availability of different types of treatment procedures for the same tooth in question.
Some dentists may have chosen to focus more on a specific type of product or procdure and may only offer you treatment within that narrow realm.
Have you ever wondered why the so called 'Cosmetic Dentists' only want to give everyone a 'Hollywood Smile'? They tend to focus only providing porcelain crowns and veneers which are very expensive procedures.
(For your information: Cosmetic Dentists do not exist.
There is no specific specialty approved by the ADA that will give you that title.
All dentists an do cosmetic procedures.
How well they are at doing it is a different question.
) Now, not receiving different treatment options doesn't mean your dentist is trying to pressure you into his way of thinking.
Certain procedures, depending on the situation at hand, show a higher chance of success and merit to be the treatment of choice offerred by your dentist.