Q. Hello, Dr. My dentist is wanting to crown tooth 31 and tooth 18. Tooth thirty one currently has a large filling in it, however, the filling is several years old and the rear part of the tooth is chipped off. Which I did not know. He advised me that after looking at the xray that the decay seems to be close to the nerve and asked me if I had experienced any pain? Which I have not. My question is ,I do not have 1500.00 dollars just lying around to put crowns on both teeth. Would it be best to extract tooth 31 and 18 and later have a implant put in its place or would it be best to try and get some sort of finacing for the crowns? I have had frequent dental work over the y ears since I was a child. I am 34 years old. I feel as if sometimes my dentist does not do enough preventive care and just waits for the high dollar jobs to come around to make more profit on my teeth.