Gentle Dental I

My front tooth suddenly started having throbbing pain! It reminded me one of my back tooth once had that too, and the pain was so unbearable that I managed to get numbing medicine and call dentist immediately. I wanted to say I 'rushed' to the drugstore, yet I remembered for certain moments, the pain was so harsh that I could not move (it would stimulate the nerve more).

Unfortunately I signed up HMO this year, after not having used enough benefits from PPO while paying high premium previously, so I could only go to that one dentist I have chosen from my provider --- Gentle Dental in Sunnyvale.

I called and was very afraid not being able to schedule anything soon enough, to my big surprise, I got an appointment for tomorrow morning at 10. I was a bit suspicious and asked if anything is available in the afternoon. As I view 'vacancy' a bad sign. But I was told 'no'. So I accepted it with relief.

After I got home, I located Gentle Dental through google map, and right there, it popped up and I saw *1 star* with 12 reviews. I was stunned! I started to go over the reviews and then quickly looked it up on Yelp --- 1 star, 6 reviews. My heart sank...

To summarize the reviews :
1. I will most likely be overcharged. They may send me a bill later different from what they showed me over the counter.
2. I am mostly guaranteed to be under sales pressure of taking some (if not all) of their treatment plans, which easily run over thousands.
3. I run the risks of needing further repair after their treatment (for the same tooth).
4. I will not be honored about my request if I simply want a teeth cleaning and refuse to go with treatment plan

Sounds pretty damn terrible, doesn't it?

There was this picture formed in my head... tomorrow when I walked in, I would first spend time filling out the forms, then being pulled into a room while they take tons of x-rays, then going back to waiting area, finally after I finished reading an entire magazine, someone will call my name, hand me a to-do list too long to list here, each item cost hundreds... adding up to thousands or more. I will then request I just want to check and possibly do fillings for my front tooth. They will say sure, let's do the fillings. Then in the middle of drilling... they will tell me, your tooth looks too bad, it can not be fixed with filling, you will need to schedule for root canal. I will not be able to argue as I was lying on the chair with a numb mouth. Then I will be charged for consulting, planning, x-rays, filling, and root canal + crown down the road...

The more I played the movie, the more I felt miserable... I had an urge to cancel it tomorrow morning. Yet do I have a better option with HMO right now? Would it be better to go with another provider? Would I be able to get an appointment before the pain kills me?