Please heed the advice that others have given you. Call your friends to see who is pleased with their dentist. It does make a world of difference having one who is sensitive to those of us who are fearful. One thing that the dentist will want to know is if your tooth is sensitive to heat or cold, so do a self test with a cold drink and a hot drink. There has been tremendous gains in the techniques of dentistry in the last several years. The *pain* you might experience in the dental chair (if there is any at all) will be negligible to what you will have if this is an abscess and you let it go.