Tooth is going to kill me

I sit here this afternoon trying to focus on typing when all I want to do is curl up and cry. The toothache that I have been battling is worse this morning - feels like an infection has finally set in and the swelling it is causing is making the entire side of my head throb with pain. I took something for the pain, but have to wait now to see if it has any effect or not. Meanwhile I an sitting here typing with one hand and trying to find some way to hold my head with the other one so the pain is lessened.

I would love to be able to go to the dentist and get my teeth fixed, but can't afford the $185 and up per tooth that they would demand I pay to get the mouth full of bad teeth pulled. Then it's another $2,000 plus to get dentures. Think the low quote I got when I called around last fall was $1,200 for one plate and $1,500 for the other plate. That's $2,700 just for the dentures - after the dental work has been done, which costs about $185 per tooth x however many teeth are in a human head (minus the one I had pulled when I was 16). Then tack on the various stuff like medications, x-rays (full dental spread at $85 each and up), and the dentists' hourly office charges and I'm looking at a cost in the area of $5,000 that has to be paid up front when I walk into the damn dentist's office.

I cant afford that. So... here I sit, holding my head and trying to get some work done and praying that pain medication will work and that the dang infection goes away on it's own so I don't have to drop another $150 to $200 on a visit to the emergency clinic to get ten penicillin pills.