[Baz]

I called my dentist this morning and asked if they could move my status up to "urgent/need right away - cannot wait".

Mentioned I was in excruciating pain right now. "Didn't realize it would be so bad after initial visit and consultation 1 week ago. Thought the antibiotic would resolve the pain, which it hasn't. No experience with this kind of thing....but know my responsibility as your patient is to report my worsening condition. Am willing to pay more if the doc can squeeze me in - even after hours - whatever. Just like getting a plumber after hours - you pay more. I also asked if it's possible to rearrange the schedule swapping my March 5 appointment with a less urgent one."

Not a lot of confidence this will change anything but at least I made the call.

Next step is to make more calls to other practices, if mine can't figure something out.

You're always going to be the best advocate for your own health. At this point it doesn't make sense for me health-wise to sit out another 14 days.