GPHA

This place is the absolute bottom of the barrel. I wasted five hours of my life here because I was in excruciating pain and it was the closest place that accepts my insurance.
Look, I get that this place caters specifically to low/​no income individuals who are on public health care. That’s not a big deal to me. It shouldn’t by default mean sub-​par care is offered.
I have a rotted tooth that broke open, and I spent last night in horrible agony. I was taking the maximum over the counter of Ibuprofen, Naproxen AND Tylenol, and it wasn’t TOUCHING the pain. I spent the night rocking back and forth in bed holding ice packs to my face. It was torture.
So I went to this place because they accept walk-​ins between 1−3PM. I got there at 12:50. There were only two other names on the sign-​in sheet before mine.
I didn’t get brought back to the actual dentist chair until 3:30, and I didn’t get SEEN until close to 4. I was prepared for a wait, being a walk-​in and all, but this was outrageous. Even the dentist, and older fella, repeatedly commented on how long my wait had been.
They then took x-​rays of my teeth. I should point out I had written that I was in pain on all the forms, and I’d told every new person who interacted with me that I was in pain. Yet when the dentist finally examined my teeth, even seeing the gaping hole and exposed nerve in my mouth, he seemed surprised that I was in pain. «Oh, you’re in pain?» he had the audacity to say to my face.
He then said he would prescribe me 800mg of Ibuprofen. Again, I *TOLD* them that’s what I had been taking (and then some) for 24 hours, but he refused to prescribe anything else. He also said that the wound didn’t look infected so there wasn’t a need for an antibiotic. He said that I seemed anxious and he thought it would be best if I was referred out to another place for the actual tooth extraction/​surgery where they could put me under.
Then suddenly a nurse shows up with a different dentist entirely. He looks at me and says they can do the extraction there, but then says the wound IS infected and that it DOES need antibiotics, and that I should treat it with antibiotics and then come back in two days for the extraction. So I’m like… okay…I will TRY and cope with the pain for two days, and the antibiotic SHOULD make it lessen. I ask him why they can’t give me something stronger for pain management and then this piece of crap says to me: «We don’t prescribe narcotics because of our demographic.»
BY WHICH HE MEANS POOR BLACK PEOPLE.
But then I get out to the lobby and I’m told the soonest they can schedule me for an extraction is the 26^th of January — 20 days later! I was like, what am I supposed to do to manage the pain until then?!? She’s like *shrug whatever*.
Then to top it off, it takes 45 minutes for their in-​house pharmacy to fill my damn script even though there’s hardly anyone around waiting for scripts.
So basically I wasted 5 hours to get my x-​rays done and get an antibiotic, and now I’m going to have to schedule somewhere else ASAP who will hopefully do an extraction on the spot (Gentle Dental is good about this.) In the meantime I will probably have another horrendous pain filled night, all because this RACIST dental office has a blanket policy against prescribing totally appropriate medications, when actually warranted, because they think all poor black people are chasing the percocet dragon.