Background:

I haven't been to the dentist in over 30 years. I grew up in a poor family, and my parents were too prideful to seek assistance. As I grew up, I never even really thought about going to the dentist anyway. I brushed and flossed every day, and I still have all my teeth. Most of my teeth are in pretty good shape.

I haven't worked many jobs with dental insurance as an option, and at the moment am completely between jobs as I had to quit my job and return home unexpectedly last month.

Last night, the back broke off of one of my teeth. It just... broke off. I think I swallowed it in my sleep. Gross.

It did not hurt or anything, and the front of the tooth is still in tact. There is no pain and no sensitivity to cold or hot. But I can't just have an exposed front tooth can I?

Anyhow, long story short, (too late, I know!)...

Where do I even begin? I'm in a city with a dental school. That's an option. But I'm crazy scared to go to the dentist for a lot of reasons:

1. I'm embarrassed that I've not been to a dentist since I was a little kid
2. I'm really scared of dentists and doctors in general
3. I don't have insurance and I'm unemployed, and I live in the US, so...
4. I don't want to go to a low-income dental program and have them yank out my teeth and send me on my way to keep costs low. If they were back teeth, I'd be fine, but this is my front tooth on the bottom, and I feel like the one next to it is going to have issues too.
5. How am I going to be taken seriously at professional interviews if I show up missing my front teeth?

The more I type, the more embarrassed I get, so I'm going to leave it with the perhaps over-simplified question of:

Where do I start?