Big-time dental phobic here - my fear / phobia of dentists goes waaaaaay back. A back tooth broke many months ago, and a couple months ago I began having extreme pain in my jaw up into my ear and down into my throat. I was able to get a prescription for a painkiller from my doctor, but the pain just kept getting worse. I knew I had to suck it up and find a dentist STAT. Cardinal Dental's Yelp reviews were great, and they accept walk-ins and emergencies, so off I went, forcing my trembling self into the office. The entire staff, from Irene in the front to the techs and hygienists in the back, were soothing, calming, friendly, and utterly professional. Dr. Siami was gentle and kind, and in no way lectured me for my long dental hiatus, nor did he try and push additional procedures or services on me. He dealt with the problem at hand, which was my severe pain. X-rays revealed an infection in the broken tooth, so he prescribed antibiotics and painkillers and gave me my options: root canal and crown, or extraction. My choice was extraction, and Dr. Siami was totally OK with that. I know their priority is to always try and save the tooth, but Dr. Siami completely respected my decision and didn't try and pressure me into something else. We scheduled the extraction for May, to give the antibiotics time to work. Fast-forward to today: after two courses of two different antibiotics, and a weekend of the worst pain to date, I called the office this morning to see if they could fit me in and take another look. 45 minutes later, I was in the chair, a weepy bundle of shaky nerves. The pain apparently had been stemming not only from an infection below the tooth, but from the exposed nerve. Yikes. Dr. Siami said we could try another course of antibiotics, or we could try pulling the tooth today. He was very patient with my incessant questions about the numbing, the procedure, pain, etc. He was very reassuring that it wasn't going to be bad at all and, just wanting to be out of the awful pain, I said let's try the extraction. He said if at any point I felt any pain, he would stop. He numbed me up with several shots, which were virtually painless because he rubbed a topical on my gums and cheek before the shots. He stepped away for a few minutes to allow the numbing to take effect, then returned to begin. I cranked up the music on my phone and squeezed my eyes shut, steeling myself against some hideous anticipated torture, but I felt absolutely no pain, just a little pressure. Literally about a minute after he began, I felt him placing gauze in my mouth - I assumed he was having difficulty getting a firm grip on the tooth and had to dry it off, but nope, he was all done. Seriously! All done! The tooth that had been tormenting my days and nights was quickly and finally out of my head! Dr. Siami and his staff really - I mean REALLY - know their stuff. I even went back to work afterwards. As I write this, it's 9 hours post-extraction. The numbing has worn off, there is absolutely NO pain in the socket, and the horrendous pain that had been my constant companion for so long is GONE. Please - if you are suffering from a violent toothache, don't let it kill more of your hours. Go see Dr. Siami and his amazing staff at Cardinal Dental. Life is too short to suffer when Dr. Siami and crew can fix it and make it better. THANK YOU, Dr. Siami! read more