I would like to start by saying I have gone to the dentist already for this and I guess I'm just venting/seeking for advice.

For the past couple of days I've been having bad tooth pain even when I don't eat anything, it just hurts on it's own. I went to the dentist today for cleaning and told my dentist about the pain. Before this, I spent a lot of time googling what could be causing this and treatments and like all of them said that I had to get a root canal, so I was very very very nervous and scared.

My dentist looked at the x-rays and there wasn't any obvious signs of infections and thought that I was grinding my teeth or something? She tested my bite and thought that my teeth were hitting that one particular tooth. So now I'm getting a night guard for it. But I thought if I was grinding/clenching my teeth more teeth will hurt not just the one tooth. 

However, I can't stop thinking about if my dentist is wrong, if the x-rays weren't correct and it didn't show the decay or infection happening in my teeth. I want to go to a specialist, but without a referral it will cost money. I'm just so scared I have to get a root canal and my tooth will never be the same again or worse they will extract it. Then my teeth will never be the same again and I'm so sad and then the root canal might fail and my tooth will fall out. I've never had one before and I'm just scared that it will change everything. 

Like I've just read stuff about how their dentist couldn't detect anything and suggested a mouth guard and then in the end they had to get a root canal anyways. I don't know I'm just really sad about it and also in pain from my tooth.