receptionist won't listen

I went to this clinic due to an emergency -one of my back gold crowns had dislodged (I had actually swallowed it - never got it back though, darn it) and the tooth underneath was broken and needed to be fixed ASAP. At first everyone there was great - Dr. Patel assured me there would be no pain, and believed me when I told him about the difficulty other dentists had with freezing my mouth. I was relieved to know that he would not do any procedure unless it was actually frozen. The chairs there are awesome - they massage and are heated!
Well, the dentist could not get my mouth frozen. OK, so that happens all the time and at least he listened to me. The dentist told me to call to make another appointment for the procedure and he would try again if I wanted - fair enough. So I did try to make another appointment a few weeks later. This is where the trouble began. The receptionist refused to make the appointment for the procedure that had not been completed regardless of the circumstances unless I first came in for an initial assessment appointment costing over $200. I tried to explain what had happened, but she would not listen and became abrupt. So, I still have this severely messed up tooth after a year that often gets infected and I can not afford to go to another dentist ( I'm one of those "working poor" you hear about in Canada) because they won't do it without that initial assessment either.