I was in a similar situation a while back. Needed lots of dental work, no insurance, not a lot of extra money for treatment. I did the Penn dental route at first to try and get longterm care. They set up a treatment plan for me and I got 1 root canal, 1 crown, and 1 extraction from them. While it's more affordable than a dentist, it's not what I would call cheap. They did give me a discount on root canal which was helpful. The biggest draw back is that they are learning so they are slow. During the root canal I started crying from the pain of leaving my mouth open for so long. Eventually I found out about CareCredit, which is a credit card that you can get interest free terms for medical expenses. Just make sure you can pay it off before the term expires or you pay an insane rate on the initial amount. Once I got all the extractions, cavitys, and root canals taken care of I haven't had any dental problems since. Took about 3 years once I truly committed but very worth it.