I'd like to ask for opinions on this question: Should my dentist have charged me for this service? The story: I had a toothache and scheduled an appointment with my dentist. I showed up and the dentist took one look and said, "You have an abscess. I can't do anything; you'll need to have the oral surgeon pull that [bad, deciduous] tooth." The office then called an oral surgeon, who did the work. My question (again): should I need to pay for the visit to the dentist? My argument: He told me he couldn't help me. There wasn't anything he could do to address my problem. He did indeed help by getting me an appointment with someone who could, so perhaps I should pay for that. Is there a rule on this sort of thing, that basically says, "You take some of my time, even if I can't help you, I will charge you"? Most professionals don't operate that way, do they? The counter argument is, "It was his expertise that diagnosed the abscess. He gets to charge for that." But I had told them I probably had an abscess before I ever went there. It hurt like hell and there wasn't any big question what the problem was. (BTW, I have gone to this dentist for years, so he knows he's going to continue to make money off me.)

Your opinions are welcome.