I recently went to the dentist and was told I needed a root canal and was refused a temporary filling.?

When I came in to the appointment I told the dentist that I had a cracked tooth. They took X-Ray's of my mouth, and came back and told me that I would be needing a root canal.
The office manager came in and told me that the cost for a
root canal and crown would be $750 (leftover from what my insurance covered). I told her that I didn't have that much money at the time, and asked for a temporary
filing. She then told me that her office doesn't do temporary filings. I explained to her that I was in pain, and this didn't matter to her. Does this sound like normal protocal?

If you are in pain, and needing a root canal, a temporary filling isn't going to alleviate your pain. The tooth has become infected. What you need are some strong antibotics to fight the infection, and either a root canal with a crown to follow, or simply having the tooth extracted.

The reason they wouldn't give you the temp filling is it wouldn't bring you any relief. Ask for some antibiotics to kill the infection while you save up for the root canal. Once the infection is dead, the pain will stop. But the infection will come back if the problem is not taken care of.

No, it does not. If you are a patient of record the office has an obligation to get you out of pain if possible, even if you can't afford definitive treatment. It is possible that a temporary filling might not have been able to relieve your pain, but this should be explained.
If they have any interest in losing their patients, I can't think of a better way than refusing to help a patient in pain.
There are alternatives here--they should all be discussed with you.

Steve Bornfeld, DDS

Yes, putting a filling would actually make the pain worse. Having the hole allows any infection an easy access to drain. You should have been given antibiotics to get rid of the infection and told to try to either get it pulled or have the root canal done. Many offices no longer work on patients who are in pain, because this usually means you have an infection. If you received any work you would not get numb and this is why many offices give antibiotics and reschedule treatment. However, if root canal is out of your budget an extraction is much cheaper, but will cost to replace later. Get a loan or something similar.

The minimum treatment that needs to be done on a painful tooth that needs a root canal is an extirpation and temporary filling. An extirpation is basically removal of the nerve from the pulp chamber and root canals of a tooth. This on top of a temporary filling put to cover up the access hole from the root canal should get you out of most pain and hold for a few weeks.

Ideally if you had the funds you would want to get a full root canal therapy, meaning that you have the canals filled where the nerve used to be and then have temporary material filled in it until a crown could be fabricated as a permenant material. Having an unfilled extirpated tooth for long periods of time may only lead to more problems later on, but it is a good temporary solution to resolve pain and infection.