Should I visit the dentist?

For a while now my tooth has been on and off with pain. The pain isn't that bad, its actually more light a light throb every now and then but it was the same roughly a year ago, before I crowned it. I remember I ignored it back then, and a few hours later it started getting worse and worse, until it became the worse toothache ever.

Because of that I'm really wary of my toothache this time around, but I'm wondering if going to the dentist is a really good idea since it usually costs a lot. I took Ibuprofen already, have been for the past two days, but the occasional pain is still there. Almost as if the medicine wasn't affecting it at all.

So should I visit?