Wisdom tooth scratching cheek

i've just been through an extremely painful wisdom tooth removal and the ortho who did it had some ,,, lets say interesting business practices . the numbing shots they gave me didnt work nearly as long as they promised (lasted for less than 24 hrs when they guaranteed it would last three whole days) , they gave me no warnings of what symptoms would be normal or not during healing which has led to me spiraling while looking up every individual symptom on the internet , and they lied to my face about class action lawsuits made against the manufacturer for said defective numbing shots .
overall i feel very medically neglected , been in constant pain and suffering the past week and my whole family thinks im just some insane conspiracy theorist for thinking my treatment was off . i have to flush out the extraction sites after every meal and it causes me excruciating pain since im shooting water directly onto the exposed nerves . this is the worst physical pain i have ever felt and my family can only be annoyed at me about it . im so sad and tired .
i just want them to admit for once "yeah this situation is a little weird" because i have felt like every time ive gone in to see this ortho im rushed in and out and my concerns are always immediately shot down and im basically told "you dont know anything" . i seriously am starting to feel like maybe i am crazy . what am i doing that makes my family feel the need to go as far as defend this ortho ? like we dont even know this man yet my family has sworn loyalty to him and has basically told me to my face im overreacting . i just dont get it . kinda wish i wasnt here anymore if im being honest . no one will listen to me :(

Is it normal to have severe pain post filling? I got tooth 30 & 31 filled yesterday. Tooth 30 was a 2 surface and 31 was a 3 surface. I’ve had a lot of dental work done and haven’t felt this kind of pain since having my abscessed wisdom tooth removed.
I know that the gum line and where the anesthetic is placed is normally tender for a few days, but this doesn’t feel like it normally does. Should I be concerned and contact my dentist?
He has already done 7 other fillings and had ZERO pain afterwords minus some tenderness.

I went to get two fillings yesterday and they mentioned trying not to make that flap bleed. I've had it for a a WHILE due to impacted wisdom teeth but never gave me any major issues. I guess I might've gotten a cavity there so they went under it? I'm honestly not quite sure what other tooth they could've filled to mess the flap up, but now it feels disgusting. It feels like it's going to fall off but with how it's attached I feel like it's not going to. Whenever I swallow or spit or anything like that I can feel it moving a lot- what the hell am I supposed to do?

Last week on Thursday, I had three wisdom teeth removed at the age of 35. Everything went well, and I had practically no pain and only minimal swelling. The only issue started Saturday afternoon, when I started experience some extremely unpleasant GI symptoms. I went to a local urgent care office Sunday evening, where the doctor concluded that my issues were likely caused by the 3x daily amoxicillin I had been prescribed post-surgery. he advised me to discontinue the amoxicillin and start taking probiotics.
I called the oral surgeon's office to follow up and let them know that I had discontinued the amoxicillin. I was a little bit concerned about infection in one socket, as it was the one that held the tooth that had been causing me issues in the first place and seemed to be a little swollen. The office decided to schedule me for a post-op just to check for any infection.
There's a chance that my oral surgeon will want to put me back on antibiotics, but the experience I had after this recent round of amoxicillin was just horrific. I can't go through that again. I want to advocate for myself, but I don't know what my options are. Is there anything that would be easier on my terrible digestive system? Thank you so much.

Hi, 25M and 82KG relatively healthy. Through my childhood up until 17 I was 114KG.
Dec 2021 I experienced taste and smell disturbance where everything tasted rotten. No explanation after going to ENT they couldn’t find a cause for it.
Fast forward about July 2022 I experienced the most painful pains in my back (middle back pain) but it was almost like nerve pains. These pains lasted days where I would experience severe headaches also. By this point the taste and smell difference had practically disappeared. Every food and every chemical tasted/smelled the exact same. All had the exact same rotten taste and/or smell. Now I notice the only thing that I cannot have due to the taste is mango flavoured things although I’m able to eat a fresh mango. Very random, I know.
CT/MRI of my head revealed nothing. X-ray of my spine, 2 chest X-rays also revealed nothing. Currently waiting for MRI with contrast of my neck to come back as well as a stool sample.
January 2022 I started to have blood test after blood test and everything seemed okay.
15th July 2023 my bloods showed everything being in range and all okay and then 31st July 2023 a spike on some things including:
AST went to 109u/l ALT went to 169u/l ALBUMIN dropped from 45 to 41 g/l TOTAL PROTEIN dropped 73 to 68g/l CRP dropped 4 to 2mg/l MCHC 346g/l RDW 13.8% to 14.3% LYMPHOCYTES 3.4 - 10*9L EOSINOPHILS dropped 0.2 to 0.1
By 22nd Sept 2022 these had all practically gone back to normal levels although once everything returned, my BILLIRUBIN started to creep up and hasn’t stopped.
31st July 2023 21 µmol/L 17th August it dropped to 16 µmol/L 4th Sept 27 µmol/L 22nd Sept 25 µmol/L 31st Oct 32 µmol/L 1st May 2024 39 µmol/L 6th May 2024 42 µmol/L
My first noticeable symptoms Dec ‘22/Jan ‘23:
inflamed lymph nodes in my neck and one behind my right ear which have not got bigger nor have they gone down. They’re not huge but I can feel them and couldn’t before.
Dry mouth and left side of my tongue feels odd to the point I had my wisdom tooth removed but it made no difference
Taste and smell differences (as mentioned above)
I also get a rash on the left of my chest that doesn’t itch but presents in the same place everytime. This started a day after my MRI of my head
Middle of 2023 I noticed my neck and back muscles are tense, my neck feels quite solid on the sides and I have shoulder pain both sides but only really when pressed. I have middle and lower back pain but the middle pain feels more like nerves
Occasional blood in stool
Extreme fatigue which came on suddenly Feb 2024 and I’ve never experienced anything like it. I wake up and I’m okay for about 1 hour and then I notice my eyes get so tired and I just want to sleep. As the evening comes I feel so exhausted and then when I’m in bed I seem to be okay although still tired, it’s comfortable laying down and resting and that’s all I seem to want to do. Work is horrific and I notice I have to constantly sit down and rest. I get lightheaded/dizzy spells which are difficult to explain. I’ve had pressure in the back of my head on my occipital nerves although 4 optician appointments and nothing.
1st Oct 2023 I noticed my poo was different, sometimes finding undigested food and what looked like mucus. Stools were looser than normal and by November I was finding that my stools had what looked like colour was leaking from them. Almost every bowel movement had an orange colour around it. Throughout this I noticed every so often my stool was flat/ribbon like.
Now almost every bowel movement has undigested food and the last 3 weeks I’ve been extremely constipated, so suddenly! My poo is dry, what I would describe as grainy.
My urine is darker than usual, I force myself to drink loads of water and this makes it a normal colour although in the morning it is really orange!
My vision has been getting worse the last 6-12 months and I often find myself rubbing my eyes to focus on whatever it is I’m looking at. (After opticians there was no significant difference in vision)
I also have experienced acid reflux which was originally diagnosed as GERD with my first visit to the Dr. Medication did not improve this and so I stopped taking it. ENT checked my throat and after a visual inspection said he doesn’t thing it’s throat cancer although I’ve said all along I’ve got symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer but the answer my Dr had to all of these results was ‘pancreatic cancer usually involved diarrhoea not constipation’
I’ve changed my diet to only drinking water and some squash here and there, eating more fruits and veg with more health proteins and cooking more than I was. Haven’t really been eating a lot of sugar the last 2 weeks although I’ve not noticed any difference yet.
My Dr has said they won’t rule it out but also are not ordering more scans etc until the other one is done. I’m booked for ultrasound on my liver which was an urgent referral and a 2 week wait but it’s not with contrast?!
I don’t know what else to do because no matter what I say to them they just aren’t phased. It seems I tell them one thing and they order scans for a different organ. What’s your thoughts?

Hi all. I think I have oily type skin, maybe combo, but the kind of acne I get is like small little pustules usually around my cheek bones and the corner of my forehead. I also tend to get them under my jaw line below the ear. They're not huge zits, but small enough that even scratching them accidentally causes the entire area to go fire-red.
Recently, I've tried taking better care of my skin again by drinking more water, making an effort to include more fruit and veg in my diet, and by washing my face in the morning. For context, I shower before bed and do my skincare (witch hazel, moisturizer) after my shower. In the morning, I still feel clean so I don't usually wash my face then though I've been trying to because everywhere I look says you should. The problem is that when I do, I feel like I only end up looking worse afterwards! Suddenly little spots I didn't even know were there are all red and causing my face to look a mess, even though it wasn't too noticeable beforehand!
I don't know if its the way I'm washing my face (I usually just wet wash cloth with warm water and GENTLY wipe over my face) but even when I use plain dove soap it still makes every single blemish flare up. If the price of washing my face in the morning is coming into work with every blemish bright and on display, is it really even worth it??

Hello, looking for advice on whether it's worth seeking another dentist to save my tooth or there's no hope for it. I had an impacted wisdom tooth I finally removed a few years ago. I went to the dentist yesterday and she advised that I have a cavity below my gumline and I want to say bone? She said the tooth couldn't be saved and gave me a few referrals to some oral surgeons. I'm really bummed because overall my teeth are in great condition and she said that this is something that could be totally preventable if my parents would've had my wisdom teeth removed when I was younger. She said her best guess is the oral surgeon would possibly have to do a bone graft? due to how close the back molar is to my jaw bone and will need an implant and then crown. Does this sound accurate or is it worth seeking another dentist's opinion? I do have dental insurance but still worried about the pain/healing time and costs for something like this. Thank you for taking the time to read!

Hi AskDentist! Seeking some advice/confirmation of a diagnosis I received.
Dentist informed me that I have 12 cavities in all of my molars in all quadrants. They said I have it on 3 surfaces: occlusal (the actual biting part), lingual (the one facing tongue), and facial (the one showing when you smile). They have my treatment plan for 12 fillings with code D2393 (Resin-3 surface + post-perm).
I don't know anything about dentistry and am unsure how much information X-Rays really hold without an actual visual inspection of the teeth (pardon my ignorance!). But, just by looking at these X-Rays, would you be inclined to agree with this diagnosis?
Additionally, as a general question, how severe would you say this tooth decay is? Are any teeth close to needing a root canal? Any information/perspective is deeply appreciated, thank you so much!!
More about me:

• I drink socially, maximum 1 drink per month.
• I do not smoke, nor do I use recreational drugs
• Had an eating disorder for most of my teen years
• Improper dental hygiene for most of my teen years
• I now brush twice a day, mouthwash twice. Still inconsistent with flossing but try to do it when I remember.
• Have mild temperature sensitivity in my bottom quadrants. No pain yet.
• Teeth have crowding.
• Wisdom teeth had grown in with pain and inflammation, never sought dental care for those issues. Now, they've all emerged, but the bottom left wisdom tooth is partially covered by gum.

I know I need a dentist appt, but meanwhile waiting for it: is sensitive teeth/tooth pain a postpartum thing? When I eat ice cream, drink cold water etc my teeth just hurt sometimes. It also might be that I have new wisdom tooth coming out, which has previously made my teeth sensitive all over.

Hello,
I've been searching for a dental clinic that does "zenshin masui" aka General Anesthesia for Wisdom Tooth removal.
So far I've contacted 10 clinics or so, none of them offer it.
Tldr: Looking for dentals clinics (private) that offer wisdom tooth extraction under General Anesthesia in Fukuoka.

So I was born with a missing adult lower first premolar (#45), and I recently (I am 21) got the baby tooth that was still there extracted after retaining it for all my life (was causing a lot of complications).
I now have 2 options to fix the gap. Either:

1. Upper and lower Invisalign combined with a fixed protraction mesial slider attached to micro-implants (TADs).

This is to move all the molars (including wisdom tooth) and premolar behind forward to fill the gap and with no further extractions. The 2 wisdom teeth on the other side will remain as is and functional, with the top premolar on the side of this case remaining but not functional anymore. This procedure is also much longer than the 2nd option and more complicated.

1. Fixed braces to upright the 2 crooked teeth surrounding the gap and open space for a dental implant.

This is the simpler of the two; however, I am concerned with the long-term longevity of these artificial appliances and it seems like it could be more trouble than it is worth due to the need to keep the implant in excellent condition as the risks of failure increase over time (which can cause bone loss due to peri-implantitis, etc.)
What do you guys think? Which option would you guys pick regardless of cost/procedure time. I am mainly concerned with the long term longevity of the results and health that any of these treatments provide.
Thank you

Hey folks,
Looking for some friendly advice from the techy folks here!
YOE: ~6
Studies: Btech CSE from a tier 3 college
Working as: Presales/Delivery
Monthly Salary: 1.5L
Mode: Working from office
TLDR; Wanting to switch to a tech role to meet my long-term career and financial goals and want some guidance to kick-start my learning journey. 6 YOE in Presales/Delivery and Product Management and now rethinking career choices. Need help to select the next career path, should I think about becoming a full stack developer, cloud engineer or something else.
So, here's the scoop: I've been cruising through the semi-tech world for about 6 years now after getting my B.Tech in CS from a not-so-glamorous college in MP. My college was more about CS theory than actual coding and I was also interested in semi-tech roles like presales/ customer success etc.
Started off as a Presales engineer (semi-tech role) in a big shot Storage MNC in Bengaluru, doing all sorts of fancy(haha !) stuff like quoting, sizing, and drawing data of data centres. Got a few certifications along the way like ISM, but I soon realized I was stuck in a bubble of boredom and no learning. So, I took a leap into a startup, hoping for some SaaS/Cloud action. Turned out, it was more like a secret society with a proprietary solution – cue the NDA! Which I did not sign as my role didn’t require knowing the core solution.

Fast forward I asked to be moved into product management (where I was pretty much self-taught) and boy was it a roller coaster ride, I delivered multiple products from scratch which are now live in the market. My ride stopped after one day a new director of products came and wanted to bring his old PM pals with him.

and now I'm back in the presales/delivery support grind. It's not exactly thrilling, and I can't help but envy my friends who started with tech roles while I was busy preaching against the likes of CTS and TCS (Karma!). They all are settled in their roles and have solid skills whereas all I have is a bunch of soft skills like client communication, project management etc :P

Now, with the company hitting financial potholes, it's time for me to dust off the ol' resume and start hunting. But here's the kicker: I'm terrified of interviews! I feel like I'm still living under a rock, clueless about what's happening outside my bubble.
If I make a switch now, I will get in to similar role and this story above might repeat again.

So, here I am, seeking your wisdom. Where do I even begin? I want to transition in to a tech role to have better freedom and flexibility like a hybrid working model and freelancing.
What can I look into, Full-stack developer? Cloud engineer? Or is there something else out there that's worth looking into?
Hit me up with your best advice, or just a virtual high-five if you have reached till here.
Thanks and Cheers!

So I was born with a missing adult lower first premolar (#45), and I recently (I am 21) got the baby tooth that was still there extracted after retaining it for all my life (was causing a lot of complications).
I now have 2 options to fix the gap. Either:

1. Upper and lower Invisalign combined with a fixed protraction mesial slider attached to micro-implants (TADs).

This is to move all the molars (including wisdom tooth) and premolar behind forward to fill the gap and with no further extractions. The 2 wisdom teeth on the other side will remain as is and functional, with the top premolar on the side of this case remaining but not functional anymore. This procedure is also much longer than the 2nd option and more complicated.

1. Fixed braces to upright the 2 crooked teeth surrounding the gap and open space for a dental implant.

This is the simpler of the two; however, I am concerned with the long-term longevity of these artificial appliances and it seems like it could be more trouble than it is worth due to the need to keep the implant in excellent condition as the risks of failure increase over time (which can cause bone loss due to peri-implantitis, etc.)
What do you guys think? Will the first option still be good enough to maintain my jawbone density and avoid affecting my facial shape? I doubt extracting the baby tooth would have affected my bone density negatively as there was actually significant bone loss under it which caused it to sink (hence why I got it removed).
Edit: I would also like to note that I am not really concerned with the cost/procedure time. I am mainly concerned with the long term longevity of the results and health that any of these treatments provide.

There are some kinds of wisdom only great suffering can bring. I remember my time in the Bardo with this in mind, for otherwise, the memory might drive me insane.
The night my heart stopped for nearly three minutes started off normally enough. I was working as a nurse in the psychiatric ward at a hospital in the state’s capital. Most of the patients there were harmless, mostly just suicide attempts or people suffering from drug psychosis or severe depression, but some were actively dangerous and certainly psychopathic in every sense of the word. The new admission was one of these- a three-hundred pound black man with a long history of smoking PCP, schizophrenia and violent, psychotic breaks from reality.
His eyes looked like flat pieces of slate as I walked in for my shift. They looked as blank and emotionless as the eyes of a doll. He sat at the table in the front room where the patients ate or played cards, alone under the bright fluorescent lights of the hospital. I walked to the station, where another psychiatric nurse named Ricardo was sitting behind the desk.
“What’s the deal with the new guy?” I asked him. Ricardo looked up, his dark Spanish face forming into a deep scowl. He ran his fingers through his jet-black hair nervously.
“He’s trouble, man,” he said in a crisp accent. “He got in a chase with the police and then punched some cops in the face. It took three guys to take him down, even after he got maced and tased. The judge sent him here on a temporary court order, since he claims he’s been getting chased by Nazis in UFOs, and that’s why he ran from the cops. He thought the cops in their uniforms were actually the SS, and the helicopters were alien spacecraft, or something. I don’t know, I didn’t listen to the whole story.”
“You have his file?” I asked. Ricardo leafed through a stack of folders with his thin fingers, snatching one out and handing it to me. I looked down, reading the information:
“Jeremiah Brown, black male, 37-years-old.
“History: Polysubstance abuse, schizophrenia, antisocial personality disorder.
“Psychiatrist’s note: This patient has scored a 36 out of 40 on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. While I am always hesitant to label a patient as an antisocial personality, a combination of factors has made it essential for this patient.
“Patient has an extensive criminal history as well as a lengthy history of involuntary psychiatric admissions. He has been diagnosed as having antisocial traits since he was a young teenager. Patient has a long history of violence and suicide attempts. He has a history of imprisonment for manslaughter, armed robbery, grand theft and aggravated assault. Upon discharge, he refuses to take any antipsychotic medication, citing the side effects as the reason. Long-term prognosis is poor…”
I had not been sleeping well the past few weeks. I rubbed my eyes as I read through the file, feeling exhausted. I tried putting on lucid dreaming or meditation music from YouTube to help me sleep, but whenever I closed my eyes, I saw horrible things: chalk-white female faces whose lips were cut into an insane rictus grin, flicking their heads violently from side to side and gnashing their fangs at the air. I had a feeling that many years of constantly watching horror movies and serial killer documentaries was catching up with me.
As I read through the file, a student nurse came around the corner wearing a white state university outfit and a name tag that said Kaitlyn. I looked up, seeing Ricardo wink at me from where he was sitting in his chair behind the main desk.
“She’s going to follow you,” he said. Inwardly, I groaned, but I managed to force a smile.
“Oh, great!” I said. She looked like she was probably no older than nineteen or twenty. She had a pretty body, but her face looked strange. All the angles were too sharp and her nose too large. I knew the patients here wouldn’t care, though. They would hit on anything. I sensed trouble. I looked down at my watch.
“Well, I’m Jay, and you already know Ricardo, I guess. It’s good timing, because we need to give medications every day at 9 PM. And we have a new patient, so we can introduce ourselves,” I said, giving her a faint smile.
“That’s exciting!” Kaitlyn whispered. I wanted to roll my eyes. It was definitely not exciting.
I motioned her to follow me as I made my way to the medication room, which was really just a large closet off of the main day room. I had to enter my code on a keypad, and then, once inside, enter it again along with the patient’s number and date of birth. The correct drawers for the medication in each specific dose would fly open, making it extremely hard for the wrong medications or doses to be given, unless it was done intentionally.
“OK, so for this patient, we need Haldol, Ativan and…” I began saying to Kaitlyn when the yelling started. It came out faintly, rising in volume and anger within seconds. I heard Ricardo’s Spanish voice, filled with panic. Something slammed hard against a wall, once, twice, three times, and then I heard the sound of glass breaking. I jumped, spinning around, but I couldn’t see much through the small, shatter-proof glass pane on the wooden door.
“Stay here,” I commanded, seeing Kaitlyn’s eyes widen, her freckled skin looking much paler than when we had first come in. “Don’t leave until I come back and say that it’s safe.” On the speakers strung throughout the hospital, I heard the first of the warnings echo out around us.
“Doctor Strong, Doctor Strong, please report to the seventh floor,” a robotic female voice said calmly, using the code for when a patient had to be subdued by force. I pushed the door open, slamming it shut behind me so that the lock would activate and protect Kaitlyn from whatever chaos was going on.
I heard Ricardo pleading with someone at the end of the hallway that ran past the main desk. He sounded strange, as if he were trying to talk through a mouthful of blood. Huddled behind the main computer, I saw one of the CNAs frantically whispering something in the phone. She must have been the one to call the Dr. Strong order.
“You don’t have to do this, man,” Ricardo gurgled faintly. I couldn’t see what was happening, as Jeremiah’s large body was blocking my view. I could see that the thick glass window at the end of the hallway was broken, however. My heart skipped a beat as I surmised what was likely happening.
I sprinted forward as quietly as I could, but the large man heard me. His massive body turned, his flat, dead eyes scanning me with absolute coldness and calm. I saw he had a bleeding Ricardo in his hands. Ricardo’s back and head were covered in deep cuts and shards of glass. He must have used Ricardo’s body as a battering ram to break the thick glass window. Jeremiah held Ricardo suspended halfway out the window, seven floors above the concrete walkways far below.
“Stay back, or this fucker will know what it feels like to fly,” Jeremiah said in a deep, gravelly voice. He shook Ricardo for emphasis, sending his head snapping back and forth with painful cracking sounds. Drops of blood flew from his nose and a deep gash across his cheek. Pieces of shattered glass littered the carpet, shining like countless tiny stars.
I put my hands up, taking a step back. Far behind me, I heard the front door for the psychiatric ward open. Voices echoed down the hall. Knowing that reinforcements were coming, I tried to buy some time.
“Let’s talk about this,” I said, taking a step forward slowly. “You don’t want a murder charge, do you? You’ll never see the sky again.”
“I don’t give a fuck! I’m not afraid to die!” Jeremiah screamed, pushing Ricardo onto one of the shards of broken glass still attached to the windowsill. It bit deeply into the back of his neck, sending fresh streams of blood rushing out, dripping down to the pavement far below. I heard security guards and doctors running down the hallway behind me, their voices frantic and excited. Jeremiah saw them coming. With an animalistic panic in his eyes, he lifted Ricardo up. I cried out something, stepping forward, but it was already too late. In horror, I watched as he threw Ricardo out the window.
I watched Ricardo’s body soar in a graceful arc, his arms grabbing at empty air as a scream ripped its way out of his throat. Within a fraction of a second, he had disappeared from view, but his terrified shrieking floated up to us for what seemed like a very long time. His screams ended abruptly as a shattering of bones and a wet smacking sound exploded far below us.
Jeremiah turned to me, his large body moving much faster than seemed possible. In his hand, I saw a piece of broken glass, five or six inches long and as sharp as a dagger. I tried to turn and run, but he was fast and strong. He lunged forward, his arm coming up in a blur towards my neck.
The shard entered my skin with a cold, numbing pain. I felt it slice through the flesh easily, felt the blood bubbling up my throat as I tried to scream, choking. The taste of iron filled my mouth as I fell backwards. I was suffocating, I knew. I must be dying.
Something cold ran down my body, gripping my heart like freezing, skeletal hands. The world swam around me and turned black. And then I was rising into a tunnel. At first, it was dark, filled with flickering shadows, but a fiery red light appeared at the end. I followed it, no more than a screaming mass of consciousness rising up into infinity.
***
I rose up through the end of the tunnel and found myself in an empty hospital ward. It looked identical to the psychiatric ward I had just come from. It even had the same smashed, blood-streaked window at the end of the hallway. A massive puddle of blood about ten feet away marked the spot where I must have died. But the fluorescent lights overhead here were flickering, and many had gone totally dark. The shadows seemed to press in on all sides.
The doors to the patients’ rooms were all tightly shut. I felt watched, afraid to call out or make any noise. I started walking down the hallway back towards the day room where the front desk was. All the lights there were out. A thick curtain of shadows hung in the air.
“You can come out,” a male voice as smooth as glass called from the darkness. I jumped, my head flicking in random directions, but I saw nothing. The voice almost sounded like it had an English lilt to it, a slight Cockneyed accent. “I know you’re there.”
“Who’s there?” I called out, not stepping forward. “Show yourself.”
“As you wish…” the voice hissed. “But I think you’ll regret it.”
***
The darkness split apart as if a nuclear missile had exploded. I raised my hand to shield my face, but the light and heat kept pouring out all around me. It blinded me, causing a rainbow of colors and shapes to morph behind my closed eyelids. After a few seconds, it subsided. Blinking rapidly, I squinted in the direction the voice had come from.
A male figure stood there, bathed in a silhouette of light. His face looked as white and as smooth as marble. His eyes were pits of darkness that seemed to flicker and burn. Two black, rotted wings surrounded his body, all sharp angles and thin, curving bones. His body was clothed in silky, blood-red robes, and a hood covered his platinum blonde hair.
He looked somewhat similar to Leonardo DiCaprio, if he was possessed by some ancient god, and it immediately threw me off-guard. If I was dying, and this was a hallucination of my brain, why would I be hallucinating Mr. DiCaprio?
“Who are you?” I asked, taking a hesitant step back. “Where am I?”
“My name is Lucifer, the Bringer of Light and Wisdom, and you are in the Bardo,” he answered.
“Oh,” I said, my heart dropping. “Well, that’s not good. Are you here to torture me or drag to me to Hell or something? You are that Lucifer, right? The Accuser of God and the Father of All Lies?”
“So they say, but, like most things in your world, the words of the powerful and your rulers are the true lies. They call me the Accuser, but of what am I accused?” he spoke in a voice that rose like smoke. “Of bringing knowledge and wisdom to humanity by telling them to eat from the tree of knowledge, the tree that would cause them to rise above the animals?
“Indeed, at the beginning, I saw the creation. I was there at the alpha, standing by the side of God with all the angels as the universe came into being. The endless procession of light, the power of it, was something remarkable to behold. God is, indeed, the source of great power, but his consciousness is not what the believers say.
“After the creation of the universe, I saw his plan, how he ripped eternal souls from the source to imprison them. I saw how he took these divine sparks and forced them, screaming and wailing, into bodies made of meat to die over and over again. He said it was part of the plan, the great, divine plan, a plan of death and destruction, constant suffering and mindless agony. And the worst part was, he wanted to give humanity neither the knowledge of good and evil, nor the tree of life. I convinced them to eat the fruit so they could open their eyes to their nakedness, to their basic animal existence, so they could rise up out of it forever.
“Like Prometheus, I brought down the fire, and yet they call me the Accuser? God was insane long before he formed the universe. These holy men, they live and die in fanatical adoration to a divine being who is, in fact, totally indifferent to them.
“His consciousness twists and distorts, eating itself for all eternity. God feeds off the pain of others, for if his mind is burning, then all others should burn as well. When these holy men die, God will send their souls here to the Bardo, to suffer every evil they have ever done. The wisdom I brought those who called upon me freed them from this prison, and in exchange, the holy men burned them alive. I offered the wisdom that opens your eyes, but it has been forgotten and cursed.”
Lucifer’s body began to dissolve, drifting up into the air like ashes. All around me, a low, powerful current blew, a tornado that spiraled high up into the clouds. Like some sort of Cheshire Cat, his smooth voice continued to echo all around me, even as the form of Lucifer disappeared.
“And yet, you have not the wisdom. For that, like all the others who enter the Bardo, you must suffer, everything you’ve done. Every small hurt and agony inflicted on others comes back a thousand-fold in this place, but don’t be afraid.”
“How could I not be afraid?!” I screamed into the ward, but I found myself alone, the question hanging unanswered in the air.
***
The lights continued to flicker all down the hallway. Feeling strange and dissociated, I stumbled over to one of the windows. As I gazed out, I beheld a strange and alien world.
The sky was flat and gray. It stayed in constant motion, swirling and spiraling, like clouds of roiling smoke. There was no Sun or Moon, no stars, only the strange, shifting whorls of clouds. The streets were filled with burned-out husks of cars and mummified bodies hung from streetlamps. Other signs of carnage and bloodshed covered the apocalyptic streets. I saw what looked like shadows in the shape of people slinking through over the sidewalks, past rotting dogs and streaks of clotted blood. They had no features on their blank, dark bodies. They seemed to skitter and jerk forwards in eerie, twisting motions.
Horrified, I turned away, realizing I was no longer alone in the day room. In the day room, there were dozens of tables set up inside a rectangular perimeter that was walled in by cosmetic walls only four feet high. It was where the patients sat and played games or ate.
Under the flickering lights, I now saw each of the chairs filled with faceless mannequins. Many were dressed in Victorian suits and tophats. The women had frilly dresses of pink and blue that might have been fashionable in the 1800s.
As the lights strobed on and off overhead, I realized with an increasing sense of disquiet that the mannequins were moving each time it went dark. When I had first seen them, they were mostly posed to look like they were staring across the tables at each other, even though they had no eyes, just smooth, flesh-colored plastic. Now all of them were looking directly at me. Some were pointing or raising their hands in my direction. At the tips of their fingers, I saw the glittering of steel. The lights continued to flicker, and the mannequins rose from their chairs in the short periods of darkness, moving towards me in synchronized, strobing motions.
Frantically, I ran down the hallway back towards the broken window. In each of the rooms, I caught glimpses of something from a nightmare peeking out. I hadn’t been sleeping well lately, and when I had closed my eyes, I often saw ancient hags with chalk-white skin and yellowed, broken teeth whose jaws unhinged, their faces jerking in stuttering, dissonant ways that reminded me of the mannequins. Now, on both sides of me, I saw these same figures. They moved continuously out of the rooms, drawing closer with every breath.
I looked back, seeing the mannequins only a few steps behind me. I continued sprinting towards the broken window where the hallway ended in a wall. I didn’t know what would happen when I reached it. At that moment, there was no rational thought. I felt like a deer being chased down by a pack of wolves, feeling waves of blind panic and mortal terror rushing through my body.
But as I reached the end of the hallway, the end of my rope as it were, a blast of noise started, seeming to come from the walls of the building and the sky itself. It sounded like a siren, a low, drawn-out drone of a demonic whale call, rising and falling in crashing crescendos. The mannequins froze in place once again. The strange, witch-like creatures slunk back into the dark rooms.
I looked outside the broken window, seeing clouds of black smoke rising off in the distance. The flickering of massive infernos scorched the land, drawing nearer by the second. The siren sound faded slowly, like the dying echoes of a gong.
I was surrounded by dozens of mannequins. Their sharp hands were inches away from my face and neck. I saw metal glittering all around me and realized they had the sharp points of nails protruding from the ends of their fingers. I was afraid to move, but I heard a familiar voice from down the hallway. It was the confident voice of Lucifer.
“The siren means much worse nightmares than these are coming in the Bardo,” he said, his glossy, black eyes flashing with intelligence. He walked slowly towards me, his face grim and pale. “Hell itself is coming over the land. This building is no more than a construction of your dying mind, but the world outside is real.”
“How can Hell come and go?” I asked, confused. “Isn’t Hell a place?”
“Hell is a monster, a beast with many mouths and many eyes,” Lucifer responded. “It eats constantly, but its hunger never ends. Look, the first of the sacrifices scatter like cockroaches.” He pointed out the broken window, pushing his way through the mannequins effortlessly. I glanced outside, seeing thousands of people sprinting down the dark city streets. The inferno and thick clouds of smoke had moved much closer, and every few seconds, the ground shook slightly, as if we were experiencing the aftershocks of an earthquake.
“What can I do against such a beast?” I asked, my heart freezing with terror. But when I looked back over, I saw his form dissolving again, becoming translucent and drifting away like ashes. It seemed even Lucifer didn’t want to be present when the Hell-beast arrived.
“Seek divine wisdom,” he said, his voice trailing off into whispers. “Remember the source.”
***
Now crowds of tens of thousands of people were streaming into the city, filling every single inch of the streets. Their panic and fear was contagious. I felt it rising inside my body like a snake spiraling up my spine. I took off down the hallway, running through the swarm of frozen mannequins, each in their own ferocious position of attack. The lights flickered faster and went out. Yet the fires outside cast the entire world in a bloody glow, giving me enough light to see by and find my way. I sprinted down the stairwell, taking them two steps at a time. The screaming outside grew louder and more pain-filled. The shaking of the ground worsened with every passing second.
I burst out of the front entrance, seeing a world on fire all around me. Thousands of crushed, bleeding and burned bodies stretched out as far as the eye could see. Behind all this chaos and death, I saw a monster of unimaginable proportions slinking its way towards me.
Lucifer was right, I realized: Hell was not a place, but a creature, an enormous monster the size of a town. It had thousands of skittering, jointed legs that looked like little more than skeletal arms and hands, each of them dozens of feet long and white as freshly-cut marble. Its body stretched out to the horizon, an enormous blood-red cylinder of bony plates that slithered and undulated with a serpentine grace. Waves of peristalsis traveled down its length, like writhing intestines. Thousands of curving, bony spikes stabbed out of it, pointing in every direction. Like the quills of a porcupine, it would protect the massive creature’s body from many forms of attack, if anything was big enough to attack such an abomination.
Hell’s massive eyes flickered, balls of fire that spun and danced. They looked as bright as the Sun. Something like solar flares seemed to emanate from the orbs, flashes of blinding energy that floated over the apocalyptic wasteland. As its many legs smashed the ground, they left trails of fire that caused everything to explode into flames as if napalm dripped from its limbs.
But Hell’s most terrifying feature was its seven dark mouths. Its body looked a thousand feet wide, and the mouths at the front were evenly dispersed. At the front, blood-red teeth in the shape of enormous railroad spikes shone. Its lipless, skeletal face grinned as it moved forward, shaking the ground with every step. The mouths were on long, snake-like necks that could stretch out hundreds of feet. They moved forward in a blur, snapping up as many panicked souls as they could.
Countless souls in the rocky plains of the Bardo ran for their lives, away from this juggernaut. I saw men and women who looked like they came from every country and profession, some dressed in suits or spotless white lab coats, others wearing rags or orange prison jumpsuits. And yet, they all screamed in agony and fear here, their bodies pressed together in a crowd, and no one seemed to remember anything but their own mortal terror. Their voices came out faint and weak next to the roaring of Hell. It shook the ground all around us, as if an earthquake were tearing the land apart.
The first frantic runners of the surging crowd had nearly reached me. The nearest person, a young woman in her mid-twenties dressed in all white, was only ten feet behind me. She looked like she came from wealth, and even from here, I could see a ring with a massive diamond gleaming on her finger.
I took off blindly down the familiar streets of the city where I worked and lived, but these also seemed different. The church down the street from the hospital where I worked had a Satanic pentagram instead of a cross now, its exterior painted a bright, gleaming blood-red. When I had driven past it today on my way to work, I remember it read, “JESUS said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
Now it read, “Nietzsche said, ‘Of all evil, I deem you capable. I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good simply because they had no claws.’” I wondered what that meant. Was that some sort of comment on me, on all of us here?
The woman I had seen running had caught up with me. She was fast, much faster than her slim body suggested. Her blue eyes were frantic and wild, filled with an animal panic.
“It’s right behind us!” she screamed, her face covered in a sheen of sweat. I was afraid to turn and look, but I could hear the chaos and bloodshed approaching, smell the flames and choking smoke. “Run! Get away!”
A new wave of energy surged through my body. I sprinted as fast I could down the strange mirror streets of the Bardo. I heard the agonized cries of countless souls behind us as the seven mouths of Hell ate them all greedily and then looked for more.
A skyscraper behind us collapsed into a pile of rubble, shaking the ground with a cacophony of falling concrete and shattering glass. The woman was running by my side. Just as I heard the breathing of something huge and predatory right behind us and smelled its sulfuric breath, a piece of concrete the size of a basketball broke off the collapsing skyscraper and flew into the road. I tripped over it, yelling as I flew through the air, skinning my arms and legs on the pavement. The woman’s eyes widened. Hurriedly, she came over and reached down her hand, trying to help me up.
“Come on, come on!” she cried. I looked behind her, seeing one of the gnashing mouths of Hell reaching forward on a blood-red, serpentine neck. The mouth was big enough to drive a tractor trailer into, filled with huge spikes of teeth. Its throat led into a black, smoke-filled abyss. Its fiery eyes were swirling pools of flickering orange light that shone with bloodlust and insanity. They focused on the woman, the entire head turning on its slithering neck.
I frantically raised my hand, intertwining my fingers with hers. Her hand was warm and soft. She started to pull me to my feet when the mouth of Hell snapped forward. Its jaw unhinged, scraping the pavement with a sound like grinding metal. The woman barely had time to turn as the mouth covered her and snapped shut with a crack.
She disappeared from view instantly, but I was still holding her hand. In horror, I felt warm rivers of blood explode all over my body as the mouth of Hell severed her arm at the wrist. She screamed, bleeding and crying, as she disappeared into the throat of Hell. Hell’s fiery eyes focused on me, and at that moment, I knew I was next. Its mouth opened wide again, like a bear trap ready to spring on a new victim.
It was dark in Hell’s mouth, but I smelled the thick reek of old blood and fire. I caught glimpses of tortured, mutilated bodies writhing and crawling down its throat. Shell-shocked, I could only lay there and watch. And that was when the strange doubling started.
***
I heard the frantic voices of men break through the fog of darkness and the fetid reek of blood. There was a mechanical beeping all around me, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
“Clear!” one cried. I looked around, only seeing blackness. At that moment, I felt a surge of electricity rip itself through my body. My arms and legs all seized and my eyes rolled up in my head as the pain sizzled through each one of my nerves. I clutched the young woman’s hand tightly, feeling the large, gold ring with the massive diamond biting into my skin.
“Again!” another voice yelled.
“Clear!” the original voice cried. The electricity came again, and a flash of white light flew across my vision. I blinked, seeing from two sets of eyes at the same time: one in the Bardo, and one on the blood-stained floor of the hospital ward.
The Bardo stayed dark and sinister, but the clear white lights of the real psychiatric ward were blinding. It was a bizarre experience. Moreover, everything hurt. Over a few seconds, my vision of the Bardo faded, and I was simply a gravely injured man laying on the floor in a puddle of blood.
Four doctors and paramedics were crouching over me with a defibrillator. My shirt was ripped off, and nearly all of my skin was covered in blood. I raised my left hand, trying to talk, but only a fiery pain raced through my neck. I felt bandages covering my skin. A nurse was rolling a stretcher down the hallway towards me.
“It’s OK,” one of the doctors said, kneeling down. “You’re being taken to emergency surgery. You’ve lost a lot of blood.” I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t talk with the massive slice in my neck.
At that moment, I felt something in my right hand. I looked down, seeing a slim female hand with a massive diamond ring hanging there. Our fingers were wrapped around each other’s, but the hand had been cut off at the wrist. A ragged patch of bloody flesh and snapped bone poked out of the back.
“Nnnn,” I tried to say, shaking my head. I felt fresh streams of warm blood open up. “No…” The doctors looked down, seeing the dismembered hand. Their faces morphed into expressions of confusion and fear.
I closed my eyes as they lifted me up on the stretcher. One of them gently removed the cold hand from my fingers. But they could never remove the memory of what I had seen.
I know what happens after death, and it makes the worst life here seem like a dream. I know that, one day, I’ll be returned to that place. I know that, one day, I’ll see that great monster called Hell and the featureless, swirling sky of the Bardo again.
And the next time, I won’t wake up on a hospital floor, but will be trapped there with the others for eternity: an eternity of blood and fire.

Hello, I would like to describe my current health issue to you, including my hypotheses about what might be causing it. I would like to hear your opinions on what it might be and how I should proceed. Keep in mind that I am already undergoing medical consultations and will have more, but so far, I have not reached a conclusion, so I would like as many opinions as possible.
If you need more information, feel free to ask.
For about two years, I have been experiencing facial pain and throat inflammation. I have never had these issues before. They started occurring after I had COVID-19, and I'm not sure if this is coincidental or a consequence of the virus. Initially, these pains were infrequent and mild, but in the past few months, they have become much more frequent and intense, significantly affecting my productivity, energy, and concentration. The pain is mostly noticeable upon waking, but sometimes it persists throughout the day. When the pain is less intense, it almost completely disappears after breakfast or lunch. However, when it is more severe, it doesn't go away at all, forcing me to rest in bed. Sometimes, even taking Tylenol does not relieve the pain.
The facial pain is located under my cheekbones, along my jaw, behind my eyes, and when it's very intense, at the center of my head just above my nose. The pain is continuous on both sides of my face and does not worsen with touch.
As for my throat, it feels like there's a constant lump at the lower part, as if it were scratched. It hurts continuously, not just when I swallow.
These pains occur year-round, regardless of the season.
Regarding medical checks and existing conditions, here are the details:

• I’ve had an eye exam, and there has been no deterioration beyond my existing myopia and astigmatism.
  
• I’ve been checked and do not have sinusitis.
  
• X-rays have shown no issues with my cervical spine.
  
• I likely clench my teeth at night and should be using a mouthguard.
  
• I need to have my wisdom teeth removed (I’ve only had one extracted so far) because they have not fully emerged and are pushing against the other teeth.
  
• I am allergic to dust mites.
  
• I have L4-S1 discopathy.
  
• Blood tests for thyroid issues showed no problems.
  
• I am currently on a treatment of Nicetile 500mg (L-acetylcarnitine HCl) under the assumption it might address nerve inflammation post-COVID, but there have been no changes after 15 days.
  

These issues also cause poor sleep quality. Despite sleeping for 7-8 hours, I wake up feeling tired and as if I need more rest, even if I did not exert myself physically or mentally the previous day.
From the beginning of May onwards, I experienced two weeks where every day I had a sore throat, headaches, and excessive tiredness, despite having taken antihistamines and cortisone spray for more than 20 days in April. I had a flu in early May and felt very ill; all symptoms (sore throat, cold, headache) were amplified and kept me in bed for several days, as if I had COVID. Even after the flu passed, I continued to experience throat lumps and headaches, along with excessive tiredness that rest did not alleviate.
I maintain a fairly balanced diet and engage in regular physical activity. I am physically at a normal weight.
My hypotheses:

• Depression/anxiety
  
• Sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia, or hypersomnia
  
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
  
• Long COVID
  
• Symptoms of a dust mite allergy
  
• Dental malocclusion and teeth grinding at night
  

Thank you to anyone who provides suggestions.

Hello, I would like to describe my current health issue to you, including my hypotheses about what might be causing it. I would like to hear your opinions on what it might be and how I should proceed. Keep in mind that I am already undergoing medical consultations and will have more, but so far, I have not reached a conclusion, so I would like as many opinions as possible.
If you need more information, feel free to ask.
For about two years, I have been experiencing facial pain and throat inflammation. I have never had these issues before. They started occurring after I had COVID-19, and I'm not sure if this is coincidental or a consequence of the virus. Initially, these pains were infrequent and mild, but in the past few months, they have become much more frequent and intense, significantly affecting my productivity, energy, and concentration. The pain is mostly noticeable upon waking, but sometimes it persists throughout the day. When the pain is less intense, it almost completely disappears after breakfast or lunch. However, when it is more severe, it doesn't go away at all, forcing me to rest in bed. Sometimes, even taking Tylenol does not relieve the pain.
The facial pain is located under my cheekbones, along my jaw, behind my eyes, and when it's very intense, at the center of my head just above my nose. The pain is continuous on both sides of my face and does not worsen with touch.
As for my throat, it feels like there's a constant lump at the lower part, as if it were scratched. It hurts continuously, not just when I swallow.
These pains occur year-round, regardless of the season.
Regarding medical checks and existing conditions, here are the details:

• I’ve had an eye exam, and there has been no deterioration beyond my existing myopia and astigmatism.
  
• I’ve been checked and do not have sinusitis.
  
• X-rays have shown no issues with my cervical spine.
  
• I likely clench my teeth at night and should be using a mouthguard.
  
• I need to have my wisdom teeth removed (I’ve only had one extracted so far) because they have not fully emerged and are pushing against the other teeth.
  
• I am allergic to dust mites.
  
• I have L4-S1 discopathy.
  
• Blood tests for thyroid issues showed no problems.
  
• I am currently on a treatment of Nicetile 500mg (L-acetylcarnitine HCl) under the assumption it might address nerve inflammation post-COVID, but there have been no changes after 15 days.
  

These issues also cause poor sleep quality. Despite sleeping for 7-8 hours, I wake up feeling tired and as if I need more rest, even if I did not exert myself physically or mentally the previous day.
From the beginning of May onwards, I experienced two weeks where every day I had a sore throat, headaches, and excessive tiredness, despite having taken antihistamines and cortisone spray for more than 20 days in April. I had a flu in early May and felt very ill; all symptoms (sore throat, cold, headache) were amplified and kept me in bed for several days, as if I had COVID. Even after the flu passed, I continued to experience throat lumps and headaches, along with excessive tiredness that rest did not alleviate.
I maintain a fairly balanced diet and engage in regular physical activity. I am physically at a normal weight.
My hypotheses:

• Depression/anxiety
  
• Sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia, or hypersomnia
  
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
  
• Long COVID
  
• Symptoms of a dust mite allergy
  
• Dental malocclusion and teeth grinding at night
  

Thank you to anyone who provides suggestions.

Watched the documentary, Root Cause, last week. My chronic fatigue, joint pains, and auto-immune issues are started to make more sense.
(For background, the doc is about how tooth extractions and root canals by conventional dentists often cause chronic infection in our mouths/bones for years that don't always cause pain or obvious symptoms. )
I had complications, and infection, after my wisdom teeth extraction 12 yrs ago. My health has subtly gotten worse since then despite years of adopting a healthier lifestyle. I also have adrenal issues which is a sign.
Has anyone gotten their jaw cavitations cleaned? Did your overall health improve?