Tag: pain

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Nightmares

Nightmare #373 – Turning Teeth

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(North America, 20’s)

Recently, my dentist informed me that I have been grinding my teeth in my sleep. Her suggestion was to have a bite splint made that I could wear in the night to protect my teeth. In my family, I have always had the best teeth; no cavities, no stains, and I always get good comments from my dentist each visit. But now I was being told that by grinding my teeth, I am slowly causing serious irreplaceable damage that could open me up to cavities and bed news in the future. In an effort to be a compliant patient, I have been doing my diligence and wearing my mouth guard every night, even though it is slightly uncomfortable and I’m not used to it yet. The other night, while wearing this stupid plastic contraption I had the following dream.

I was out of town at a professional development conference with a group of women I had vague friendships with, but no one I could pick out really. One morning when I woke up in my hotel room I noticed that my teeth were hurting much more than normal, but I thought, “I slept with my mouth guard in, and isn’t that supposed to help?”

When I went to the washroom to look in the mirror and take out my mouth guard, I was horrified to discover that my mouth guard had been adjusted so tightly that in the night ALL of my teeth had been pressed inward! Every one of my teeth had been flipped nearly on its side as the roots pressed out of my gums and the tops of my molars touched against my tongue in the most unusual manner.

The pain in my mouth was unbearable, and the distortion of my teeth made me unable to speak in any coherent manner. I was scared to tell the women I was with what had happened, and so instead I tried to find ways to push my teeth back into their appropriate positions. I used my finger to feel along the inside rim of my mouth, and I began sobbing.

And as I contemplated what this would mean, that I now had the most corrupted teeth in my family, I got so anxious and upset that I woke myself up.

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #370: Skin Issues

Electric face mask: wikimedia
Electric face mask: wikimedia

(Michigan, 30’s)

I don’t remember all the details of this nightmare, but I remember enough of what happened to my skin and what I felt to be totally creeped out.

Something terrible but vague had happened to me – – I’d been attacked or in an accident – – and I woke up to discover that I had had a face transplant. I suppose it was better than no face at all, but it was just horrible. I felt like I was wearing a mask all the time, like I was looking out from behind a layer. There was that sensation of an edge of fabric around my eyes, like my field of vision was narrowed, because the skin didn’t fit smoothly.

When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t recognize myself at all. My face had been replaced with what only somewhat resembled a face. It was like I had been erased. Only my eyes looked familiar.

My new face didn’t fit very well. There were scars, and this is really odd seam-like scar all the way around my face in a big circle.

Finally, my face hurt. It ached all the time. And I knew I was supposed to be grateful, grateful to be alive, grateful to have any face at all. But it was just awful.

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #325 – Quite A Mouthful

I was in an impromptu workshop. It was as if I was taking a woodworking class. The instructor was a famous wood worker I’ve seen on TV. He was looking at my work. It was some kind of a small box. It was hopeless. He struggled to make some constructive criticisms but then finally said I should clean up my work area and go home. I asked if I could come in tomorrow and try to fix the thing. He said no, there was no time left, that this was the end of the class. I was the last person left in the room. My work area was a board laying across two sawhorses. The surface was covered with old bent nails and staples pried from old boards. I started to pick them up but I couldn’t find anyplace to put them…

… so I put them in my mouth. These old bent nails and staples. In my mouth. it didn’t seem that odd at the time. I thought I’d carry them until I found a trash can. I picked up my failed box and left the workshop. After awhile, I remembered that I had a mouthful of sharp and filthy pieces of metal and it finally occurred to me that it was probably not a good thing. I found a trashcan and tried to spit them out. The nails were easy but the staples had attached to the inside of my mouth. All around my tongue and gums the tiny points of the staples caught into my mouth. I reached in and carefully tried to pull them out, one by one. There seemed to be dozens of them. It didn’t seem I’d ever remove them all.

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #3 – Scrap Metal Monster

(Female, I was 4 or 5, this is my oldest nightmare) I had to go downstairs since my family was down there. Our basement was pretty bright for a basement, but the stairs were steep and, on one side, there was only half a wall since the staircase opened into the basement. Being small, I had to move to the other side of the stair to hang on to the rail because the open space was threatening.I had to go downstairs but I was afraid. I was the only one who seemed to know about the monster who lived there. He lived in the space above the acoustical tiles that we’d recently installed. He was obviously very light-weight and he didn’t seem to bother anyone else. When I went into the basement, however, he’d catch me. Then he would poke pieces of scrap metal into my ears and I’d wake up crying with an earache.