Tooth abscess – Symptoms & causes

Overview

A tooth abscess is a pocket of pus that’s caused by a bacterial infection. The abscess can occur at different areas near the tooth for different reasons. A periapical (per-e-AP-ih-kul) abscess occurs at the tip of the root. A periodontal (per-e-o-DON-tul) abscess occurs in the gums at the side of a tooth root. The information here is about periapical abscesses.

A periapical tooth abscess usually occurs as a result of an untreated dental cavity, an injury or prior dental work. The resulting infection with irritation and swelling (inflammation) can cause an abscess at the tip of the root.

Dentists will treat a tooth abscess by draining it and getting rid of the infection. They may be able to save your tooth with a root canal treatment. But in some cases the tooth may need to be pulled. Leaving a tooth abscess untreated can lead to serious, even life-threatening, complications.

Periapical tooth abscess

Bacteria can enter the innermost part of the tooth through either a deep cavity or a chip or crack in your tooth. The resulting infection and inflammation can cause an abscess at the tip of the root.

Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of a tooth abscess include:

• Severe, constant, throbbing toothache that can spread to your jawbone, neck or ear
• Pain or discomfort with hot and cold temperatures
• Pain or discomfort with the pressure of chewing or biting
• Fever
• Swelling in your face, cheek or neck that may lead to difficulty breathing or swallowing
• Tender, swollen lymph nodes under your jaw or in your neck
• Foul odor in your mouth
• Sudden rush of foul-smelling and foul-tasting, salty fluid in your mouth and pain relief, if the abscess ruptures

When to see a doctor

See your dentist promptly if you have any signs or symptoms of a tooth abscess.

If you have a fever and swelling in your face and you can’t reach your dentist, go to an emergency room. Also go to the emergency room if you have trouble breathing or swallowing. These symptoms may indicate that the infection has spread deeper into your jaw, throat or neck or even to other areas of your body.

Causes

A periapical tooth abscess occurs when bacteria invade the dental pulp. The pulp is the innermost part of the tooth that contains blood vessels, nerves and connective tissue.

Bacteria enter through either a dental cavity or a chip or crack in the tooth and spread all the way down to the root. The bacterial infection can cause swelling and inflammation at the tip of the root.

Risk factors

These factors may increase your risk of a tooth abscess:

• Poor dental habits and care. Not taking proper care of your teeth and gums — such as not brushing your teeth twice a day and not flossing — can increase your risk of dental problems. Problems may include tooth decay, gum disease, tooth abscess, and other dental and mouth complications.
• A diet high in sugar. Frequently eating and drinking foods rich in sugar, such as sweets and sodas, can contribute to dental cavities and turn into a tooth abscess.
• Dry mouth. Having a dry mouth can increase your risk of tooth decay. Dry mouth is often due to the side effect of certain medications or issues related to aging.

Complications

A tooth abscess won’t go away without treatment. If the abscess ruptures, the pain may improve a lot, making you think that the problem has gone away — but you still need to get dental treatment.

If the abscess doesn’t drain, the infection may spread to your jaw and to other areas of your head and neck. If the tooth is located near the maxillary sinus — two large spaces under your eyes and behind your cheeks — you can also develop an opening between the tooth abscess and the sinus. This can cause an infection in the sinus cavity. You might even develop sepsis — a life-threatening infection that spreads throughout your body.

If you have a weakened immune system and you leave a tooth abscess untreated, your risk of a spreading infection increases even more.

Prevention

Avoiding tooth decay is essential to preventing a tooth abscess. Take good care of your teeth to avoid tooth decay:

• Drink water that contains fluoride.
• Brush your teeth for two minutes at least twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste.
• Use dental floss or a water flosser to clean between your teeth on a daily basis.
• Replace your toothbrush every 3 to 4 months, or whenever the bristles are frayed.
• Eat healthy food, limiting sugary items and between-meal snacks.
• Visit your dentist regularly for checkups and professional cleanings.
• Consider using an antiseptic or a fluoride mouth rinse to add an extra layer of protection against tooth decay.

Dental abscess | NHS inform

A dental abscess is a collection of pus that can form inside the teeth, in the gums, or in the bone that holds the teeth in place. It’s caused by a bacterial infection.

An abscess at the end of a tooth is called a periapical abscess. An abscess in the gum is called a periodontal abscess.

Dental abscesses are often painful, but aren’t always. In either case, they should be looked at by a dentist.

It’s important to get help as soon as possible, because abscesses don’t go away on their own. They can sometimes spread to other parts of the body and make you ill.

This page covers:

Symptoms of a dental abscess

What to do if you have a dental abscess

Relieving your symptoms

Treatments for a dental abscess

What causes dental abscesses?

Preventing dental abscesses

Symptoms of a dental abscess

Symptoms of an abscess in your tooth or gum may include:

• an intense, throbbing pain in the affected tooth or gum that may come on suddenly and gets gradually worse
• pain that spreads to your ear, jaw and neck on the same side as the affected tooth or gum
• pain that’s worse when lying down, which may disturb your sleep
• redness and swelling in your face
• a tender, discoloured and/or loose tooth
• shiny, red and swollen gums
• sensitivity to hot or cold food and drink
• bad breath and/or an unpleasant taste in your mouth

If the infection spreads, you may also develop a high temperature (fever) and feel generally unwell. In severe cases, you may find it hard to fully open your mouth and have difficulty swallowing or breathing.

What to do if you have a dental abscess

You should see a dentist as soon as possible if you think you have a dental abscess. Avoid visiting your GP, as there is little they can do to help.

You can get help from:

• your registered dentist – if it’s out of hours, they should have an answerphone message with details of how to access out-of-hours dental treatment
• NHS 24 111 service – who can give you details of dental services in your area
• your local clinical commissioning group (CCG) – who can tell you the phone number of your local dental access helpline
• your local accident and emergency (A&E) department – if there are no other options or you’re having difficulty breathing

You may have to pay for emergency NHS dental treatment, depending on your circumstances. Read about NHS dental charges.

Relieving your symptoms

While you’re waiting to see a dentist, painkillers can help control your pain.

Ibuprofen is the preferred painkiller for dental abscesses, but if you’re unable to take it for medical reasons, you can take paracetamol instead. Aspirin shouldn’t be given to children under 16.

If one painkiller doesn’t relieve the pain, taking both paracetamol and ibuprofen at the doses shown in the medicine leaflet may help. This is safe for adults, but not for children under 16.

It may also help to:

• avoid hot or cold food and drink if it makes the pain worse
• try eating cool, soft foods if possible, using the opposite side of your mouth
• use a soft toothbrush and temporarily avoid flossing around the affected tooth

These measures can help relieve your symptoms temporarily, but you shouldn’t use them to delay getting help from a dentist.

Treatments for a dental abscess

Dental abscesses are treated by removing the source of the infection and draining away the pus.

Depending on the location of the abscess and how severe the infection is, possible treatments include:

• removing the affected tooth (extraction) – this may be necessary if root canal treatment isn’t possible
• root canal treatment – a procedure to remove the abscess from the root of an affected tooth before filling and sealing it
• incision and drainage – where a small cut (incision) is made in the gum to drain the abscess (this is usually only a temporary solution and further treatment may be needed)

Local anaesthetic will usually be used to numb your mouth for these procedures. More extensive operations may be carried out under general anaesthetic (where you’re asleep).

Antibiotics aren’t routinely prescribed for dental abscesses, but may be used if the infection spreads or is particularly severe.

What causes dental abscesses?

Your mouth is full of bacteria, which form a sticky film on your teeth called plaque.

If you don’t keep your teeth clean, acids produced by the bacteria in plaque can damage your teeth and gums, leading to tooth decay or gum disease.

The following can increase your chances of developing a dental abscess:

• poor oral hygiene – plaque can build-up on your teeth if you don’t floss and brush your teeth regularly
• consuming lots of sugary or starchy food and drink – these can encourage the growth of bacteria in plaque and may lead to decay that can result in an abscess
• an injury or previous surgery to your teeth or gums – bacteria can get into any damaged parts of the teeth or gums
• having a weakened immune system – this includes people with certain underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, and those having treatment, including steroid medication or chemotherapy 

Preventing dental abscesses

You can reduce your risk of developing dental abscesses by keeping your teeth and gums as healthy as possible.

To do this, you should:

• use floss or an interdental brush at least once a day to clean between your teeth and under the gum line
• brush your teeth with a fluoride toothpaste twice a day – spending at least two minutes each time
• avoid rinsing your mouth with water or mouthwash after brushing because this washes the protective toothpaste away – just spit out any excess toothpaste
• cut down on sugary and starchy food and drinks – particularly between meals or shortly before going to bed
• visit your dentist regularly – your dentist can suggest how often you should have a check-up, based on your oral health 

Read more on how to keep your teeth clean and dental check-ups.

Read online “The Abyss for the Hero”, Octavia Kolotilina – Litres

Chapter 1.

Here it is, real happiness! The rubber bands of the respirator were rubbed behind the ears – to get rid of it, take off the sticky overalls of infectious protection, sweat-drenched T-shirt with underwear, step under the tight, tickling jets of the shower. Carefully cover yourself in a cloud of orange foam and almost physically feel how the hot water takes away the flu and chicken pox.

Two hours before the lecture. Inga got into a crisp, fresh surgical suit, twisted her straw strands into a bun and left the red zone.

Now comes the hard part: pronouncing the death sentence.

Went down to the floor. A pensioner in pajamas was shuffling along the corridor of the hospital with torn slippers, strongly raising her right shoulder. Inga immediately singled her out among the patients who staggered along the corridor with an expression of extreme employment on their faces and skirted the angry nurse on a long journey; grabbed by the sleeve.

– Darling! Grandma rejoiced. – Where is the bus stop?

She looked demandingly: well, what, in fact, is this – where could the stop have disappeared? You have to go. The blue-veined fingers trembled, crumpling the referral slip.

– Let’s go. – Inga grabbed a dry, weightless hand and with small steps led the old woman around the corner, through the recreation.

– Will he arrive soon? the passenger asked. – Me Tanya in the garden.

– You lie down on the couch, rest, and there you will arrive, – Inga reassured. – Does your head hurt?

– In the morning, a red-haired woman pricked, she pulls less, otherwise everything gnawed, gnawed.

Elderly people, quite sensible in a familiar to the touch apartment, are completely lost among the state walls.

Inga felt at ease with old people: no matter how old you look, for an eighty-year-old you will in any case be a “granddaughter”, everyone is equal here. She was terribly annoyed by her own appearance, short stature, naive brown eyes, as if she was still at school. Each new acquaintance decided at a glance: “Blonde teen, IQ at the level of a canary”, and come on, prove the opposite, get through for a condescending smile! And the old people do not need to prove anything, most importantly, ask about health – and make friends.

A nurse dyed with henna was rushing about in front of the iron doors with a sign “Tomography”. Seeing a couple approaching, she waved her diaper:

– Oh, where did you find it?!

– Lyudmila, so all the patients will run away from the hospital. – Inga grinned and adjusted her glasses in a black massive frame.

Hand over the granny to the clucking nurse, take a biopsy from the laboratory – and to yourself, to the infectious disease. An hour forty before the lecture, still on the subway to go.

I must tell him… I must tell him today.

The single room smelled of cologne, woody-musky, with cedar; even through the mask, the scent wafted through. Alexei looked out the window, leaning on the windowsill. His broad, muscular back was wrapped in a blue T-shirt.

I ran in the park and picked up a tick, they brought me with suspicion of borreliosis, and when the tests came … Inga checked everything a thousand times. She begged Professor Trushkin, the master of oncology, to come to them, in the “plague barracks”. But now there is no more doubt.

– Alexey, I need to inform you…

He turned abruptly, smiled embarrassedly, kindly. Because of the short beaver, his ears stick out more, and his look is as if he would grab him in his arms right now – and whirl him around, but he is afraid of a white coat.

Inga took a deep breath to calm her pounding heart. She said almost exactly:

– The results of the biopsy are ready, there …

– I know, – Alexey interrupted softly, covering one palm with the other. He has a St. Petersburg purring voice, and northern thin skin hugs his cheekbones. Yellowish skin: not surprising, with such and such a diagnosis.

– Examined in a private clinic, two weeks ago they also said that it was pancreatic cancer. And that he is not being operated on.

Inga exploded, threw the folder on the bedside table:

– So why the hell were you running around? You had to go to Kashirka to go to bed, and now, with borreliosis, they won’t accept you! I’ll talk to Trushkin tomorrow, maybe he. ..

– Don’t. Alexei shook his head, holding back a twisted smile with difficulty. Why do I need this chemistry, this violence against nature? All the same, after all, in vain, they only torture. You know what, Inga? Let’s go to the cinema. Right now, for the evening session? Can you ask the sisters for the key?

Inga backed away: she hadn’t been to the cinema for two years. No, she was invited, almost every week, either by colleagues, or students, or to the ballet, or to the bar … It’s just that all the hours in the day were scheduled: hospital, candidate, teaching. The world consisted of bright discoveries, diagnoses, the search for the reasons for the different susceptibility of people to viruses – why do some get seriously ill and even die, while others do not show symptoms, but they become carriers? Is it in the genes, in the general state of the body – or maybe the virus itself chooses its victims and carriers? Everything else seemed gray and insipid.

But blue eyes look like that. .. This twenty-year-old boy has four months left to live, and he will spend most of it in sickly green walls.

“Tomorrow,” Inga decided. – Now I have to run to the lecture, and tomorrow…

She didn’t even have time to move – Aleksey jumped forward, tore off the mask from her face and dug into his lips, cold and wet.

Inga thrashed, broke free and rushed out the door. She herself did not remember how she got to the internship, changed into a terracotta jacket with a skirt, jumped out of the hospital, went down to the subway.

I only thought about Alexei. Every minute she grabbed the phone, found his number and froze, not knowing whether to erase or call. Once again she moistened a napkin, put a bottle of alcohol gel into her skirt pocket and rubbed her lips: they were swollen and burning. Of course, neither cancer nor borreliosis is transmitted from person to person, but still … Strange. Wrong.

I wanted to try again and understand: what exactly is strange and wrong.

Brazen type. And he seemed so intelligent, shy. It is clear that from an excess of feelings he kissed, briefly, in a brotherly way – but still. And they know nothing at all, a week ago he entered, and Inga did not give reasons. Well, I ran three times a day, because the disease is rare, and then there is advanced oncology.

In fact, there is no point in sending him to the Blokhin Center: they won’t go there for an operation, only supportive therapy, pain relief…

Can such injustice be possible?! From the age of three, to rave about medicine, break into Sechenovka, complete the course in three years instead of six, overcome residency – and have no way to save a single person. Why, then, sit half the night over reference books, why spend all your vacations in the morgue and laboratory, refusing to look at the sea even once? Bruises under the eyes and after the weekend are visible, no matter how you cover it with foundation …

She was reading “Fundamentals of Infectology” from the pulpit in the large hall. Then she sat in the university library, tapping nervously on the lacquered table with a plastic human skull.

How stupid students sometimes come across! Then the same stupid interns come out of them, but how are they treated? That’s right, my mother does not want to go to cardiology. Inga sighed:

– Can you list me, Nikiforov, the pathologies of parietal bone development that this infection causes in the perinatal period?

The rack with anatomical atlases towering above them absorbed all sounds, they had to strain their voices. Vasya, the forward of the university hockey team, was asked by the dean himself, Pavel Sarkisovich, to pull him up. But is it really possible to put a three when there is no knowledge here and at the stake?

She covered her face with her hand so as not to see the strange, feline look: this is not at all the way a student should look at a teacher. Are you sure any girl will melt in front of his square chin? Decided to get an assessment not by cramming, but by irresistible charm?

But he is strong. If he starts pestering, then there is no one to call for help, the librarian left an hour ago – she had long resigned herself to the fact that Inga was staying up late, they had a cherished pot with dracaena, where they agreed to leave the key. The guard is downstairs, you won’t call.

Instead of answering, Vasya for some reason moved closer and put his powerful paw on the back of her chair. Well, it carries the same from him then! Inga nervously moved her shoulder, tried to move away … However, the student suddenly grabbed her waist.

She jumped up, clutching her skull; the chair fell with a bang. Seeing that Vasya was trying to grab it, she ran around the table, knocked it over on its side, dumping the textbooks on the floor, and hid behind this barricade.

– Stop it, Inga! The team captain kicked the tabletop. “I won’t do anything to you.

– Inga Valerievna! I’m your teacher, keep your distance.

Vasya smiled with all twenty-four teeth:

– Ooh, angry! And in appearance nyashka: black eyes, plump lips. Do you think people go to your lectures to hear about the “assessment of an epic situation”? That’s when you turn your back to the board, you have such a cool …

– Epidemiological! Nikiforov, if you don’t need any more help on the subject, you can be free.

Inga figured out the escape routes. She knew the library better than her own room. Vasya blocked the passage to the door, however…

– Yes, pretty girl, I need help. Only with something else.

Vasya playfully jumped over the tabletop; Inga threw her skull at him and rushed between the shelves.

The library of the Moscow Medical University was a labyrinth of obsolete literature. Tangled maze. But the long hours of preparing the list of works for the candidate’s thesis turned out to be not in vain: confidently turning between the bookshelves, Inga rushed to the emergency exit.

The pursuer would bump into everything, dropping it on his head. Some new shelving… Wait, where’s the exit?

The roar – and all sorts of expressions – were approaching.

Finding herself at a dead end, Inga feverishly searched the bookshelves with her eyes. “Non-surgical treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer” – there can be no such work here, I shoveled the catalogs! Will Alexei be able to help? Forgetting everything, she reached out her hand, took hold of the binding… Suddenly the rack bent like rubber, turned around and collapsed. The floor floated away from under my feet, Inga fell, glasses rattled nearby.

Vasya’s swearing stopped. Instead of the dusty library air, a draft filled his body, smelling of sage and snow.

Inga got up and put on her glasses. I took it off, washed it, and put it on again. She slapped one cheek, then the other: no, she doesn’t imagine.

A wooden corridor in which you feel as if you are in a huge hollow, only it continues forward and backward, and there is no end in sight; dim lanterns barely protrude from the walls. A breeze is blowing, which means it is coming in from the street somewhere. Fresh: so you dive into the hole, jump out, and the body pricks with needles.

Was there some kind of secret passage behind the bookcase in the library?

There were no corners here, the floor was smoothly rounded, turning into walls that closed overhead; either wires or creepers were woven along them. Inga felt the nearest one: wet, smooth. Nearby is a thin sprout, small glossy leaves stick out on it, pubescent, velvet from the inside.

Greenhouse? Of course, the librarian loves to plant flowers, but really – so much? The creepers are thick, intertwined, as if they have been growing here for two hundred years, try to move it – it doesn’t look like a passage. Maybe Inga failed here?

No, that would leave a hole in the ceiling.

They say secret government tunnels have been laid under Moscow in case of a zombie apocalypse or an “orange revolution”, which is almost the same thing. But how did you manage to get here? Magic-shmagiya, of course, is nonsense. Wormhole, dimensional hole?

They would put rails in the secret subway. People are building rectangular corridors, and then, like a giant worm crawling, the passage walks down, then up, then smoothly turns. A natural cave pierced by water?

Inga screamed. Then again, without any hope… And she wandered off to look for a way out.

Someone else’s appeasement was like a wave. It seemed deep, final, as if in an old, old cemetery, where the poplar trees stretched across the sky have already forgotten that they once ran to the office and prepared dinner…

What kind of thoughts come into your head? So the place is strange.

Roots covered the floor, walking on them on stilettos is just torture. Lanterns loomed at eye level, in desperation Inga took off her shoe and tried to break one with her heel, but he answered with a dull sound, like an oak board. The phone stubbornly did not catch: it only discharges the battery in vain, it is better to turn it off.

What a shame! The mother has a heart, she will begin to worry, call the hospital, and they will say, they say, your daughter is not on duty today. Maybe she’ll think she’s stuck in the library. But not as much?

Inga put the phone in her pocket… And then she noticed something strange.

On the floor stood a white oblong object the size of a fist, rounded in front and pointed at the far end, like a pulled out tooth. He bent two thin back legs, and put four front legs in front of him. And, it seems, he was studying a person: a gaze was felt, although the “tooth” did not have eyes.

Some kind of toy? Here is nonsense: a cave, idiotic jokes … Inga tried to turn the object over with the toe of her shoe, but he suddenly jumped and painfully clutched at the ankle.

She screamed. It turned out to be impossible to pull the creature off its leg – the creature released a lot of branched tentacles-needles and one after another drove them under the skin. From the left crept up three more of the same.

Despair washed over me like a red wave. Mom pestering with a bowl of soup, open on the candidate’s laptop, the hospital, Alexei – everything is gone, no way out …

There were more and more teeth around.

Chapter 2.

In London, at Coal Hill School, there was an old blue police box in the brush room. And inside it, near the control panel of the most powerful spaceship in the universe, the Doctor – the last Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey – and a middle school teacher exchanged barbs.

Suddenly the Doctor became serious, went down a couple of steps from the console platform, sat down and spread his arms:

– Clara, you have to tell me something. Only the truth.

Impossible girl landed next to the old Scot:

– Okay. What’s the matter, you say?

He licked his lips and closed his fingers.

Are you scared?

– I’m terrified!

– From what?

– The answer to my question must be honest, cool, measured, without pity or restraint. Clara, be a friend, tell me: am I a good person?

Clara looked somehow unusual. He had never noticed such a piercing, cold look on her pretty face.

– Does it matter, Doctor? Will you be good or bad, will you choose the evil path or the good one – what will change in the Multiple Universe? Look.

She jumped up, ran down the stairs, went to the blackboard, drew a line there and put a thick dot at the end.

– You come to the aid of the planet, save it, – a line went up from the point, – but then a parallel reality appears, – another line went straight from the starting point, – where the planet died. You are just wasting your energy.

– Clara, I don’t recognize you! Why such pessimism? In fact, everything is much more complicated. The Doctor winced. – But even according to this theory in one of the realities – and it is in mine! – the saved planet remains.

– Being attacked again and again because your reality tends to the original version with the lowest potential energy – the upper line collapsed down and connected with the straight line.

The doctor narrowed his eyes:

– Admit it, Clara, I told you: “Don’t read Hawking?”

– No, you said, “Don’t eat pears.”

– Damn.

The key turned in the lock, the TARDIS door clicked.

It just couldn’t happen, because everyone who had the keys to the ship was inside? The Doctor looked at Clara with the chalk in hand, then at the door.

The door has opened.

Smiling Clara came in with a pile of notebooks under her arm, threw back her brown hair, said “Hi”…

And looked at herself.

The one with the chalk in her hand rushed to the still open door. But the Doctor had already jumped to the console and flipped the switch.

The uninvited guest seemed to stumble upon an invisible wall, jerked back, and froze in a force field with her arms raised, as if suspended by her hands.

Door slammed shut. False Clara looked fearfully over her shoulder at the approaching Doctor.

– Good disguise. He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the prisoner. “Now let’s see what kind of creature you are.”

The real Clara put down her notebooks, came closer and looked at the numbers that the device gave out:

– How are you?

The doctor raised an eyebrow in disbelief, rubbed the screwdriver on his jacket, looked again:

– What?! Man, right?

The scout, caught by the ship’s defense, plaintively asked:

– Remove the field and I’ll leave right away. I didn’t do anything to you.

“I think she is scared,” the teacher concluded. “Why don’t you let her go?”

– Clara, stay away! The doctor raised his hand. This creature can be very dangerous!

– Just a man, besides, we are inside the ship. What can happen?!

The Gallifreyan stalked around the prisoner.

– Oh no, Clara, not “just a man.” The TARDIS didn’t recognize the deception, and neither did I, until I heard about the “Multiple Universe” from you. You don’t talk about things like that.

– Do you think I’m stupid?!

– It doesn’t spoil you at all.

Dodged the slap, pointed the screwdriver at the creature again:

– Answer me, who are you?

Caught looked up. They were bright green.

– Do you really want to know?

Emerald flames burst from her pupils and hit the Gallifrez in the face. For a few seconds he convulsed under the onslaught of lightning entering his brain, then collapsed to the floor.

– Doctor! Doctor! – Clara rushed to the limp body, shaking him by the shoulders, but she could not bring her friend back to consciousness.

The teeth were approaching from all sides. Inga pulled the sucking white creature with both hands, not paying attention to the pain, but it only dug deeper; two more climbed up the ankles.

Is that all, the end?..

Then something buzzed above the ear, a green “bunny” ran up the knee, and the creature fell off. A large confident hand clenched his fingers, someone shouted in his ear:

– Get up. Run, run, let’s go!

Inga obeyed, jumped up.

Stumbling, she tried to keep up with a tall, thin stranger who, putting a hefty laser pointer in front of him, confidently dived first into one branch of the wooden corridor, then into another. The “teeth” minced after them, then fell behind. That’s why at the university she excused herself from physical education? Sweat flows in a hail, and pricks under the ribs.

Finally, the hand unclenched. Inga thumped on the floor – just to catch her breath: you run, perhaps, in heels. Her savior was not even out of breath, although he looked clearly over fifty and was of an asthenic body type.

Oh, now it will start about “we, in the Soviet years”, “wouldn’t you have passed the TRP standards”, “the younger generation”… Suddenly, something completely different sounded:

– Don’t be afraid, they won’t catch up. Lost from sight – and forgotten, a rather primitive form of life.

Inga examined the dark crimson frock coat, noble posture, disheveled gray hair:

Are you a teacher? That is . .. From the university, also got lost in the library?

Bushy eyebrow movement, smile. It seems they once met, maybe in the dining room? How he looks like Grandpa Seryozha…

– I am the Doctor. And you?

– I don’t have it yet, I’m just doing my PhD. Inga Melantseva, infectious disease specialist. Do you lecture on surgery?

– Yes, even in agriculture! – The interlocutor laughed, warmly and sincerely, as if they were not stuck in a wooden labyrinth with terrible bloodsuckers. – I’m lucky for the doctors. Let’s get out of here.

It’s easy to say – get out. Corridors forked and passed into others, narrowed to the point that you could not get through, ended in dead ends.

She looked suspiciously at her ankle: the tights were intact, without puffs – the white tentacles were no thicker than a mosquito proboscis, and there were marks on the skin, as if from bites. Lubricated them with alcohol gel; It’s good that I put the bottle in my pocket, and not in my bag.

It’s easier with old people, old people don’t stare. Inga was embarrassed by excessive skating: the students paid too much attention to this, and all sorts of informal whistles were terribly embarrassing and could deprive the working mood for a whole day. In the comments under each picture on Instagram, someone was sure to joke about her lower part or suggest a diet.

What’s the point of them, these diets? No matter how you sit down, only your chest melts, well, once you managed to minimize the omentum in the lower abdomen, but your butt didn’t want to get out…

Butterflies the size of a tray were spinning around one of the lanterns. Their black, yellow-edged wings were covered with fluff, curled antennae and proboscises bristled.

Inga thought painfully. He introduced himself … What is his name? Pavel Vasilyevich? Mikhail Alekseevich? Oh, these names, they are simply impossible to remember! My memory kept all the articles on infectology of the Great Medical Encyclopedia, but the names and dates flew out of my head like the devil out of a church.

After coughing, she asked:

– I am very ashamed, but I forgot your name and patronymic.

– You didn’t ask him. For you it is much more important what kind of subject I read. Just call me Doctor.

– How convenient!

A pale pink bud crawled out of the ceiling, swelled up like an inflatable balloon and opened. Lotus flower, right? Wow – huge! Just in case, I turned on my phone and took a picture.

A tart and sweet smell with hints of cinnamon spread in waves. Immediately a flock of butterflies flew in, one of them crashed into Inga and got tangled in her hair with her paws. There was an explosion of panic, and she ripped out the insect, along with a couple of hairs, and threw it away.

The doctor moved his laser pointer in the right corridor, it buzzed, a green bunny ran along the walls.

Inga guessed:

– This is your weapon against monsters!

“Not a weapon, no,” the teacher grimaced. “Just a sonic screwdriver.

And what only the Chinese do not come up with! I’ll have to find out where I ordered it from. I remembered:

– The creature jumped off me when you shone it.

– I gave a false signal. I’m afraid this won’t work the second time: beings are connected telepathically, everyone learns at once.

Telepathy? He speaks so confidently, as if every day he deals with those who read other people’s minds. Maybe a psychic? Or a pseudoscientist? What difference does it make, the main thing is that he knows how to defend against these Whites.

– Are they hunting people? – cautiously asked Inga. – Can they find us?

– Yes. I think they pick up the radiation of your brain and come running. Like sharks that smell blood, – long fingers folded into the “jaws” and clicked.

– Look, there’s more!

Five teeth showed through the turn. The doctor turned his head, pressed himself against the wall, clapped beside him:

– Lively, stand up and think about the donut.

– Why – about a donut?

– I’ll tell you later! – He shook the screwdriver with all his might, finally hit it on the root, was delighted and put it in front of him.

Two very strange planets alarmed scientists

We are talking about planets in the constellation Lyra – in the system of the red dwarf Kepler-138, it is almost half the size of the Sun and is located at 219light years from us. On a galactic scale, it can be said to be in the neighborhood. A total of four worlds have been spotted near this star (one of which has not yet been confirmed), including the smallest of all that have been seen through telescopes to date – similar in size to Mars. With this, everything is more or less clear, at least scientists can quite confidently say that this planet has a solid surface. And as it turns out, this question alone can be a puzzle for astronomers, because the other two planets are something completely unseen.

The fact is that one of the surest ways to find a planet near a star is to notice how it passes over its disk, that is, the so-called transit method. And at the moment when the planet is in transit in front of its star, it is possible not only to fix the very fact of its existence, but also to determine the main properties. By how much a star temporarily dims because of this planet, one can understand its size. By the intensity of the star’s rotation around the center of mass common with the planet, one can judge the mass of the planet. Further, the mass is compared with the size, and thus an idea is created about the density of the celestial body. And the density allows you to guess what, in fact, the planet consists of.

Comparison of the size and composition of the Earth and one of the planets of the Kepler-138 system. Photo © NASA / University of Montreal / Benoit Gougeon

And scientists are used to seeing two main types of planets in space: gas and rocky. Gas, as a rule, very large, rocky relatively small. And now let’s see what is known about the mysterious Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d. Size: about one and a half times the size of the Earth. Mass: twice the size of the Earth, namely 2.3 and 2.1 masses of our planet, respectively. And from this, the density of both worlds is about 3.6 grams per cubic centimeter. For comparison, the Earth has 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter, Jupiter has 1.33 grams, and Saturn has 0.69.grams (it is lighter than water, by the way). Mars has 3.93 grams, but it is much smaller than Earth.

That is, the two planets of the Kepler-138 system look like they are clearly not gas and clearly not stone. What then? Scientists have only one version: they are aquatic. The density of water is approximately 1 gram per cubic centimeter. This means that these worlds do not consist entirely of water, but more than half. They should have solid, stone-metal cores inside, surrounded by a continuous global ocean with a depth of about two thousand kilometers. On Earth, by the way, the average depth of the oceans is 3.7 kilometers.

In principle, celestial bodies completely covered with water are well known even here, in the solar system: take, for example, Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s moon Enceladus.