A TikTok user has gone viral after uploading a video of her recent dental scare. Emzvibes posted the 26-second clip showing her massively swollen face while sitting in the emergency room, having remarkably (and massively negligently) been told it was a less-than-one-centimeter abscess and too small for them to go in and drain it.
She then says the doctors in the ER advised her to visit her dentist on the following Monday for a follow-up check. At the same time, she repeatedly zooms out to show they’re talking nonsense because, clearly, the abscess is either significantly larger than the specified one centimeter or it’s badly infected (perhaps it’s both), as the entire right side of her face has ballooned to double the size of the left.
The situation garnered a huge response in the comments section, primarily from people who were either concerned for her well-being, appalled at the doctors’ laughable response to her predicament, or both.
How did TikTok react to the video?
Several users mentioned the obvious need for antibiotics in this situation. Some of those comments of that nature included, “You need antibiotics for the abscess and then tooth extraction on wherever the abscess is at,” “Do not leave without antibiotics,” “If there is any type of abscess then u need antibiotics,” “What ER you went to l. I went to an ER with an abscess and they immediately drained it and gave me antibiotics. An abscess can be deadly,” and “Did they not give you antibiotics?!?!?”
Others pointed out similar circumstances they had experienced in which ignored abscesses had gone (or nearly gone) septic or the situation had turned dangerous. One user said, “my husband got one of these abscesses after a root canal, had to make 3 ER visits bc they wouldn’t take it seriously. it spread to the lymph node in his neck and he went septic, had to have emergency,” and another said, “I almost went septic with the SAME ISSUE! Get it pulled asap babes.”
Other comments of that nature included, “had this same problem for 3 months they said nothing was wrong it was a small abscess until I had to have emergency surgery for them to put me under to put a hose in my face,” and “That’s the same thing that happen to me before and i was being rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery that same night again.”
Perhaps the most concerning comment came from someone who wrote, “I had an abscess in my mouth and they drained it I had to go to Pensacola for them to drain it cuz at first I went to my doctor and my doctor said that it was bad and they said I could have died in my sleep.”
Meanwhile, one disgusted user simply said, “I would go to a different ER,” and another said, “how dare they ???”
A survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of MDVIP in Feb. 2024 shows that most Americans are currently unsatisfied with their healthcare system. Only one in three (32%) said they were extremely or very satisfied with the U.S. healthcare system, three in five said the system is a hassle (61%) and that they find navigating it to be stressful (63%), and only 39% said they believed the healthcare system is working in the best interests of its patients. With inept care like that experienced by Emzvibes, nobody should be surprised by those figures.