the physical tells and the mouthwash Restriction

The body giving away what the mouth denies — the ground teeth and twitching eyelid recast as signs of "all-around fineness" — and the House's answer, a transparency so total that mouthwash counts as a relapse and earns a month's Restriction. The institution treats the smallest chemical loophole as the disease itself, and the resident's outrage at being caught is its own kind of confirmation.