If you thought you were the only one who suffered from that particular nightmare, you’d be wrong. It turns out it’s a pretty common one, and for many people it’s a recurring dream.
Some analysts say that to dream of your teeth falling out tells of an unconscious fear of growing old and losing one’s faculties.
On a similar note losing teeth can also symbolise other feelings of loss that may be recurring in your waking life – such as loss of a friend ore relative, or loss of a job.
Some dream experts suggest that to dream of losing teeth harks back to an unconscious yearning for childhood when there were no teeth and you were held to your mother’s breast.
In some cultures the practice of kicking out a tooth is a common custom in male initiation rites. So it may be that your repeated dreams of teeth falling are signalling a new episode in your life either in relationships or some kind of work project.
Another train of thought deems that teeth dreams are related to actual dental distress such as teeth grinding during sleep. This stems from the idea that teeth dreams may be triggered by teeth grinding, that the sensations of teeth grinding are incorporated into the dream. This is in line with studies showing that various sensory stimuli can be incorporated into dream content. This is also in line with a correlational study showing that people who have teeth dreams also more often have other typical somatosensory dreams such as falling, being chased or flying (Yu, 2010), suggesting these individuals may generally experience more somatosensory excitement during sleep.
If you think your strange teeth dreams could be the result of night time clenching and grinding (bruxism), visit your dentist and discuss the F.O.S. splint – a small, pain-free splint worn at night to prevent bruxism.
