Teeth Falling Out Dream

Almost everyone I know has had a dream about their teeth falling out. Sometimes it's just one tooth that falls out; sometimes that tooth doesn't fall out but just becomes lose. Other times, the dream is about a bunch of teeth beginning to fall out all at once. My dream last night was one of the worst teeth falling out dreams that I've ever had, and I've had quite a few of them.

It started with one tooth. I thought that it was just a crown coming lose, but then it progressively got worse. I could feel several of my teeth coming lose, and it was like my mouth was filled with brittle ivory teeth and gushy gums. I began spitting the teeth out into my hands. But, no matter how many teeth I spit out, there were still more coming lose. At some point in the dream, I went to the mirror to look into my mouth and found that my teeth were all crooked, not just my teeth but the inside of my entire inner jaw. It was as though the interior of my mouth was becoming deformed. I wanted to get to the dentist immediately, but my appointment was two days away, and I couldn't get in for an emergency visit. Part of me had accepted that I would need dentures while another part of me continued to be in disbelief. The part of me that was in disbelief must have alerted my conscious mind because something told me that this was all a bad dream and to wake up. And, then I did. Nothing beats the relief of still having your teeth after a dream of losing them all.

Last week during my tort law class, I was chewing on a Now-a-Later when I suddenly found myself munching on a metalic tasting crown. I immediately spit the candy into my hand, and there was my crown sticking right in the purple sticky mass. At first, I was so stunned that I shoved the crown into the zipper pocket on my purse. But, later during the class, I became self conscious, and I wondered if when I opened my mouth to speak everyone could see the big gaping black hole in between my teeth. So, I removed the crown from my purse and went to the restroom. Part of me was afraid of what I was going to see when I looked into the mirror. I was expecting a dark nasty hole in my gums, but all I found was a little tooth, just barely smaller than the ones that surrounded it. I fit the crown back into place and went back to class.

That night I considered super gluing my crown back into place. I felt overwhelmed with the thought of having to make time to go to the dentist and on top of that, having to pay a co-pay. I even Googled to see if others had super glued their crowns back in themselves. I found a few people that had, but my own fear and perhaps common sense won out, and I decided to schedule an appointment with my dentist. That night I went to bed worried that my crown would come off again while I slept, slip down my throat, and cause me to choke in my sleep. Seems almost funny thinking about that fear now, especially considering my dentist had a hard time getting my crown back off to re-glue it in. Thankfully, he didn't charge me, but he did make me schedule in a cleaning. I'll be going in for that tomorrow.

The teeth falling out dream is so common amongst members of society that it provokes me to wonder what the dream means and why do so many people have it? Maybe my dream was brought on by the crown coming lose incident, or maybe because I've been thinking about my upcoming dental cleaning. But, maybe it is something even deeper. In dream books, I have read that the teeth falling out dream symbolizes something bad is about to happen or the dreamer is worried about something. There's no doubt that I have been carrying around a lot of worry these past days. But, somehow after waking up with all of my teeth firmly in my gums this morning, I feel blessed and less stressed.

Smile. Even when it's bad, life is still good.