What Does It Mean to Dream of Teeth?

Dream of Teeth

Humans around the world, whatever their differences may be, have some common experiences with the weirdness of teeth. They grow in and fall out and grow back in just as a normal part of development.

Most people don’t think about that very often, unless they or their children happen to be going through that process at the moment. Your subconscious mind, however, has tucked away that imagery.

As creepy as the imagery of teeth dreams may be, some of them have positive meanings for your life.

Teeth Dream Summary

Teeth Symbolism

Dreaming of teeth can symbolize rites of passage and new levels of maturity in your life. These transitions, like how people gain and lose teeth at particular times in their lives, may be simultaneously predictable and not within your own control.

Dreaming of teeth can also symbolize beginning some new project, as teeth are part of the beginning of the human digestive system.

Finally, teeth can also be involved in biting, so dreaming of teeth could symbolize aggression or self-defense in that context.

Common Teeth Dreams

  1. Dream that your teeth are falling out
  2. Dream that your teeth are damaged
  3. Dream of getting false teeth
  4. Dream that you or someone else has fangs
  5. Dream of growing new teeth
  6. Dream of a dentist working on your teeth

Teeth Symbolism

Teeth Symbolism

Maturity

The strange story of teeth in your life begins when you are born without teeth in your mouth. Your first set of teeth then appears over the first six to 24 months of your life, as reported by MedicineNet, and this process of teething can be painful.

After going to all that trouble to get your teeth in over the first two years of your life, you then lose all those teeth and grow in another whole set of teeth around the time you are in elementary school. The American Dental Association said the point of baby teeth is to “hold space in the jaws for permanent teeth that are growing under the gums,” so that the permanent teeth will wind up in the correct spaces when the mouth is big enough to accommodate them.

Some see this process of losing teeth one by one and then having them grow in again as having significance far beyond one’s mouth.

“Rudolf Steiner, the originator of Waldorf education, believed that children should learn in seven-year increments because that age, seven, represented a new birth,” astrologer Giulio Pellegrini pointed out in an online event with Stormie Grace.

“Steiner mentions this, that when the child’s teeth come in at around age seven, that’s when that teacher should change the curriculum to be more difficult, to start with more math, more reading, more intense, crystallized learning, more high-level conceptual learning,” Pellegrini continued.

The relevance of this to astrology is that the 29.4-year cycle of the planet Saturn divides roughly into four seven-year quarters. In astrological thinking, Saturn is involved in issues of basic life structure.

“This first Saturn square at age seven seems to me that it’s a confrontation with Saturn, and it’s some critical moment that we are meeting our destiny for the first time,” Pellegrini said.

Charts provided by the American Dental Association depict that, though the process of shedding baby teeth and replacing them with permanent teeth begins around age six to seven, it continues until age 12 to 13.

You then get a break for a while until your wisdom teeth come in between age 17 and age 21. By age 21, which is a multiple of seven years, “all 32 of the permanent teeth have usually erupted.”

One point to draw from all of this is that you don’t have any control over when your baby teeth fall out, or when either your baby teeth or your permanent teeth grow in. While most people follow a relatively similar schedule, you can’t make this process happen one second sooner than your body is ready.

A dream of teeth could therefore symbolize a situation of this sort that may or may not have to do with your physical body. You might be the last person in your friend group who is still single, for example, and that might not change until you reach some milestone in maturity that you can’t force any sooner than it will come.

Digestion

Teeth are part of the beginning of the human digestive system, as noted by Britannica, as their chewing of food makes all of the body’s further processing of the food possible. To dream of teeth can therefore symbolize the process of beginning to digest anything, whether that is physical or metaphorical.

The phrase “sink your teeth into” often refers to beginning some new pursuit that will require depth and focus, like sinking your teeth into a book. Dreaming of teeth could therefore symbolize that you have recently started a significant new project and are figuring out how to get it done bit by bit.

Another common saying that may be relevant here is “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” In that context, a dream of teeth could symbolize that you have gotten yourself involved in something that is overwhelming to you.

Aggression

Humans mostly use their teeth to eat, but they can sometimes use their teeth to bite others as an act of aggression, especially if they are young children still learning to live in society. Wild animals, however, can engage in aggressive biting throughout their whole lives.

For animals that bite, it can be an act of self-defense against a real or perceived threat. Also, carnivorous animals that must kill other animals in order to eat often do so by biting.

If you dream of yourself or anyone else, human or animal, in your dream using teeth to bite in an aggressive way, this may symbolize that a situation in your life has broken down to the point that talking it out in any reasonable way seems unlikely to accomplish anything. The protocols of society may seem useless as well.

People also clench their teeth when they are angry. If you dream of clenching your teeth, this may symbolize that you are angry about something, and you probably feel like talking to the person you are angry at won’t get you anywhere.

Common Teeth Dreams

Dream that your teeth are falling out

teeth are falling out

If you dream that your teeth are falling out, you could feel vulnerable and unable to handle the challenges of your life. A baby has no teeth, so becoming toothless could symbolize becoming like a baby in other ways.

Are you afraid of becoming like a baby, or are you a little bit attracted to the idea? A dream of going to the extreme of helplessness could arise as a reaction against a situation where you feel extremely unsupported.

A dream that your teeth are falling out could therefore be a warning that you need to ask for help before your situation gets totally out of control.

If the emotional atmosphere in your dream is less negative overall, a dream of your teeth falling out could symbolize that you are letting go of something you no longer need. Especially if the teeth in the dream were in bad condition before they fell out, it could symbolize relief from a real burden, where it might be better to have nothing than to have the situation that has been weighing you down.

Dream that your teeth are damaged

teeth are damaged

If you dream that your teeth are damaged in some way but not falling out, this could symbolize that you are debating whether to try to solve the problems of the situation that you have or to start fresh somewhere else. This dilemma could apply to a job, a house, or a relationship, among other possibilities.

As can be the case for dental work in waking life, there might not be a one-size-fits-all answer for when to give up on a difficult situation. Try assessing the damaged teeth in your dream like a dentist might, though: is the problem merely cosmetic, or are the teeth actually unable to perform their intended function?

Dream of getting false teeth

getting false teeth

If you dream of getting false teeth, and this isn’t relevant to anything going on with your mouth in waking life, look at whether the false teeth are an improvement upon whatever led up to that in the dream.

If you suffered tooth loss or tooth damage in the dream prior to getting the false teeth in the dream, dreaming of false teeth is probably a relatively good omen, as it could symbolize that there is a solution available for a problem in your life. Even though the ideal might be for the problem to never have occurred at all, the available solution is at least better than nothing.

Some people might feel defeated at the thought of having to get false teeth, so this dream might really be about not letting pride blind you from seeing what would really make a given situation functional.

Dream that you or someone else has fangs

you or someone else has fangs

If you dream that you have fangs like an animal, this could symbolize that you feel you need to be aggressive to deal with the challenges you have. You may not like this side of yourself, and you may resent whoever or whatever has pushed you to bring it out.

If you dream of someone else you know having fangs, you may feel that they are a dangerous threat. If the fangs resemble those of an animal, you may have the sense that this person may not be aware of how threatening they are.

If the fangs have more of a vampire vibe than an animal vibe, you may perceive that the person is more aware of their destructive actions.

Dream of growing new teeth

growing new teeth

If you dream of growing new teeth that fit well in your mouth, this might be a good omen that you have made a leap in maturity equipping you to take on a new phase of life. If the new teeth are in better condition than the teeth they are replacing, this could symbolize getting a fresh start.

If you dream of growing an excessive amount of new teeth that causes you discomfort, like a boy NPR reported on who had a swelling on his jaw that turned out to contain 526 excess teeth, this may symbolize that you feel burdened by overwhelming responsibilities. Changes in your life may be happening faster than you can adjust to them.

Dream of a dentist working on your teeth

a dentist working on your teeth

If you dream of a dentist working on your teeth, and you are not aware of any problems with your teeth in waking life, this may symbolize that you are involved with something that requires attention to detail, as dentists are known for working with precise tools in small areas.

If the overall emotional atmosphere in your dream of a dentist working on your teeth is positive, this may symbolize that you will get needed help from others in matters related to the symbolism of teeth, such as rites of passage and maintaining the overall structure of your life.

If the dentist gives you unexpected bad news about your teeth in the dream, this could symbolize that you are oblivious to a structural problem in your life, including the possibility of a threat to your ability to take care of yourself.

Conclusion

Teeth are often taken for granted in waking life. Dreams of teeth, however, can point out their vital importance.

Teeth are most known for their role in the process of eating, but they can also mark rites of passage in your life. In extreme cases, teeth can even help you defend yourself from an attack.

Dreams of teeth can therefore be symbolic of the basic structures of your life and your ability to take care of yourself within those structures.