What Does Teeth Falling Out in a Dream Mean?

Co-authored by Alex Dimitriu, MD and Nihal Shetty

Last Updated: May 23, 2022 References

Had a weird dream about losing your teeth and not sure what it means? You’re not alone—oddly enough, dreaming about your teeth falling out is among the most common dreams in the world.^{[1]
X
Research source} While you sleep, your brain is doing a lot of work processing your emotions and experiences during your daily life, and it sometimes can produce strange images. If you’re trying to figure out what a dream about losing your teeth means, we’ve got you covered. Read on to learn all the major interpretations of what teeth falling out in a dream means.

1

Lacking Control over Your Life

Losing teeth can stand in for losing control of your life direction. In our dreams, our bodies often represent ourselves, our goals, and our desires. When your teeth begin to fall out against your will, this can indicate that you don’t feel like you have any power in your relationships, career, or life goals generally.^{[2]
X
Research source}
- A study indicated that people who have a recurring dream about their teeth falling out tend to have higher rates of anxiety, depression, and feelings of helplessness.
- If you’re feeling helpless or sad, you might want to consider talking to a therapist or a life coach.

2

Grinding Your Teeth

A dream about losing your teeth may signal dental irritation. If you grind your teeth while sleeping, your subconscious might be processing this in your dreams as an image of your teeth falling out. Studies have linked teeth grinding with an increased likelihood of dreaming about losing teeth.^{[3]
X
Research source}
- Grinding your teeth, also called bruxism, is a common issue that can lead to several health problems. You may end up damaging your teeth or having tooth or jaw pain.
- Breaking this habit can protect your jaw and maybe even lead to more pleasant dreams.

3

Lack of Self-Confidence

A dream of losing teeth indicates a feeling of self-consciousness. Our teeth are an important part of our appearance when we look at and talk to others. Losing your teeth in a dream might indicate that you’ve been experiencing a lack of self-confidence, and are worried about the possibility of embarrassing yourself or not being taken seriously.^{[4]
X
Research source}
- This dream might demonstrate that you have shortcomings that you’re embarrassed about. Learning how to accept yourself can help you overcome these dreams.

4

Thinking about Childhood

Teeth falling out have an association with memories of childhood. If you’ve been dreaming about losing your teeth, you may be thinking back to times you lost your baby teeth as a child. This can suggest that something about your childhood has become relevant to your daily life again.^{[5]
X
Research source}
- For example, if you’ve recently been in closer touch with your parents, you might be subconsciously reentering the space of being a young child.

5

Reflecting on Nourishment

Dreams about teeth reveal feelings about sustaining yourself. Teeth are a crucial part of how we ingest sustenance and nourishment, so dreaming about losing them might indicate that you’re feeling anxiety about your material needs. You might be worried about money, shelter, or other things you need to survive.^{[6]
X
Research source}
- Many people believe that dreams are messages from spiritual guides. This dream may be a sign to look for spiritual fulfillment and nourishment, not just material ones.

6

Worrying about Aging

You may be associating losing teeth with getting older. This is pretty natural: many people will lose teeth in old age, just as they did when they were children. This dream may be role-playing premature aging, as your subconscious stresses over the idea that your body is getting older.^{[7]
X
Research source}
- Getting older happens to all of us, and it’s important to accept this process. As you get older, you’ll realize that many of your insecurities about aging fall by the wayside.

7

Stressing over Communication

Dreams about your mouth are often about your words. We produce language through our mouths, so a dream where you’ve lost your teeth may be demonstrating anxiety over something you’ve said in the past. Your teeth are falling out of you just like your words, and you may be feeling uncomfortable about the whole process.^{[8]
X
Research source}
- Learning how to be more careful about what you say is a really useful skill, and one that you’re never too old to learn.

8

Fearing a Loss

Fearing losing your teeth signifies you fear losing other things too. Your teeth are precious to you, and if you dream about losing them, this can indicate that you’re experiencing an underlying fear of loss. You might be worried about losing a relationship, power, money, or something else of value to you.^{[9]
X
Trustworthy Source
Simply Psychology
Popular site for evidence-based psychology information
Go to source}
- Think about what things in your life you’re grateful for. Are you concerned about your ability to hold onto these things? If the answer is yes, it’s a good idea to try to work out why so that you can feel more secure.

9

Approaching a Big Change

Your mind associates losing teeth with new steps in life. This makes sense: after all, losing baby teeth is a really crucial symbol of growing up. If you’re dreaming of losing your teeth, this can mean that your subconscious is preparing itself for a new chapter in your life.^{[10]
X
Research source}
- This dream is not a bad sign. If you’re in the middle of a transitional period in your life—whether that means changing jobs or schools, moving on from a relationship, or moving to a different place—remember that you can handle this.

10

Escaping the Daily Grind

Some Jewish scholars see losing teeth as signaling easy days ahead. The 17th-century Jewish mystic Yoel Baal Shem, for example, thought of teeth as representing labor—after all, we have to use them to grind our food together in order to sustain ourselves. Losing your teeth in a dream indicates that you are in a position where things like money and success come to you easily and without effort.^{[11]
X
Trustworthy Source
Chabad.org
Online resource for information related to Chabad-Lubavitch and Jewish culture
Go to source}

11

Experiencing Family Difficulties

In Chinese traditions, teeth can be stand-ins for family. Losing your tooth in a dream is a sign that you don’t feel like your relationships with your family are totally secure. The loss of an upper tooth indicates that your relationship with an elder member of your family is undergoing strain, and a lower tooth means that you’re experiencing difficulties with a younger family member.^{[12]
X
Research source}
- Chinese dream interpretation is heavily dependent on who the dreamer is. For example, an investor who dreams of losing her teeth may be experiencing money trouble.

12

Feeling Sexual Anxiety

In psychoanalysis, dreams about losing teeth can be sexual metaphors. For the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, men who dreamed about losing their teeth may be experiencing a fear of castration, that they would lose their sexual capacity. For Freud’s fellow psychoanalyst Carl Jung, women with this dream may be experiencing anxiety over the possibility of being a mother, with teeth representing a future child.^{[13]
X
Trustworthy Source
PubMed Central
Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
Go to source}
- When Freud came up with this idea, he was arguing against what was then the most common interpretation of this dream, that it represented death.