It’s that dream again. Your teeth are falling out. Maybe it happens one by one, or they clatter to the ground in a collective whoosh. Maybe they slowly crumble or instantly crack down the middle. Whatever the dream looks like, it’s disturbing to say the least. You wake up and think, What could this possibly mean? Why am I having such a bizarre dream?
Strange as they may be, dreams about teeth falling out or rotting are a common theme—so much so that one trial investigated possible physiological and psychological causes for these particular dreams. Another study discovered that 39% of participants had a dream like this at least once.
“Dreaming about your teeth falling out is a very common stress dream,” says Chelsie Rohrscheib, PhD, head sleep expert and neuroscientist at Wesper, a sleep optimization company.
Hopefully there’s some comfort to be found in knowing how typical these dreams are, but keep reading to learn about why they happen, and how to better handle the anxiety or worry you might feel about them.
Why do you dream about your teeth falling out?
Some theories of dreams about your teeth falling out include a loss in your life, an issue in communication, or a dissatisfaction with your appearance. And philosophers and researchers have been wondering about what dreams might mean since ancient Grecian times.
In a recent trial, to try to get to the bottom of why this dream is so common, the study authors tested two hypotheses:
- Teeth-related dreams may stem from dental irritation—meaning tenderness or tension in the teeth, gums, or jaws.
- Dental irritation most often comes from grinding your teeth in the night. And that can come from stress and anxiety.
The researchers did find that there was a correlation between dental irritation and dreams about teeth falling out, but it wasn’t as significant as they expected. They also found only a weak correlation between psychological distress and dreams about teeth. They note, however, that their study is preliminary and cite prior research that did find a strong correlation between distress and teeth dreams.
Do dreams mean anything?
Dr. Rohrscheib says that, “We can’t understand the exact reason why this dream occurs. However, it may be due to the fact that anything in our life that is stressful causes us to be in a state of fight-or-flight mode, and may manifest as something as simple, yet disturbing, as tooth loss.”
There is much debate in the psychology field about whether dreams really have any actual meaning. April Kilduff, MA, LCPC, LMHC, says, “There are people that say dreams do mean things and get very mystical about it, such as, ‘if you dream about a black cat, that’s bad luck.’ But not many people in the psychology field are invested in this type of theory.”
“There are other people who would say dreams are your brain working out things that happened that day or stress that you’re dealing with, and it might come out in certain ways,” she says. And, a third camp, “there are people who look at dreams as just a ‘mental event’ that happens when you’re sleeping, and it means absolutely nothing about you or about anything you may or may not do.”
Amalia Sirica, LCSW, says that despite this lack of consensus in the psychology field, “The subconscious is very interesting, so I can understand why people wonder about what dreams mean.” She also says she’s seen plenty of clients who feel distress over their dreams—including ones about their teeth falling out.
At the end of the day, we don’t have any solid, empirical evidence for what dreams mean or represent. Perhaps the better question, then, is why we worry about them and how we can manage that worry.
There are people who look at dreams as just a ‘mental event’ that happens when you’re sleeping, and it means absolutely nothing about you or about anything you may or may not do.
Amalia Sirica, LCSW
Why do you feel distressed about your dreams?
It’s a natural human curiosity to want to know what’s going on in our brains—that’s not necessarily a problem. But what if you just can’t let it go? If you’re spending excessive time and energy trying to figure out what your dreams about your teeth falling out mean, and it’s bringing you distress and impairment?
You may have heard of an intrusive thought before—those unwanted thoughts that pop in our heads and trigger some distress or worry. What you may not know is that dreams can be intrusive, too. Anyone can have an intrusive thought or intrusive dream, but they’re especially common and distressing in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders.
“Aspects of what we do in our day-to-day lives often show up in our dreams,” says Lisa de Guzman, LCSW, PPSC, another clinician at NOCD—the leading telehealth provider of OCD therapy. So, “it stands to reason that if someone is spending so much of their waking life worried or anxious about something, some aspects of that can show up in their dreams.”
If you’re having recurring dreams about a specific distressing topic—like your teeth falling out—it can be worth reflecting on whether they’re connected to any anxiety you feel while awake. For example, someone with health anxieties might have scary dreams about experiencing health issues, including their teeth falling out.
People with OCD might also feel unable to dismiss bad dreams in general, and struggle to accept uncertainty about what they could mean. OCD causes people to take intrusive thoughts extremely seriously, and this applies equally to intrusive dreams. They might worry that dreams carry significance or hold secrets about who they are. Kilduff says it’s “not uncommon” for dreams to be an OCD trigger.
4 signs you should you get help for intrusive dreams
Again, there’s no need to immediately pathologize your worry over your dreams. But if this is something you’re really struggling with, here are a few good indicators that it’s time to seek help, according to Sirica:
1. You’re experiencing consistent distress. Distress can look like anxiety, fear, panic, guilt, shame, or embarrassment.
2. You’re feeling impaired in any way. Impairment can take many forms. It could look like trouble focusing on your responsibilities at work, school, or home; feeling unable to be present when spending time with a loved one; not engaging in your hobbies or passions; or a diminished sense of peace and fulfillment, for example.
3. You feel a deep need to know what your dreams mean or that they’re not a problem.
4. “Some topics that anxiety disorders or OCD latch onto are genuinely interesting in other contexts. What I try to share with people is that it’s not bad to wonder about something, but we have to watch out for when our worries get in the way of our lives or really cause distress. That’s when you might want to find help,” says Sirica.
We have to watch out for when our worries get in the way of our lives or really cause distress. That’s when you might want to find help.
Amalia Sirica, LCSW
How can you get help for worry over your dreams?
If the distress you feel about your dreams isn’t related to a particular condition, you could still benefit from treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in particular can help you understand the relationship between your thoughts, feelings, and actions. By understanding this relationship, you can be better equipped to handle and/or alleviate stress over your dreams—and understand where it may be coming from.
But if you resonated with any of the information on anxiety disorders or OCD, specialized treatment is needed. The most successful, evidence-based treatment for OCD and anxiety is a form of therapy called exposure and response prevention (ERP). Unlike traditional talk therapy, which can actually backfire and make these conditions worse, ERP is proven to be highly effective in the majority of people with anxiety or OCD.
By gradually confronting the thoughts and worries that trigger your anxiety, you learn over time to handle discomfort, worry, and uncertainty. You become desensitized and teach your brain that it can handle these feelings without finding the perfect answer. When you have a dream about your teeth falling out, instead of agonizing over what it might mean, you would sit with the uncertainty and move on with your day.
Whether the distress and/or impairment you’re going through as a result of your dreams is a symptom of a mental health condition or not, you can feel better, take your life back, and learn to not be so triggered by your dreams.
4 tips for managing anxiety about your dreams
1. Keep in mind that we all have dreams—and thoughts, for that matter—that don’t make sense to us or even align with who we are.
2. Learn to accept the uncertainty of dreams. This is easier said than done, but you can practice saying to yourself, Maybe this means something, maybe it doesn’t, and moving on with your day.
3. Try not to look at your dreams in a literal way. Dr. Rohrscheib says, “Instead of paying attention to the dream subject matter, consider instead how it makes you feel.” In other words, focus on how you respond to your dreams, rather than on your dreams themselves.
Though you can’t be totally certain about the why behind your dreams, you can learn to manage the discomfort they cause, whether you work with a professional or commit to intentional practice on your own.