Dreams can provide important information about the physical and psychological processes taking part in the mind and body; processes that the individual may not acknowledge consciously. Dreaming can serve as a way to solve problems by exploring situations in dream fantasy without the risk of taking the same steps in reality.
How Dream Analysis Works
Dreams work by converting the feelings and concerns of the dreamer into visual or sensory images and then playing out the conflicts that may arise from these in a dream scenario. For example, in his book The New Dream Dictionary, Tony Crisp describes how a woman dreamed she was being crushed underneath a large Boots lorry. She then went on to explain that she worked for Boots and was feeling pressured by the company to work more overtime. The dream transformed her feelings of being pressured into the literal form of being physically crushed, and her feelings about the strong power the company had over her into the physical shape of a lorry (helpfully decorated with the Boots logo!).
Interpretation - What Does it Mean When a Teeth or a Tooth Fall out in Dreams?
Teeth falling out can represent a number of things. Teeth are crucially related to aging and define distinct changes in development. The first tooth marks the passage of the newborn to older babyhood. The loss of baby teeth and growth of adult teeth marks the passage from young childhood to older childhood. And the loss of teeth altogether marks the passage of mature adulthood into old age. Such dreams could be linked to the fear of aging or of entering a new stage of maturity, and how that will change the image of the dreamer. It may also mean a sense of loss linked to actual loss of a loved one or family member. It could also suggest the loss of the dreamer’s ‘grip’ on life or on some aspect of their life. These sorts of teeth dreams may have become more common due to the anxieties and stresses of modern industrial life, especially since the credit crunch and the beginning of recession.
Dreams about teeth are extremely common, along with dreams about falling, being chased and being naked in public. Because teeth, like face and hair in dreams, can represent a range of things the dreamer will need to work out what is represented by teeth in their own particular dream by thinking about real life issues, past or present, which may be affecting their psyche. Teeth can variously represent aggression, the ability to chew or begin to digest information, one's ‘grip’ on life, and the words that one does or doesn't say.
What do Dreams About False or Rotten Teeth Mean?
Dreaming of a bad tooth can symbolise a painful or rotten part of the dreamer’s life or perhaps words that the dreamer regrets saying. Dreaming of false teeth could represent the dreamer presenting a false front to the world, telling lies, not keeping promises, or anxieties about aging and losing good looks. Spitting out teeth may relate to something the dreamer wants to “spit out” or say, but fears to do so.
Dreams will often translate popular idioms into concrete scenarios. For example the idiom “I can’t handle this” to convey a sense of helplessness may be dreamed of as something literally escaping from the hands. Idioms relating to teeth include showing one’s teeth (aggression), getting one’s teeth into (engagement), gnashing one’s teeth (fury, despair), gritting one’s teeth (determination) and teething troubles (initial problems).
Analysis of Losing Teeth in Dreams in Other Cultures
Different cultures have interpreted dreams about teeth in different ways.
In the Arab world, it is believed that that dreams about losing your teeth means that a male family member is in trouble or danger. The Greek diviner Artemidorus, writer of the dream treatise “Oneirocritica” in the 2nd century AD, believed that dreams about losing a tooth meant losing a member of your household. And African tradition holds that dreams about losing a tooth predict the loss of a wife or child.
The Interpretation of Dreams
There are two main traditions of dream interpretation, both of which have a long and respected history. One is that dreams are influenced by mystical, supernatural or religious powers which can predict the future – as in the biblical story of Joseph and his interpretation of the Pharaoh’s dreams.
The second school of thought holds that dreams are the product of the mind of the dreamer, providing a metaphorical playground for the unconscious emotions of the dreamer. This article is written in the spirit of the latter tradition; however it is true that the insights thrown up by this opportunity to explore the vastness of the unconscious can be of revelatory quality – that is, they can sometimes show things that the dreamer could not be aware of in any other way.
According to this second tradition, each dream is specific to the dreamer and their thoughts, emotions, circumstances and concerns. Therefore, it is the dreamer who is best placed to interpret their dream and answer the question “what does it mean?” Hopefully this article will help to guide the dreamer through the process of self dream analysis.
Free dream analysis and free dream interpretation are easily available online for specific dreams. But the dreamers themselves hold the best answers.
Sources:
Tony Crisp The New Dream Dictionary.
Cathy Anne Smith - Hello :) I wrote for Suite 101 until March 2011 and now publish my own fiction at Poems and Short Stories to Read Online .
