You know the dream, your tongue’s having a quick shufty round your mouth only to find that your teeth are rotting and crumbling and can be lifted clean out of their sockets. Nooooo! How can this be happening? You brush with all the regularity of Old Faithful; you floss more than anyone else you know and keep mouthwash in your desk drawer at work. You’re always fresh and fluoride fortified.  

And then you wake up. 

Or you catch sight of yourself in a mirror and one of your teeth is suddenly crooked, after years of dedication to teeth straightening and all the care and courage that takes. This can’t be happening. The distress is high enough to wake you up. And your teeth are exactly where they should be, tucked up in your retainer. Oh, hang on, you forgot to put your retainer in ...  

While we hate to dash the efforts of those who like to interpret dreams by dusting off the trusty Dream Dictionary and thumbing their way to ‘T’ for teeth and reading about psychological distress – fears of growing old, fear of failing, fear of rejection, fear of losing looks, it’s not a comforting read – it does seem a team of psychologists are part way to finding teeth dreams are linked to physical rather than symbolic meaning.   

Yup, time to put the Dream Dictionary back on the shelf, everybody! We might need to consider the role of dental irritation, particularly teeth grinding.

Plenty people don’t know they grind their teeth in their sleep. How could they? They’re asleep! But it seems distressing dreams about your teeth might be a sign.  

Whether you’re jaw clenching or actively engaged in sleep bruxism (that’s teeth grinding to you and I), it seems signals from your body seep into your dreams. It’s a little like when you have The Wee Dream and there’s no free toilet. You get the drift.  

Teeth really can develop fractures from the pressure of bruxism. A human jaw delivers 120-160 lbs of pressure per square inch.  Ooof!  No wonder we can wake up with a headache. Your dentist can pick up signs at your regular check-up and may suggest a sleep guard. 

Once the physical sensations start, the dreaming and emotional part of us interprets this with a terrifying narrative spin. Cue sitting in your long dead Auntie Annie’s sitting room with a cat wearing a balaclava who has agreed to pay your family a king’s ransom if you spit your teeth out. Surreal, but horrifyingly convincing at the time. Wake me up!  

You’ve got to hand it to the clever body and mind rousing us to protect our teeth and jaw.  

But, then, of course, we’re full of adrenaline from the dream and we can’t get back to sleep.  It’s true when we say oral health is health, see?  

A dream scenario might cause us to clench our teeth in our sleep, and we wake up with a tense jaw. No one is quite sure just yetwhich way round the chicken or egg are and both things could be true for different individuals.  It’s a case of more research is needed. We’ll watch that space for you ...

Sleep well, don’t have nightmares.