If you’ve ever had a dream where your teeth fell out at a tap, rotted or were growing crooked, you know that it can be a scary experience that can leave quite a lasting impression. Getting to the root of dreams of teeth falling out can assuage the fear and disgust associated with these visceral dreams and point you to their possible causes. The state of our teeth is an important indicator of overall physical health, and healthy teeth are part of an attractive appearance. Teeth are crucial to our sense of personal independence and efficacy: we use our teeth to bite, chew, and form speech. What happens to your dream teeth may reflect your feelings about your health; your appearance and how others perceive you; or your sense of personal agency and ability to shape your life.

Healthy teeth are part of a healthy body. Dreams of teeth falling out, becoming crooked or rotting could indicate underlying dental problems that your conscious mind isn’t aware of. Traditionally, dreams in which you have no teeth were thought to be a sign of malnutrition, which may still be the case for some populations. Unhealthy dream teeth can be a stand-in for overall poor health or physical discomfort: ask yourself if you feel you’ve been adequately nourishing and taking care of your body. Maybe you’re suffering from a persistent low-grade illness or condition that your dreams are warning you about. Consider taking steps to improve your health by visiting your doctor or dentist for a checkup.

Because healthy teeth are also physically attractive, if you lose or damage your teeth in a dream it can indicate anxiety about how attractive you are to others. A dream about teeth falling out may relate to fears of sexual impotence, a lack of social confidence, or the fear of getting old (losing teeth used to be a common aspect of aging). Women going through menopause often report dreams of teeth falling out or becoming disfigured, which might express their fear of losing their attractiveness and femininity after menopause. It might help to examine any physical insecurities you have and explore ways you can feel better about them. As long as it hasn’t become an obsession, it’s natural and healthy to care about your appearance.

Teeth also represent our sense of personal agency: our ability to make choices and shape the course of our lives. Our teeth contribute to our survival by allowing us to bite and chew our food; in this way we exert an influence on the physical world with our teeth. Furthermore, teeth allow us to form human speech: along with the lungs and vocal cords (which provide the breath and tones for speech), your tongue interacts with your teeth and hard palette to generate the sounds of coherent speech. Literally, our teeth help give us a voice.

The survival functions of teeth also come into play in dreams. If you lose your teeth in a dream, it may mean that you feel powerless in some aspect of your waking life. Perhaps you feel your opinions are being ignored at work or home, or are struggling to get your point across in an argument or debate. Feeling your voice is being ignored could be a stimulus for dreams in which you lose your teeth and thus, symbolically, your voice. If you dream about teeth falling out, it could indicate you are ceding power and control to someone else. Alternatively, you may feel you have been given too much power— on a work project or organizing a social event, for example— and are worried about making a fool of yourself. A dream where your teeth fall out could represent your anticipation of embarrassment at messing up a responsibility that has been entrusted to you.

The type and actions of teeth in a dream also contribute to the meaning: if someone else’s teeth fall out in a dream, it may represent your feelings about them rather than yourself. For example, if you dream of your supervisor’s teeth falling out it might mean your fear of them is overstated; that they are “all bark and no bite”. Dreams involving biting or animal teeth could signify aggression that you feel you are either receiving from or directing at someone else.

Dreaming of having a gold tooth fall out is especially linked to a loss of personal agency. According to Carl Jung, gold is the color of the Self, including both our conscious and unconscious sides; if you lose a gold tooth, it could mean that your life’s path has been diverted and you aren’t being true to yourself. Jung believed that teeth represented strength and our ability to change reality. If they’re falling out in your dreams, it could be a warning that you’re about to make a serious mistake in your life, perhaps regarding an issue you’ve been avoiding: because teeth let us bite into things, to see them fall out in a dream may represent your unwillingness to “bite into” the issue at hand. A related dream is one in which you visit a dentist to have teeth removed. Depending on how you feel in your dream about the procedure, this can be a scary dream or a relieving one. If you feel relief once the tooth is gone, the scenario might be a resolution dream to let you know that you’ve successfully dealt with the troubling issue and extracted it from your life.

Much as the health of your teeth indicates your overall health, the nature of teeth dreams can indicate the health of your subconscious. If your teeth are generally beautiful and healthy in your dream, it can simply mean that you are happy with your current life and work and confident of your long-term goals. However, if your teeth are rotten, crooked or absent in your dream, or if your dream teeth falling out is a common ocurrence, it might mean you are dissatisfied with your life and need to make a change for a healthier future.