in dreams

I've not been shy about sharing my experiences with odd-ball dreams. They happen. A. Lot. The last two nights have been no different.

I'm prone to the "teeth dream", y'all know that one? Mine generally go something like this. I'm having a typically normal day and I eat something, and my teeth crumble. They are all loose in my gums and then as I talk I'm spitting out splinters of crumbled teeth. This goes on for what seems like an eternity, clearly I've spit out more pieces of teeth than I ever could have had in my mouth. Many, many mouthfuls of teeth have been spit out. And while this happens I am mostly panicked, anxious, and embarrassed (diagnosis right there!) I've had this dream often, in various forms. But, last night. Well. The dream began to get smart.

In my dream last night it was a typically normal day, and then my teeth were loose in my gums, and they were falling out. This time, though, they were not crumbles. They were whole teeth. And my dream-self was perplexed. I never have tried to salvage the crumbles...but, whole teeth?! Maybe they can be fixed. So I began to try and discretely save the teeth, through the anxiety and embarrassment so I could go to the dentist. (as a side note, I put them in a glass of milk because I remembered this commercial from when I was a kid, with a bear who fell off a skateboard, telling you to put the lost tooth in milk and get to the dentist quickly!) My dream-self was under the impression that far too many teeth had fallen out, and I actually said to someone in my dream that "this can't be real, too many teeth have fallen out for this to be real!" So I took the saved teeth and counted, sure to reach something like 55 (and, mind you, I still had about 12 left in my mouth). But, I only counted ten that had fallen out. And ten holes in my gums. And, dream-me started to panic more. Dream-me decided, "This must be real! In dreams they are crumbles, these are real teeth. I've lost my real teeth...and I don't even have a dentist here!" And levels of panic and anxiety were reached that I can't say I've felt in a dream before.

When I woke up this morning, no teeth were missing, and they look just fine. But, maybe I should finally find a dentist!