Toothache: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What toothache is

Toothache is pain in or around a tooth. It can be a sharp pain when you bite or drink something hot, cold or sweet, a throbbing ache, or pain that spreads to the jaw, ear or head. The most common causes are tooth decay, a cracked or broken tooth, a lost filling, an infection at the root (an abscess), gum disease, a wisdom tooth coming through, or sensitive teeth where the gum has receded. Sinusitis and grinding the teeth can also feel like toothache.

A dentist finds the cause and treats it, with a filling, a root canal treatment, treatment of the gums or, if needed, removing the tooth. Painkillers can ease the pain while you wait for an appointment. Toothache rarely goes away for good on its own, and an untreated infection can spread.

The emotional meaning of toothache

Spiritually, dental problems are linked to decisions, and toothache most of all. You put off deciding because the consequences frighten you and make you feel unsafe. This is about personal responsibility, and the ability to choose without fearing what will happen later. The indecision may come from not having the whole picture of a situation, so you cannot draw the right conclusions.

Rage at not being heard

In French, an intense toothache is a "rage of teeth". The pun is taken seriously: rage may have taken hold because you are angry with yourself for not being able to say what you want. You would like to show your teeth, to grumble your way into your place, to show that you exist and that you have power. You want to be listened to and respected. And instead, you keep your mouth shut. When the pain sits in the root, it is read as rage about a situation where you are afraid of losing a family member.

Pain that comes back

Toothache often returns in "painful" situations where you have to detach from a person or a situation. If something has not been fully settled, the pain is read as lingering, even after a tooth is taken out. The pain is seen as a sign that the anger is no longer useful, and that it is time to stop putting pressure on yourself over the part of life the tooth stands for. Communicating your needs and wishes is the way through.

Nerves at the dentist

Many people dread the dentist and put it down to needles. Spiritually, work on the teeth is read as touching emotions you would rather avoid, which is why it is common to feel emotional and jittery in the chair. That is a reason to tell your dentist how you feel, not a reason to stay away.

Other tooth troubles

• Teeth that push forward are read as rushing decisions, wanting everything to go faster, and compromising constantly to be loved. Teeth that lean back are read as putting on the brakes and folding in on yourself.
• Difficult teething in a baby is read as feeling lost, not knowing who or what to lean on. No sensitivity at all is read as a way of escaping unpleasant situations and turning a deaf ear to the body's messages.
• Tartar is read as an inner aggression, an old reaction that has not been resolved and comes back up. It can harden your positions and become armour against attacks from outside. You may be living for others instead of following your own wishes.
• A broken tooth is read as a confrontation with someone or something bigger and more powerful than you, and a stubborn fight for your ideas that goes beyond your strength.
• Baby teeth that stay are read as holding on to childlike ways out of a fear of growing up. Losing teeth early, or with age, is read as feeling that others make your decisions for you, so you can no longer bite into life or show your teeth. Teeth that never formed are read as a question of independence, especially from your mother, and of speaking freely without fearing the consequences.

What each tooth may suggest

The teeth develop over many years, and each one is linked to a feeling or emotion. The sides below are the person's own right and left, as a dentist numbers them.

By quarter of the mouth

• Upper right (teeth 11 to 18): difficulty finding your place.
• Upper left (21 to 28): difficulty bringing your desire to be into reality.
• Lower right (41 to 48): difficulty building your life in concrete terms.
• Lower left (31 to 38): not receiving the emotional recognition you need from your family.

The right side is read as the rational, concrete, material side; the left as affection, intuition, desire and sensitivity. Upper teeth are read as intuition and instinct, lower teeth as rational decisions and what you physically want to do.

By type of tooth

• Central incisors: the parents. The upper right (11) stands for the father and authority, the upper left (21) for the mother. The lower central incisors (31, 41) stand for the place the mother and father take in everyday life.
• Lateral incisors (12, 22, 32, 42): your reactions to your parents. Pushed forward, they are read as wanting to be stronger than them and independent early; set back, as submitting or feeling overprotected.
• Canines (13, 23, 33, 43): they arrive around puberty and stand for great inner transformations, the body, and the capacity to choose. The upper right relates to visible change and plans for the future; the upper left to inner change and submission; the lower left to inner change showing in the family, and a sense of having to live everything in silence or serve others; the lower right to determination and the growth of the body.
• First premolars (14, 24, 34, 44): who you are and what you want. Expressing yourself in society, your inner sensitivity and childhood dreams, how you put your will into daily and emotional life, and friendship and carrying projects through.
• Second premolars (15, 25, 35, 45): desires you want to realise, creativity, and betrayals. What you want to create in the world, your particular gifts, your relationship with your mother in daily life, and work or a friend's betrayal.
• First molars (16, 26, 36, 46): they arrive around six or seven and show how you take your place and your need to be recognised: in society, in your feelings, in your parents' affection, and very concretely in work and projects.
• Second molars (17, 27, 37, 47): they arrive around twelve and relate to your interactions with others and how you are seen: daily life and work, expectations not met, disappointments made worse by an act, and intense conflicts where words or gestures were exchanged.
• Wisdom teeth (18, 28, 38, 48): they arrive around twenty-one and stand for your spiritual life, your mission, your worth and helping others: the strength to be fully present in the world, a fear of not fitting in, expressing your views and feelings to the world, and being well grounded.

A gentler way to hold it

A toothache needs a dentist. The emotional perspective asks which decision has been waiting.

• Structure your thinking. Lay out the situation on paper so you can see the whole of it before you decide.
• Say what you need. The rage in a toothache is read as words that never came out. Find one to say.
• Notice the side and the tooth. Ask which part of your life it stands for, and what you are being invited to do there.
• Let go where it is asked. If a person or a situation is ending, give yourself room to grieve it.
• Mark your own space. You do not have to bend to everyone in order to be loved.
• Bite into life. Choose one thing you want and take a real step towards it.