Teeth

I broke a tooth a few weeks ago -- back right molar. I was eating a bite of my frosted-shredded-mini-wheats and "pop" off it came. So I had it crowned. For those of you who don't know, crowning a tooth involves whittling it down to a little nub and putting a fake one on top. The dentist did a great job. It actually involved very little pain on my part ... except perhaps financially.

The tooth-breaking and the visits to the dentist have caused a resurgence in tooth dreams for me. (Note: I really hope I'm not revealing something twisted about my subconscious. You never know with dreams.) These dreams always are some variation on the following:

-I bite down hard on something, and my teeth crumble and fall out, or
-I wake up and my mouth is full of something, so I spit it out, and it is teeth, or
-My teeth have already fallen out and I spend the dream trying to find ways to put them back in my mouth and stick there.

I like to analyze things (shocked silence. None of you knew that about me, did you?) I've figured out lots of symbols in my dreams ... oceans and waves mean I feel out of control. Animals mean kids, and by extension responsibility ... but I can't figure out the tooth thing. Growing old? Inability to communicate? They are mostly unpleasant dreams, so I don't think it is something good. Fear of losing the ability to eat?

Back to reality, we were in the car yesterday and I reached back to wiggle Gabe's loose tooth ... the one that has been hanging out in his mouth for several months. Gabe doesn't like it when I wiggle his teeth. He thinks I'm going to try and pull them out. But this time I was fast. Pop, out it came. I didn't even pull that hard. We were both really surprised. This is number three for him. The tooth fairy switched from cute little presents to dollar bills because she is already tired of trying to think of fun toys small enough to fit under pillows.

I wonder if Gabe has tooth dreams? He will now.