What is the spiritual meaning behind teeth problems?
This question has been swirling around my head, after having dental issues and giving palmistry talks on digestion over the weekend. It’s amazing how much our teeth and jaw health impact our appetite for food (and life). What we take in through our mouths and energy fields defines us, so any trouble with our teeth limits our ability to grow and become larger than our problems.
In numerology, TEETH adds to 22/4, the same as HARD and WORK. So our teeth literally give us the strength we need to break down and digest difficult issues in life. See the number system I use.
June 2023 update – I highly recommend Meliors Simms, The Holistic Tooth Fairy (New Zealand based, works also by Zoom) for teeth and jaw healing readings! Her book The Secret Lives of Teeth just came out, which she crowdfunded. I have interviewed her in my Patreon and 11:11 World Changer groups and she’s available for public talks.
Check her out online, on Facebook, Instagram and Insight Timer (many free meditations and occasional mini-readings events). Disclaimer: i receive credit towards future sessions if you book in with Meliors and mention my name! Thanks in advance.
This whole shebang started when I went to my friend Sally’s place to do a workshop. There I was, talking about self-healing, when I bit into a raw food bliss ball and broke a tooth on an almond. As I clutched my mouth, I heard a little voice say ‘stop biting off more than you can chew!’ and had to laugh. This was the third time I’d chipped a tooth on an almond. Being a psychic, I knew this wasn’t a coincidence, but a deeper cry for healing.
As a 29/11/2 life path Spiritual Messenger, I tend to ‘bite off more than I can chew then chew like buggery’. This is not always productive…
Thus began a series of events, including:
-trips to the dentist to get a filling (I go to the Gold Coast Holistic Dentist).
-flashbacks about having braces. Between 7 and 16 years old I had more than a dozen extractions and started grinding my teeth because I felt no one listened to me (I now have a splint I wear at night).
-kinesiology treatment to treat the emotional cause. I’ve often wondered if I died by almonds (cyanide) in a previous life. Sure enough, within minutes of lying on the table, I saw and felt myself dying in a gas chamber. I started to gasp for air and my eyes swelled close and stung as if I was going blind. My vision only returned to normal once I forgave the people who killed me (i.e. once I saw the big picture and that love is the only way forward).
It’s amazing how anger can show up in our jaws and teeth, especially if we’ve been biting our tongue or holding our truth in.So what’s the moral of the story? Take your body seriously. If you have a recurring health problem, Google or look up the metaphysical meaning.
The only way our body can get our attention (if we don’t talk to it through meditation) is to create pain. It’s like a baby – it can only cry to get our attention, and it needs our help to get better.
Here’s the metaphysical explanation of teeth issues, based on my personal experience. I’m assuming you are living in a Western country with access to health care as I write this:
Tooth decay (through irregular brushing or poor diet)
Meaning: You find it hard to stick to routine and refuse to or don’t know how to look after your long-term needs. You mistrust authority, including your own.
Problems created: Loss of teeth and self-confidence. A feeling of avoiding the truth.
Solutions: This is a root and solar plexus chakra issue. You are disconnected from life. Without teeth you cannot eat or live, so allowing your teeth to rot is a sign you give your power away. It’s time to make peace with your pricelessness. Find your lifepath and the courage to walk it.
You cannot be replaced and you deserve to be here. Spend more time outdoors and with people who love you no matter what.
Grinding your teeth and TMJ
Meaning: You’re angry at not being able or allowed to communicate, be heard or speak up.
Problems created: Weakened teeth, headaches, a stiff neck, limited bite, lack of appetite from tension in your jaw. ‘Grinders’ favour liquid over solid food because they find chewing difficult. This can be a metaphor for a life half-lived!Solutions: This is a throat chakra issue. It’s time to make your thoughts known. Write a gratitude diary, learn public speaking or take up singing and chanting (Deva Premal, Snatam Kaur).
Listen to yourself and make your inner voice strong through quiet time alone. Read The Artists’ Way. Tell your inner critic to shut up (see my Develop Your Intuition and Banish Self-Doubt webinar.)
Have jaw release work or see a chiropractor – myofunctional therapy and self-massage and stretching has helped me so much. Use hypnosis to train your face to relax. I’ve also heard there is a link to gut parasites!
Bad breath
Meaning: You don’t pay attention to your body until it’s really annoyed with you. You’re too busy dealing with other people’s problems to handle your own. You’re giving too much and not receiving.
Problems created: People don’t want to get close to you, you feel unattractive, bad breath is often a sign of tooth decay (see above).
Solutions: This is a heart chakra issue. Breathe more deeply. You deserve love as much as anyone else. Listen to the beat of your heart, and only help when you want to. To do otherwise is to train others to exploit you. Get out of your comfort zone, take up a hobby or go on a holiday. You may also be hungry or dehydrated – keep a jug of non-fluoridated water in the bathroom and drink a cup whenever you go to the toilet.
Not chewing food properly – ‘Hoovering food’
Meaning: You’re in a hurry to get through life, and can’t see the point of following a process. You’re goal and future focused.
Problems created: Overeating, bloating, gas, indigestion and later-life digestive complaints. A sense of never being full or satisfied (because your body doesn’t register that you’ve eaten). Impatience – you want to do things quickly, even losing weight.
Solutions: This is a third eye chakra issue. When we can see the big picture, we stop trying to cut corners. One case of cancer costs AU$50,000-100,000 to treat. That’s a lot of massages and nice meals you could have enjoyed. There is no shortcut to happiness, or weight loss.
Happiness comes from being with yourself, and loving your wobble. Consider sitting down for meals, eating with friends, and blessing your food before eating. Make sure you are eating food you love, not food you think you should eat – we eat quickly if we’re trying to avoid tasting our meals.
Make it sacred – the way you eat is the way you live, after all! Please note, this article is not medical advice. All suggestions should be tested against your own common sense.
Related Links
Develop Your Intuition and Banish Self-Doubt – Webinar with Sarah Yip ($33)
Our inner voice and empathy is linked to our body intelligence, developing these qualities can change if not save your life!
Meliors Simms – The Holistic Tooth Fairy
Freddie Mercury’s Mystical 7 Life Path (plus Queen the Band’s Numerology) Mentions Freddie’s overbite and extra teeth – hyperdontia
5 Spiritual Causes of a Stiff Neck – Healing the Throat Chakra
The Spiritual Meaning of 9 Common Diseases, Part 1 of 2
Comments:
Tess Godfrey on Tuesday, 11 February 2014 12:39 PM
Thanks for posting this Sarah. I have a client who has had many teeth abscesses and we have made great progress except for 1 tooth on the upper right jaw (on the lung and L Iintestine meridian) that keeps getting infections despite using herbals and clay packs to detox. I am going to do a bit of Emotional Release work around self-value and taking the power back I think. Wishing you well Tess G
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Rosalind J. Medina on Friday, 27 June 2014 6:57 PM
You have deeply discussed the spiritual meaning behind teeth problems. Thanks for sharing..
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Serene on Saturday, 13 September 2014 4:25 AM
“Find your life purpose and the courage to walk it. You cannot be replaced and you deserve to be here. Spend more time outdoors and with people who love you no matter what.” Wow, so recently I have change in this area, life path (saturn return vibes too – almost 30 🙂 After a comprehensive dentist visit a few months ago, I was surprised to find such sensitivity on a tooth recently… I just had to google right now for the deeper meaning here 🙂 Many thanks to you for that explanation and reminder ; thank you from my body also ;):)
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Sarah Yip on Sunday, 14 September 2014 12:32 AM
Dear Serene, it’s super lovely to hear from you. Sounds like you could be a lifepath 29/11 like me or something similar…at our lifepath age we have massive wakeup calls. Glad to hear from you and thank you for your positive feedback. Blessings x
Monike on Tuesday, 10 February 2015 5:13 PM
I have bruxism. I’m breaking my teeth. Now it hurts really bad. Now i feel embarrassed when I smile so I don’t do it anymore. Spiritual meaning of grinding is absolutely true. God bless you.
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Kiron on Wednesday, 25 February 2015 5:23 AM
Good blog
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Sonia on Monday, 22 June 2015 2:22 AM
Thank you very much for sharing your insight with us. Well done!
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Sean Cabuchola on Thursday, 2 July 2015 5:53 PM
Wow this was such a beautiful and amazing read, thankyou for this profound insight, was so revealing… 🙂
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Kevin on Friday, 11 September 2015 10:17 PM
Sarah! Thanks for your great work and informative article! Super! Good luck!
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Lorrena Elliott on Monday, 14 December 2015 9:25 AM
Simply brillliant…on my path to being a spiritual teacher or rather a more effective one, I had to stop wonder why my teeth which had never given me a problem for 3 decades started to decay and break in the space of a year….I realise that you do give away my personal power a lot and have been trying to not be so love and light and trust my instinct to show compassion from afar rather than get involved in assisting with the transformation of others. In addition, I realised that I had been a little ungrounded when the tooth decay started and on reading this article, I finally came to terms with my past denial… I can’t thank you enough for this. So VERY important!
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Sonja on Friday, 19 February 2016 2:41 PM
As someone who is suddenly plagued with multitudes of problems with my teeth, decay in particular, the metaphysical explanations you share make perfect sense, given what has been manifesting in my life since the problems began, poining to the need to self care and self nuture. Thank you so much for your wisdom and insight.
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Elisa on Wednesday, 16 March 2016 11:11 PM
Thank you. This was very very useful for me. An inner voice is telling me to tell you that “you saved my life”. Thank you!
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Sarah Yip on Saturday, 24 September 2016 1:34 AM
Dear Elisa, thanks for your feedback, I’m glad to be able to assist – you didn’t provide an email and I only just saw your comment so not sure you will see my reply. You saved your own life by following your intuition and looking for information to help yourself. Give yourself a big hug and kiss from me 😀 Good luck in your spiritual adventures xx P.S. You’re clearly an 11:11 See’r too!
Marta on Saturday, 19 March 2016 12:53 PM
Hi. Thanks for posting this. Literally just now I lost a piece of a tooth. It’s strange because I have been bad with my diet for a while but for the past few months I’ve been very good. I was hoping this wouldn’t happen because I just made some extra special visits to my dentist to show how much I do care about my teeth and my body. Anyhow, I guess sometimes when we start to make positive changes that’s when our bodies also feel safe enough to let go.
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Prycilla Seth on Sunday, 17 July 2016 8:29 PM
Wow, I never considered the metaphysical aspect of teeth issues ever before reading your article. I’ll need to research more on this and think over other problems I might be having. Thanks for this!
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Lesley Morgan on Friday, 22 July 2016 3:36 AM
Hi Sarah really interesting site. I would be interested to know what the metaphysical meaning of the eye teeth/incisors is as I keep having a recurring problem with both of mine ie they are very sensitive and I have broken one of them. Thank you. Lesley
Tracy on 28 October 2020 (by email):
I wish I had the insight from this blog when I was grinding my teeth between 11 and 14 years old. I was diagnosed with TMJ and to this day cannot chew gum. I remember when my TMJ appeared in my life because it was manifesting as ear aches. My family was going through massive changes – we lost our house, my dad lost his job, and when the dust settled my parents weren’t speaking to my entire extended family.
My home environment became one of not speaking to each other and definitely not speaking up. On top of that I was permanently excluded from the only group of friends I had known up to that point. I even remember being at a sports practice and sitting there until well after dark because no one remembered to come pick me up.
Looking back the signs were so obvious. Instead I used these events as a reason to build up a tough exterior and decide I didn’t care about anyone else before they could show me they didn’t care about me 1st. The past is gone but I am thankful to have this insight now, as well as the wealth of other knowledge you share, so I can move forward making healthy decisions and loving myself more than ever.
