In a method for monitoring a functional state of a shaping tooth arrangement on a forming tool, at measurement times which are temporally staggered with respect to each other at a plurality of measurement locations on the shaping tooth arrangement, a tooth arrangement force is measured which acts on the shaping tooth arrangement. At each of the measurement times for each of the measurement locations an instantaneous local tooth arrangement force is thereby determined. A previous instantaneous local tooth arrangement force and a subsequent instantaneous local tooth arrangement force are correlated with each other to determine a local state identification value. On the basis of the local state identification values associated with the measurement locations, information is obtained relating to the functional state of the shaping tooth arrangement.