Should you jump on this chew-chew train? TikTokers have been promoting the chewing of so-called “facial gum” to give you a more chiseled jaw line. The claim is that chomping on such gum for extended periods of time will exercise and thus strengthen your jaw muscles. And stronger jaw muscles will supposedly make you more like Henry Cavill, Lord Farquadd from Shrek, and other men with chiseled jaw lines, which presumably is a swipe right quality. The question is whether these TikTokkers are using any scientific evidence to support such claims. Well, sorry to burst everyone’s gum bubble here, but the answer is not really.
Various companies such as Stronger Gum, Jawz and Rockjaw have been marketing these “facial gums” that are supposed to be tougher to chew and can last longer than more standard types of gum. They are comprised of different type of tree resin called mastic. The theory is that while you chewing this gum anywhere from 30 minutes up to two hours, you are giving your jaw quite a workout, making the muscles stronger.
Stronger Gum, for example, says on its website: “Stronger jaw muscles are not only beneficial for facial appearance but also essential for health.” The website goes on to say, “Strong jaw muscles promote correct oral posture: mouth closed, teeth aligned, tongue resting against the roof of mouth and stable head position.” It even talks about how this can help breathing and “providing up to 20% more oxygen to your body.”
So, are these “facial gum” manufacturers posting clinical trials that compared the faces of people who chewed their gum with those who didn’t or chewed some kind of placebo. Not exactly. Some people have pointed to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports in 2019, entitled “Forceful mastication activates osteocytes and builds a stout jawbone.” But, there was something very mice rather than human about this study. It showed that fats who were fed a diet consisting of harder foods ended up exhibiting greater chewing force. This is turn led to more growth factors in bone-producing cells in the jawbone called osteocytes and as a result more bone formation.
This study, though. did not evaluate whether these mice ultimately looked more like Henry Cavill by the end of the experiment. It also didn’t determine whether these mice got more swipe rights on Tinder or dates in general. More bone formation in jaws doesn’t automatically translate to more chiseled jaws. Plus, mice ain’t exactly the same as humans.
It turns out changing the structure of your face may not be that easy without significant surgery. If it were so easy to change your facial structure by altering what you chew on, you might see more changes in people’s facial appearances whenever they changed their diets as in “Oh, Jim, sorry I mistook you for Timothée Chalamet. You must have been eating more nuts recently.” Even if changing what and how you chew were to affect your jaw components in some way, more evidence is needed to show whether and how this may change you appearance.
At the same time, chewing more and with greater force is not without its risks. You could end up with jaw pain, headaches, and other temporomandibular joint syndrome symptoms. Depending on what you chew, you could even damage your teeth and other structures in and around your mouth.
This facial gum trend seems to be yet another attempt at “looksmaxxing,” a larger trend where men try to alter their physical appearance. I’ve already written for Forbes about other “looksmaxxing” trends such as bone smashing, where men have hit their faces with hammers in attempts to change the shapes of their faces. A key point to hammer home is that many things you see on social media are not supported by scientific evidence and can in fact be quite dangerous.
