The internet is constantly reinforcing certain beauty standards for both men and women. These days, more and more boys and young men are aspiring to have strong jawlines, with some even turning to “facial fitness gum” to achieve a more chiseled look.
Some gum companies, especially Tick tockThen there are those who claim that their gum-chewing habit gives them a more defined jawline. The idea is that chewing gum enlarges the jaw muscles, giving them a more defined, more masculine shape. One such company, Stronger Gum, says on its website that “Stronger jaw muscles are not only beneficial to the appearance of your face, but are essential to your health.” This is similar to the “chin trainer,” a silicone product that you chew on to strengthen your jaw. But scientifically speaking, there’s little evidence that gum chewing, or really anything, no matter how hard that gum is, can make any significant, lasting changes to the shape of your face.
“Gum is readily available and not too difficult to chew, so I understand the appeal,” says Santosh Kumar Shivam, a facial plastic surgeon at Baylor College of Medicine, “but from a facial plastic surgeon’s perspective, I have some concerns.”
“There are a variety of reasons why you might not have the desired jawline contour,” says Shivam. Softer jawlineThe same goes for sagging skin in older adults, and making lifestyle changes and losing a little weight can often really change the contours of your jawline.
Moreover, Shivam says, the downside to the chin gum concept is that people tend to want their jaws to look bony and protruding. Chewing gum doesn’t do anything to your jawline, it just adds muscle mass to your jaw. And you’d have to chew gum for long periods of time, all day, probably for weeks, to really see any benefits. If you stop chewing gum consistently, the benefits quickly fade.
“I don’t think these people, especially younger people, understand the impact of their behavior,” says John S. Volasi, chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “An hour to an hour and a half a day of clenching is enough for the average person,” he says. If you increase that to four to five hours a day, “that’s way beyond the limits of what we normally do, and you’re going to see side effects associated with that.”
The side effects of excessive gum chewing are quite similar to those of chronic jaw clenching or teeth grinding, says Vorassi: “Many people experience headaches when they overuse these muscles.” It can also damage tissue in the temporomandibular joint, or the overused muscles can go into spasm, causing mouth lock.
When patients experience pain in their temporomandibular joints, “one of the biggest things we recommend is to not chew gum at all,” Shivam says. If the pain gets severe, “we have to put patients on a special diet that completely restricts gum chewing for a few weeks. The pain is really difficult to deal with.”
If you still have a desire to change the shape of your face, Shivam says lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, are the first step. Beyond that, to truly change the shape of your jaw, you’ll have to turn to cosmetic surgery. Options for changing the shape of your jaw include jawline contouring implants, dermal fillers, fat dissolving or fat removal surgery, and neck lifts.
Voracey says there are some things our bodies just can’t do, and those who are genuinely interested should “speak to an expert to discuss how you can get the benefits without doing yourself unnecessary harm.”
