Hard Chewing Gum
“the muscles can have a significant effect on facial form”, our ancestors had better facial development and perfect straight teeth, there’s ample evidence to suggest that its the transition into soft diet that is the root cause of crooked teeth and poor facial development of modern society. Strong jaw muscles will lead to closed mouth posture, nasal breathing, more forward mid face(greater facial aesthetics), more horizontal lower jaw.
Option 1: Mastiha Gum
The Mastiha Gum harvested from Mastiha Tree that grows in an island of Greece is the toughest gum / food I have found to date. It has been used many centuries as nature’s gum with health benefits to the mouth and stomach. It comes in crystal form, which you crush in your mouth like candy but as you chew and warm it up it slowly molds together to form a very tough chewing gum. Your whole mouth, jaw & cheekbones will get very sore, and I have noticed increase in muscle tone which is beginning to have positive effects to my lower jaw and oral posture. It is currently my gum of choice for jaw workout. I’m seeing results with 1-2 hours of use daily, but sometimes I do more.
<Link to gum if above hyperlink isn’t working>
Option2: Falim Gum
Before the Mastiha gum above, I found the Falim gum from Turkey. Although it is not as touch as the Mastiha hum, it is still much much better than the typical gum found in stores. It may be a good place to start before you’re ready to chew harder. Some qualities of it include:
- not much flavor but I quite like that. Stays tough for long time, easily can have 1 gum last all day maybe more if you want. So it seems pricey but imo worth it.
- Made of natural stuff. Sugar Free gum. No artificial sweeteners.
- Doesn’t stick to braces like regular gum.
- Significantly feel more soreness in the jaws with extended use compared to regular soft gums found in stores (one amazon reviewer gave low rating because it made their jaws sore)
- Once I started chewing this I noticed significant shift in jaw posture, where keeping teeth in contact during the day became automatic and keeping jaw closed during sleep is becoming the new habit where as before chewing gum my jaws would fall open during sleep (when noticing right upon waking / half asleep state)
- Which leads me to confirm the statement “it is the muscle tone that determines resting posture”
- Overtime this new oral posture, and increase in muscle tone should lead to positive facial development changes (even in adults) More to report later…
- Research has been done that showed the interpupillary distance (distance between eyes) are wider on those with strong muscle tone. So those who chew more their faces are actually wider. Wider shorter faces are more attractive than Narrower longer faces.