Chewing gum can help your smile?

Is chewing gum bad for your teeth or can it help fight cavities like the advertisements claim?

Studies have shown that chewing sugar free chewing gum after and in between meals can help to protect our teeth from developing tooth decay. Vogle et al., (1998)

 

Chewing sugar free gum helps to stimulate and increase the amount of saliva we produce. Saliva helps to cleanse the mouth and neutralise the acid produced when we eat or drink sugary foods. (See Dental Decay).

 

Sugar free chewing gum often contains an artificial sweetener called Xylitol which has been found to reduce the amount of bacterial plaque in the mouth helping to prevent dental decay.

 

Make sure you only chew sugar free chewing gum, the sugar varieties may cause tooth decay instead of preventing it.

 

Remember be responsible! Dispose of your used gum properly - place it in a bin.

 

Did you know?

  • It costs 150 million pounds a year to remove chewing from our streets.
  • Chewing gum takes 5 years to biodegrade

 

Remember: Gum goes into the bin just as easy as it goes under the table. Be responsible and use the bin and not the floor or the underside of a table.