Though in some countries, chewing gum in public considered as rude but still this activity is very soothing for some people. Do you know that chewing gum is actually having therapeutic effect? Though there are a lot specific studies required but there are a lot of people have claimed how beneficial chewing gum is for their health especially for their oral and mental health. The list of benefits of chewing gum for oral health and beyond will be discussed here.
There must be the time when you were a kid and your parents forbid you from chewing too much gum. The reason is because gum could destroy your teeth. Well, the fact is, chewing gum is not going to destroy your teeth, the sugar is. So, for all the benefits of chewing gum you could choose sugar-free gum instead.Benefits of Chewing Gum for Oral Health
- Maintains the Oral Hygiene
There are a lot of studies that have proven chewing gum could help maintain the oral hygiene. When you eat, there is possibility of foods to be trapped within your teeth. Chewing gum could help cleaning them up because during the chewing activity the saliva is produced. Moreover, you could choose gum with specific ingredients that contain anti-bacterial agent like the health benefits of spearmint gum since spearmint leaves contain antimicrobial and antibacterial agents.
- Prevents Tooth Decay
One of the health benefits of chewing gum is preventing tooth decay. It is probably one thing that surprises you the most. However, only sugar-free chewing gum is good to prevent tooth decay because chewing gum will produce more saliva that helps cleaning up leftover foods within teeth and prevents the growth of bacteria that could cause tooth decay.
- Solution to Xerostomia
Xerostomia is a mouth condition well known as dry mouth. This condition is super uncomfortable and if this condition is not treated properly could lead to more severe conditions. The saliva produced during chewing activity could help relieving the uncomfortable feeling.
- Fights Bad Breath
Sugar-free chewing gum is not tasteless. You could choose chewing gum with mint flavor that could help fighting bad breath effectively. Moreover, bad breath is caused by bacteria that growth due to foods trapped within the teeth. Chewing gum could help cleaning them up and prevent them from growing.
- Reduces Cavities
Untreated xerostomia could lead conditions like cavities. However, it is not the only factor that could cause this condition. However, to reduce the risk of cavities you could just chewing gum. The saliva produced during the chewing activity has essential role in preventing or reducing the risk cavities in oral organ.
Benefits of Chewing Gum for Mental Health
There are a lot of people out there have claimed that chewing gum is actually making them calm and help them with their nerves. Actually, this simple activity has some benefits for mental health and already proven scientifically through specific studies.
- Self-Confidence Booster
Though in some countries, chewing gum while you are speaking to someone else is considered as rude but the fact that chewing gum could be an excellent self-confidence booster is already proven scientifically. The repetition of chewing activity is a natural therapy that could help calming down nervous and the result is full confidence.
- Combat Stress
There are a lot of factors that could cause stress and the health risk of stress. A pressure from work, activities at home, personal matters and so on. Whenever you feel stressful, why don’t you try to chewing gum and prove it yourself how effective this simple activity in helping you relieving the pressure of stress? It is because the repetition during the chewing activity could provide soothing effect you need to combat the stress situation.
- Reduces Anxiety and Depression
There is no instant way to fight the symptoms of depression. Anxiety is one of the early indications if whether someone is vulnerable to depression or not. To support this claim there are some studies dedicated to prove whether chewing gum could help relieving the anxiety and depression. Those studied have positive result whereas there is positive effect of chewing gum with mental health condition.
More Benefits of Chewing Gum
Not only for oral health and mental health, chewing gum has more benefits that may surprise you.
- Maintains Healthy Weight
The hardest part to maintain healthy weight is controlling your appetite. Well, if you cannot control your appetite and then you should try finding a solution that could prevent you from eating. Chewing gum is not only good for your oral and mental health but also prevent you from doing unnecessary snacking.
- Helps Against Addiction
The fact that chewing gum is used to help overcoming addiction has been proven. There are a lot of people have claimed how activity like chewing gum could help them overcoming their addiction especially smoking addiction. Whenever they feel like smoking, just chew some gums and they will instantly forget it.
- Improves Memory
Do you know that chewing gum could add more intelligent to your brain? Some of you might be thinking that it is impossible. The fact is the chewing activity will optimize the oxygen distribution in your head and your brain. Surely you know the health benefits of oxygen for human health and healthy regulation of oxygen in the brain could help improving memory and prevents some age-related degeneration that could lead to conditions like Alzheimer and dementia.
- Improves Appetite
The fact that chewing gum could help improving appetite is closely related to the fact that when you chewing gum you will control your appetite from doing unnecessary snacking habit. One of the factors why someone could lose appetite is due to unhealthy snacking habit that makes them losing their appetite during the meal time.
Some of you must be surprised when reading the list of benefits of chewing gum for oral health and beyond as mentioned above because an activity as simple as chewing gum could have a lot of benefits for human health, not only physically but also mentally. However, still it is depending on the ingredients of the gum because too much sugar and calories could bring more negative effects than the positive ones.
Source: https://drhealthbenefits.com/diet-fitness/activities/benefits-of-chewing-gum-oral-health-and-beyond
