Shortly after her parents’ divorce at 13 years old, any time Lindsey Baatz would hear a person chewing gum or a speaker playing music with heavy bass, she bubbled with rage, disgust and panic.

The Impact on Food Choices. Interestingly, the type of food consumed after chewing gum can also shift. One study tracked participants who chewed gum before their meals and found that while they ...

Many dentists actually recommend chewing sugar-free gum for 20 minutes after meals for precisely these benefits. Yet the same habit that can protect teeth can also damage them in different ways.

Chewing gum — especially sugar-free varieties — can help clean teeth by stimulating saliva production. However, when done too often, it can cause wear and tear on the teeth and jaw muscles.

Somewhere between 9,500 and 9,900 years ago, three Scandinavian teenagers were hanging out, chewing gum after a meal. Specifically, they were chewing pitch or tar made from the bark of birch trees.

To balance the oral health benefits with the potential jaw issues, Dr. Arsenault recommended chewing gum for only short periods of time after eating — say, for 15 to 20 minutes.