Effect of chewing gum use on oral hygiene and volatile sulphur compound concentration

Abstract

Chewing of gum has been favoured by many people because of its beneficial effects. The objective of this study was therefore to determine the difference between the oral hygiene status, organoleptic assessment, self perception of malodour as well as the mouth- air volatile sulphur compound concentration of chewing gum users and non chewing gum users as well as to determine reasons for chewing gum. Eighty- two young adults were involved in this cross-sectional study. Data collected include chewing gumuse, frequency of chewing, type of gum chewed; reason for chewing and for discarding chewed gum as well as self perception of oral malodour. Their oral hygiene status was determined using the simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) and organoleptic assessment was done. The objective ® measurement of the VSC was also done using the Halimeter . Majority (88.9%) of the females chew gum (P= 0.05) as well as 88.5%) of the participants who reported selfperceptionof oralmalodour.Eighty percent of participants with strong concentration of VSC (i.e. >250ppb), 78.7% with noticeable odour and 66.7% with poor oral hygiene also chew gum. Reasons for chewing gum include its sweet taste (18.5%), to stay awake (19.5%), to remove impacted food (12.3%), tomask the smell of food (10.7%) and to reduce the urge to smoke (1.5%). It can be concluded that there is no difference between the oral hygiene status, organoleptic assessment, self perception of oral malodour as well as the mouth- air volatile sulphur compound concentration of chewing gum users and non chewing gum users. The reasons given for chewing gum are similar to those previously reported and chewed gumis discarded once the reason for chewing is no longer there.