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Does Tooth Whitening Chewing Gum Work?

Do you chew gum occasionally? In that case, you may have wondered a couple of times about packs of "whitening gum" such as Orbit White, which claim to whiten your teeth by simply chewing them. What could be easier than whitening your teeth as you chew gum, right?

However, you should know that your teeth won’t get any whiter unless you’re constantly chewing the gum all day long.

Take a look at that label—you’d need to spend a full hour of every day chewing this gum, just to notice a difference after three months.



There isn't even a link to the study/clinical trial recording how much of a difference those 84 hours of gum-chewing make. Did people’s teeth go from yellow to ever-so-slightly less yellow? Or was it the kind of change you can easily see in the mirror? Looks like you’ll have to chew 420 pieces of gum to find out.

While theoretically and technically it may appear that whitening chewing gums – which contain ingredients that are abrasive or able to coat teeth to prevent stains from sticking – can get rid of extrinsic stains, there's very little research into the efficacy of these products. Some studies have found that chewing gum with the compound sodium hexametaphosphate can prevent new surface stains from forming better than no chewing gum and placebo chewing gums. However, another study showed that certain nicotine-medicated chewing gums can remove extrinsic stains better than a whitening chewing gum.