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Facial gum is all the new trend on TikTok, but does the product work?
TikTok has given the world some unusual fads, from cooking chicken in NyQuil to stepping on a pyramid of milk creates. Now, a new trend on the social media platform is catching on young men who want to achieve a chiseled jawline.
A handful of companies — including Stronger Gum, Jawz and Rockjaw — have launched chewing gum products called “facial gum,” which they are marketing heavily on TikTok. Companies selling facial gum claim their products will lead to stronger, more defined jaw muscles, improving one’s physical appearance.
“Stronger jaw muscles are not only beneficial for facial appearance but also essential for health,” Stronger Gum says on its website. “Strong jaw muscles promote correct oral posture: mouth closed, teeth aligned, tongue resting against the roof of mouth and stable head position. Correct oral posture has many important benefits such as breathing through the nose providing up to 20% more oxygen to your body.”
The gum products sell anywhere from $2 for a pack of 10 gum pieces to $90 for a pack of six pieces. The companies are selling a special type of gum called mastic, a tree resin that is tougher to chew than normal gum. Because of its texture, it can be chewed for a longer period, anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, which in turn exercises jaw muscles, the companies say.
In an email to CBS MoneyWatch, Rockjaw founder Sachin Patel said there’s proof mastic gum helps shape jawlines, citing a 2019 study from Tokyo Medical and Dental University that concluded “masticatory force can prompt changes in facial structure.”
“There are studies that show increased chewing with higher mechanical loads increases jaw muscle and bone size,” Stronger Gum’s owner Tomas Palomaki told CBS MoneyWatch in an email, pointing to the same study. “As anecdotal evidence, I increased my jaw muscle size by chewing Stronger Gum for less than a year.”
Do facial gum products actually work?
Facial gum may be the latest social media trend in men’s beauty, but there’s no scientific evidence that chewing the product will sculpt someone’s jawline, dental professionals told CBS MoneyWatch.
The American Dental Association said it doubts the gums work. Chewing a tougher gum may strengthen jaw muscles but fails to change the “undersurface of the jawline,” which can actually lead to a wider shaped jaw and face, the group said in a statement posted on its website.
“Most viral trends are rarely backed by scientific evidence and can range from ineffective to harmful when it comes to oral health,” Edmond Hewlett, spokesperson for the ADA, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Chewing tougher gum could actually have other adverse effects on someone’s health, Hewlett added.
“The intensity of chewing gum for extended periods of time on a regular basis — especially if it is dense or has a thick consistency — could lead to symptoms like jaw pain, headaches and put you at risk for temporomandibular disorders,” said Hewlett, a dentistry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Why is facial gum so popular?
Facial gum is just one of many trends younger consumers have adopted in hopes of defining their jawline. Another technique, made famous by British orthodontist John Mew and called “mewing,” involves flattening the tongue against the roof of one’s mouth for extended amounts of time throughout the day.
Popularized on TikTok, mewing, like facial gum, is part of a larger trend known as “looksmaxxing” — a male-focused collection of behaviors and products promoted as effective in helping men improve their physical appearance. Like most looksmaxxing trends, mewing has been dismissed by some physicians who call it an ineffective way to change one’s facial structure.
“Facial restructuring is not simply achievable by changing your tongue’s resting position,” the American Association of Orthodontists said in a statement in January. “It’s a complex process that involves moving jaw bones, facial bones, and soft tissue. Mewing has generated significant social media buzz lately. However, there’s no current research that suggests the technique provides any benefit to your jawline or oral health.”
Floodwaters pushed by the remnants of Hurricane Helene left North Carolina’s largest mountain city largely cut off Saturday by damaged roads and a lack of power and cellphone service, part of a swath of destruction across southern Appalachia that left an unknown number dead and countless worried relatives unable to reach loved ones.
In North Carolina alone, more than 400 roads remained closed on Saturday as floodwaters began to recede and reveal the extent of damage. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said that supplies were being airlifted to that part of the state. Cooper said two people died in his state, Helene killed at least 52 people across multiple states.
Among those rescued from rising waters was nurse Janetta Barfield, whose car was swamped on Friday morning as she left an overnight shift at Asheville’s Mission Hospital. She said she watched a car in front of her drive through standing water and thought it was safe to proceed. But her car stalled, and within minutes water had filled her front seat up to her chest. A nearby police officer who saw her car stall helped her to safety.
“It was unbelievable how fast that creek got just in like five minutes,” Barfield said.
Erik Verduzco / AP
Early on Saturday morning, many gas stations were closed because they didn’t have electricity, and the few that were open had hourlong lines wrapped around the block. The hub of tourism and arts, home to about 94,000 people, was unusually still after floodwaters swamped neighborhoods known for drawing visitors including Biltmore Village and the River Arts District, which is home to numerous galleries, shops and breweries.
More than 700,000 power customers were without power across North Carolina, including 160,000 in Buncombe County. Interstate 40 and I-26 were impassible in multiple locations, and a state transportation department map showed that most routes into Asheville and across much of the mountains were snarled. North Carolina’s Department of Transportation posted on social media on Saturday afternoon that “all roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed.”
In Asheville, there was no cellular service and no timeline for when it would be restored.
“We have had some loss of life,” County Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones told reporters. However, he said they were not ready to report any specifics. Officials have been hindered in contacting next of kin by the communications outages. Asheville police instituted a curfew from 7:30 p.m. Friday to 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
“The curfew is to ensure the public’s safety and will be in effect until further notice,” police said.
Asheville transit services were also suspended, police said. The city advised residents to boil “all water used for human consumption,” as there was at least one significant water line break during the storm. Many residents might not be getting water or reduced or no pressure water.
Jones said the area experienced a cascade of emergencies that included heavy rain, high winds and mudslides. Officials said they tried to prepare for the storm but its magnitude was beyond what they could have imagined.
“It’s not that we (were) not prepared, but this is going to another level,” Sheriff Quentin Miller said. “To say this caught us off-guard would be an understatement.”
Erik Verduzco / AP
Atlanta resident Francine Cavanaugh said she has been unable to reach her sister, son, or friends in the Asheville area.
“My sister checked in with me yesterday morning to find out how I was in Atlanta,” she said on Saturday. “The storm was just hitting her in Asheville, and she said it sounded really scary outside.”
Cavanaugh said her sister had no idea how bad the storm would be there. She told Cavanaugh she was going to head out to check on guests at a vacation cabin “and that’s the last I heard of her. I’ve been texting everyone that I know with no response. All phone calls go directly to voicemail.”
The CEO of a hospital operator that filed for bankruptcy protection in May will step down after failing to testify before a U.S. Senate panel.
Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre has overseen a network of some 30 hospitals around the country. The Texas-based company’s troubled recent history has drawn scrutiny from elected officials in New England, where some of its hospitals are located.
A spokesperson for de la Torre told the Associated Press Saturday that he “has amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms” and “will continue to be a tireless advocate for the improvement of reimbursement rates for the underprivileged patient population.”
A CBS News investigation that spanned nearly two years documented how private equity investors and de la Torre extracted hundreds of millions of dollars while healthcare workers and patients struggled to get the life-saving supplies they needed.
In August, the company closed two Massachusetts hospitals, leaving about 1,200 workers jobless, according to the state.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said earlier this month that Congress “will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America.”
De la Torre’s resignation is effective Oct. 1. The Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday that was intended to hold him in criminal contempt for failing to testify before a committee.
The Senate panel has been looking into Steward’s bankruptcy. De la Torre did not appear before it despite being issued a subpoena. The resolution refers the matter to a federal prosecutor.
Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
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