A Very Strange Question About Gum

[Mango04]

Almost every time I chew gum, it liquifies in my mouth. I don't know how else to explain it. One minute it is gum, and then all of a sudden it disinegrates into this mushy disgusting liquid. I don't have to chew the gum for very long before this happens.

Does this happen to anyone else? Maybe it is common, but I have only ever found one other person who experienced this, and that person happed to have celiac disease. Perhaps that is a coincidence. It happened to me today though, and now I am curious about it.

[DingoGirl]

  Mango04 said:

Almost every time I chew gum, it liquifies in my mouth. I don't know how else to explain it. One minute it is gum, and then all of a sudden it disinegrates into this mushy disgusting liquid. I don't have to chew the gum for very long before this happens.

Does this happen to anyone else? Maybe it is common, but I have only ever found one other person who experienced this, and that person happed to have celiac disease. Perhaps that is a coincidence. It happened to me today though, and now I am curious about it.

Meredith - what kind of gum are you chewing? Or does it happen with any kind of gum you chew? I chew TONS of Wrigley's Spearming, no problem.

[Mango04]

  DingoGirl said:

Meredith - what kind of gum are you chewing? Or does it happen with any kind of gum you chew? I chew TONS of Wrigley's Spearming, no problem.

It's happened with all different types of gum. The one brand I don't have a problem with is Glee Gum (an all natural kind), but multiple other brands liquify for me. It is odd!

[penguin]

I had it happen once. It was in the middle of class and really gross and thank god I had kleenex! Don't know why it happens...

[Guest Robbin]

Maybe it has something to do with extra acidity in our saliva? I get so many canker sores and tongue sores that I wonder if it is too acid. I don't chew gum much anymore, but that has happened to me with juicy fruit and wrigley's spearmint.

[dentist]

I have been looking into this phenomena for a while, but not formally. Chewing gum liquefaction appears to occur with some people and not others, but does not appear to be related to celiac disease, or any other disease as far as I can tell. It may be related to the type of flavoring oil used in the gum in combination with a peculiar oral chemistry of the individual, but I am just speculating at this point as I dont have a lot of data.

My own experience is that it only happens to me when I chew a gum with one particular flavoring component. No other chewing gums liquify in my mouth, which seems to argue against a thixotropic breakdown. It is not related to particular lots of chewing gum, ie. manufacturing defect, but rather a unique individual response to the components of the gum. There is a slow, almost linear decline in visco-elastic properties of the gum as it is chewed until some point at which it suddenly converts (< 2 secs) to a liquid, mixing with saliva. Usually there are a few polymer fragments from the gum remaining. The liquification occurs about 10 to 20 mins into chewing, for me at least.

Since organic solvents, such as orange solvent, are specifically used to clean-up (read: liquify) chewing gum, AND since they can also be chemically related to other "fruity" or "citrus" types of oil flavorings, there may be a link, but it is curious as to why the reaction occurs in some people and not others. The only speculation I can come up with is there is something different in the oral chemistry of the individual that potentiates the reaction.

I tried getting some info out of the gum manufacturer, but all my inquiries were assumed to be complaints and I have a growing collection of coupons for free gum products growing on my desk...lol

If anyone else has a repeatable experience with chewing gum liquefaction, I would be interested to hear it. Try to state the brand but more importantly, type of gum you were chewing. Length of time spent chewing prior to the liquefaction, and any other experience that seems relevant. Please include the words "chewing gum" in the subject please, as the spam filter may auto-delete you otherwise. dentist@hotmail.com