EFFECT OF CHEWING GUM USE ON ORAL HYGIENE AND VOLATILE SULPHUR COMPOUND CONCENTRATION

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 gumchewed; reason for chewing and for discarding chewed gumaswell as self perception of oral malodour. Their oral hygiene status was determined using the simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) and organoleptic assessmentwas 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 self-perception of oralmalodour.Eightypercent ofparticipantswithstrong concentrationofVSC (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 canbe concludedthat there isnodifferencebetweenthe oralhygiene status, organoleptic assessment, self perception of oralmalodour as well as themouth- air volatile sulphur compound concentration of chewing gum users and non chewing gum users. The reasons given for chewing gumare similar to those previously reported and chewed gumis discardedonce the reasonfor chewing isno longer there.