Effects of sugar-free chewing gum in patients wearing orthodontic intermaxillary elastic: a preliminary study

PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of sugar-free chewing gum in minimizing orthodontic pain, use of analgesic medications, appliance breakages and elastic dislodgement associated with intermaxillary elastics wear. METHODS: This was a randomized controlled trial with 1:1 allocation ratio. 28 patients were randomly allocated to sugar-free chewing gum (CG) and non-chewing gum (NG) groups. Patients in the CG were instructed to chew sugar-free gum for 5 minutes immediately after orthodontic intermaxillary elastics wear and then at 12-h intervals for 3 days. All patients were allowed to take analgesics. Pain score was recorded using a visual analogue scale at all eight time-points, including baseline score, along with any use of analgesics, appliance breakages and elastics dislodgement. Data were evaluated using independent t-test, Mann Whitney U test, one-way repeated measures ANOVA and Chi Square test. RESULTS: The pain scores were significantly lower in the CG compared to the NG at 24, 48, 60, and 72 hours after elastic wear. Analysis using one-way repeated measures ANOVA showed that there were statistically significant differences in the grand mean pain scores between the two groups (p = 0.005), with the CG having significantly lower pain scores (1.50) compared to the NG (3.2). However, no significant differences were found between the groups across all the time intervals (p = 0.262). Furthermore, no significant associations were observed between the groups regarding analgesic uptake, appliance breakages, and elastic dislodgement. CONCLUSION: The use of sugar-free chewing gum may reduce orthodontic pain associated with intermaxillary elastics wear and no evidence that chewing gum increased the incidence of appliance breakages and elastic dislodgement.