The 7-day dental school experiment nobody should try at home

Seven days. No brushing.

In a 2003 pilot study in Japan, dental researchers asked dental students to stop brushing and flossing for 7 days. They chewed gum instead: some got mastic gum, some got a placebo gum. It was double-blind, so nobody knew which.

In this small pilot, the mastic group had less plaque: 2.69 vs 3.15 on the plaque index.*

Nobody should skip brushing for a week. But it hints at something: what you chew between brushings may matter.

The mouth across menopause.

A 2026 review pulled together 50 studies on the mouth across menopause. Less saliva. Dry mouth. A burning feeling. Taste that changes. Those came up again and again.

Still losing ground.

Dry by mid-morning, with coffee that seems to sit on her teeth all day. Then the tip of her tongue burns some days, and food she has loved for years tastes different. Then she brushes, flosses and rinses, and still feels like she's losing ground.

That same review found more tooth loss was reported after menopause. Age and other factors play a part. But nobody wants to be the one at 58 talking about losing a tooth.

Saliva runs on chewing.

Saliva is the mouth's own rinse, and saliva runs on chewing. In one study, saliva flow was significantly lower in women after menopause. In a 2026 study from Amsterdam, chewing mastic resin made more saliva than plain wax.*

So the chew is half of it. The other half is what you chew: studies on mastic gum found less S. mutans in saliva.* In a small 2006 study, chewing mastic gum for 15 minutes lowered levels of one type of mouth bacteria in saliva, compared with a plain paraffin gum.*

A resin from Chios.

Mastic is a resin from a tree on the Greek island of Chios. The European Medicines Agency's report calls it the first natural chewing gum of the ancient world, used to clean the teeth. People on Chios have chewed it for about 2,500 years.

One ingredient. Ships same or next day.

It does not replace your brush.

Gum of Gods Classic is one ingredient: mastic resin, hand-harvested on Chios. No sugar. It's firm, so it works the muscles in your face and jaw. It doesn't replace your brush, your floss or your dentist. It's what goes in your mouth in all the hours in between.

Clean at 3 p.m., not just at 7 a.m.

A mouth that feels clean at 3 p.m., not just at 7 a.m. Coffee in the morning, a piece of real resin after lunch, and that clean, awake feeling all afternoon.

Rated 4.9 from 810 reviews.

Rated 4.9 from 810 reviews on the Classic Pack. 60,000+ orders. We've worked with the Chios Mastiha Growers Association for five years. Hand-harvested on Chios. We pack orders by hand in Pennsylvania.

Before you try it

Brush. Floss. Then chew something real in between.

One ingredient. Ships same or next day.