The influence of chewing gum activity on tear production: A prospective study of anterior segment optical coherence tomography

Purpose: At present, drug treatments are composing the majority of dry eye therapies.However, considering the side effects of drugs, there has been increasing interest in novel non-drug treatment options, and these new treatments have been researching ways of tear production.Therefore, we aimed to investigate the role of chewing gum on tear-meniscus parameters and blinking rate with objective and quantitative methods.Methods: Sixty eyes of 30 healthy volunteers' tear-meniscus height (TMH), tear-meniscus depth (TMD), and tear-meniscus area (TMA) were acquired with anterior segment-optical coherence tomography.Tear-meniscus measurements were performed before and during chewing gum; at 15 and 30 min.Blinking rates were also recorded both before and during chewing gum for 5 min.Results: TMH, TMD, and TMA values at 15 and 30 min of chewing gum were significantly higher than those values before chewing gum (p<0.001).TMH, TMD, and TMA values at 15 min of chewing gum were similar to those values at 30 min of chewing gum (p>0.05).Blinking rate during chewing gum was significantly higher than that value before chewing gum (p<0.001). Conclusion:To the best of our knowledge, this was the first study demonstrating that chewing gum increased tear-meniscus parameters and blinking rate at acute phase of chewing with objective, quantitative, and non-invasive methods.Chewing gum is cheap, sustainable, and easy to reach.In addition, it is not a drug, and there is no risk of drug-related side effects.According to our outcomes, we thought that chewing gum might improve dry eye-related complaints by increasing tear production and blinking rate.