Does the fitness facial eraser that teens love actually work?

Sephora Tween girls may be interested in skin care, but some boys their age want a different product designed to improve their appearance: facial fitness gum. The gum, from brands like Rockjaw, Jawz Gum and Stronger Gum, promises to “build the most attractive jawline” and “tone and tighten more than 57 facial and neck muscles, anytime, anywhere.” . The companies that make these products promise that chewing their gum is like a facial workout, because it is between two times (“medium hard” Jawliner) and ten times (“hard” Magic Gum) harder than gum. ordinary.

“My 12-year-old asked me and I asked him, 'What are you talking about?' ” says board-certified dermatologist Kavita Mariwalla, MD, who discussed the trend during a recent Allergan Aesthetics panel on social issues. media ethics in aesthetic medicine. “He told me he heard it would do the same thing as meowing,” she said, citing another facial fitness trend. (Meow proponents believe the technique — which involves placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth — will make their jawline sharper.) “As a mom, I wondered why he was so obsessed with his jawline at 12 years, and what social media fed it.

Facial fitness eraser, meow, jaw trainers – we can thank looksmaxxing for all these trends. The movement to alter or “maximize” one's appearance so that it conforms to gendered beauty standards began in the fringe Incel community, but has since infiltrated mainstream discourse online. On teens' and young men's “For You” pages, advocates often tout hard-to-chew gum as an alternative to more extreme measures like jaw surgery. “Most kids my age want a sharp, defined jawline due to the promotion of lookmaxxing on TikTok,” says Henry Dixon, a 14-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina. “People want these jawlines because they want to look like models and potentially more attractive.” (He wants to make it clear that he's not one of those people: “Personally, I don't care much about that sort of thing.”)

Paul Jarrod Frank, MD, a famous cosmetic dermatologist, says he's heard of the gum, but doesn't think it will do anything to sharpen jawlines. He explains that it is marketed on the hypothetical promise that chewing a hard piece of gum will develop the masseter muscles. Even if that were the case, he points out that people with overdeveloped masseter muscles (he cites as an example those with temporomandibular jaw disorder, or TMJ) could end up with a squarer or wider face, but they “could not necessarily sharpen the lower surface of the jaw if the bony structure is not there.”

Still, some teens may want a wide, boxy look. I showed Frank before and after photos on Jawliner's Instagram page, and he was still skeptical. “If it's not photoshopped, there's a dramatic difference in lighting, giving the impression of greater definition,” he says.

So if chewing gum can't actually reshape the jaw, are there any downsides to chewing it? The most obvious is cost. Jawliner's Ultra Touch Facial Fitness Gum costs about 47 cents a pop, while Wrigley's Doublemint costs just eight cents a pop. And the ingredients in these gummies vary widely between brands and aren't always easy to find in product descriptions online. So you need to do some research to know what you're getting. Most of the varieties I studied did not contain sugar, which can lead to cavities, but some did contain caffeine (as a “pre-workout” boost) and others contained vitamin B5, which can have a laxative effect if consumed in large doses. Then there is the risk of jaw pain (the American Dental Association recommends that people with TMJ disorders avoid the gums). And if someone chews obsessively, it can cause inflammation in the area, Frank says. “But generally, your average chewing gum is no problem.”

However, the facial fitness eraser is not an ordinary eraser. Plus, Frank points out, the pointier jawline that some boys seek can develop naturally as they grow. “Younger people tend to have more natural facial fat volume,” he says. “For lean, fit men, as they age into their 20s and 30s, they will likely naturally see more definition.” If they don't, they may consider more effective treatments like cosmetic fillers (to develop a jawline), microliposuction (to remove fat), and/or radiofrequency (to tighten skin) if they wish it.

I ordered a box of Jawliner's softest product, the “medium hard” strips, and chewed two pieces together as directed. Within five minutes, my jaw was sore and clicking every time I bit into the putty-like wad. Obviously, I'm not the intended customer (and I'm sure look-seekers will have something to say about my weak, underdeveloped girl muscles), but I'd still suggest teens don't waste money. money for this sort of thing.

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