To Chew or Not to Chew

Overview

Objectives/Goals To determine if different types of gum has an effect on the temperature of a person's mouth. I believe that chewing different types of gum will increase the temperature of a person's mouth regardless of flavor. Methods/Materials Fifteen volunteers kept their mouths still for five minutes. The temperature before chewing was taken with 15 oral thermometers. The volunteers were split into 3 groups. Group 1 was given 2 pieces of cinnamon-flavored gum. Group 2 was given 2 pieces of mint-flavored gum and group 3 was given no gum. Volunteers chewed for 2 minutes with the beat of a metronome set at a frequency of 144. The temperature was taken after 2 minutes of chewing. Results Mint group, cinnamon group and no gum group all had an increase in temperature. Cinnamon group had the highest change in temperature compare to the other two groups. Conclusions/Discussion I found out from my background research that chewing gum causes the temperature of a person's mouth to rise due to increase in blood flow to the tongue, jaw, and cheek muscles. I also found out that it is just the sensation of being hot or cool and not the temperature of the mouth. I hypothesized that chewing mint gum, cinnamon gum, and no gum will raise the temperature of the mouth regardless of flavor. I conducted the experiment (see methods/material) and got the result (see result). My hypothesis was partially supported because all three groups had some rise in temperature. I did not expect the cinnamon gum group to have most change in temperature. Therefore, I am uncertain as to whether or not the temperature change was due to flavor. Maybe some of the errors I made in the experiment caused the cinnamon group's temperature change to be higher than all the other groups. I learned that no matter what kind of gum you are chewing, the temperature in your mouth still changes and increases. However, due to some of the errors, I do not know for sure if the cinnamon flavor has an affect on a person's mouth. Cinnamon group had the highest change in temperature. I would have to do another experiment without errors to find a definite answer.

Awards (1)

• Category Award

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1019

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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