Ok I'm not sure what is going on here but the gum I have seems to be soft. It was a hard chunk, I put it in my mouth and was able to chew it into a soft gum within 2-3 bites?

Had to put more pieces in, now it actually feels hard. Only issue after was that it constantly just wrapped itself around my teeth every little while, but after chewing for ~5 minutes that stopped as well.

Well, I'm sufficiently happy with the hardness of this gum, but it's a little underwhelming compared to some stories I read online. Perhaps my jaw muscles are decently strong.

HOWEVER: I've had better jaw workouts and felt more force transferred up into my midface from chewing through a cup of raw kale. Seriously. I'll use this gum to chew throughout the day, but I'll build more strength from eating through 4-5 bags of kale than I will from gum I think. The benefit of gum that you can keep doing it for hours I suppose

What is the practical benefit of chewing hard gum over just clenching your jaws hard while mewing? I've been doing that for 3 months and my jaw has changed by like 15 degrees and maxilla is noticeably more forward.

Your jaw line angle changed by 15 deg? 

Posted by: Yegor_L

What is the practical benefit of chewing hard gum over just clenching your jaws hard while mewing? I've been doing that for 3 months and my jaw has changed by like 15 degrees and maxilla is noticeably more forward.

One practical benefit is lessening the chances of dental injury. Clenching the teeth straight together is not as potentially harmful as bruxism/teeth grinding, but it can degrade the quality of your enamel over time. It's something to look out for. Having said that, I too have been intentionally holding a static clench of moderate force for the past couple of weeks. Mike says that the forces provided by the tongue & jaws should be in balance. Hard clenching certainly seems to make hard tongue posture stabler than light clenching.

Because the Chios gum is a natural substance, the hardness of each piece will vary depending on things like quality, freshness, etc. Some can be tougher than rubber, and others can be softer than regular gum. The brand you buy may matter as well. The issue you are having with the gum wrapping around your teeth is something I have noticed with Frankincense, which is a softer gum, but never with Chios. The picture you posted looks like Chios though.

I usually chew on one side/one piece only, but have read about others chewing on both sides at once who have gotten good jaw results from it. This seems to mimic natural food chewing better so it's worth giving a shot. The downside is that you will not be able to move the gum around your mouth as freely while doing this.

As for your experiences with kale, I too have noticed that crunchy foods seems to provide some benefit that gum cannot. There's something about crunching into a food that puts your muscles into overdrive. Something primal about it. Also the tongue gets to come into play and all of your teeth get something to smash against at the same time. I usually use carrots but I expect that kale is similar. I did very limited research and saw that our evolutionary ancestors who had much bigger jaws than us usually chewed on roughage and vegetable matter.