Objective: To determine the effect of prolonged gum chewing on salivary flow rate and composition. Methods: Five male and 5 female participants each collected whole saliva at intervals over a 2-hour period on three separate days, beginning with a 5-min collection of unstimulated saliva. In random order, only unstimulated saliva was collected for one 2-hour session while for the others one tablet of Wrigley's Extra peppermint- or fruit-flavoured (peach) gum was chewed continuously. Flow rates were calculated and the saliva was assayed for pH and for the Na, K, Ca, Cl, inorg. P, and protein concentrations. The data were subjected to repeated-measures ANOVA and Duncan New Multiple Range tests. Results: When only unstimulated saliva was collected, there was no significant change in salivary flow rate with time. With the chewing gums the flow rates increased initially and then, after 35-40 minutes, fell to similar plateau values. However, even after two hours of chewing gum use, these remained significantly higher than the initial unstimulated flow rates and higher than the flow rates at the corresponding time intervals when only unstimulated saliva was collected. With both gums the salivary pH from 2 minutes to 2 hours was significantly higher than that of unstimulated saliva. The changes in the salivary electrolyte concentrations due to the flow rate increase elicited by the chewing gum were similar to those obtained in previous studies on parotid and submandibular saliva. Conclusions: During prolonged chewing gum use, both salivary flow rates and pH remained above the values for unstimulated saliva.

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