: Why is it that whenever I see people who don’t have teeth, it always looks like they’re chewing?
In: Biology
Your jaw has a comfortable resting spot. When you lose your teeth your jaw no longer has a comfortable resting spot. That chewing is the jaw trying to find a resting spot that isn’t there anymore.
I wish I could remember the name of it.
Edit: Thank you d_scotty10 for knowing the name: Tardive Dyskinesia
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If they’re elderly, it could be a lack of saliva, though this might not answer your question. Shifting the turn around in the mouth stimulates the glands.
I once asked someone I was comfortable enough with to call attention to it (a mid-30’s coworker who was not ‘proud’, but ‘comfortable’ with admitting he has no teeth due to drug use, usually accompanied by “don’t do hard drugs, they’re not worth it”) why he does this, and he said “my gums feel weird I guess. They bug me a bit if I don’t, so I subconsciously just sorta… Do that.” I assume it’s kinda like how your tongue instinctively kinda shifts around a bit? I don’t know if that’s for everyone or just him, but that was the explanation I’ve been rolling with.
Or, for a joke answer, “because they have chewing gums.”
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