Dentyne Gum (History, Marketing & Commercials)

Dentyne gum is one of the best-known brands around and many people are aware of this gum even if they have not tried it before. This is also one of the oldest gums, and it has been sold for a very long time. There are few gum products that have been on the market for so long, and this speaks to their quality and the popularity of the way that it tastes.

Gum products were not originally made for enjoyment and were more medicinal in nature. This is one of the first products in this category, and you will be trying a slice of history when you chew a stick of Dentyne gum. If you have ever wondered if you would like Dentyne but have not tried it, you need to keep reading to learn some more about this product.

History

Dentyne gum was first thought up in 1899. Druggist Franklin V. Canning created the formula for a gum that he thought would aid in oral hygiene. This gum was meant to prevent decay and help with fresh breath, which was unusual for its time. People were only focused on gum products to hide bad breath at this time or to dispense medication of some kind or another.

Most candy and gum products were originally crafted to be medicinal in nature. It was about fifty years before these products would start to be marketed to be enjoyable as much as being effective for oral health. The slogan for Dentyne of, “To prevent decay, to sweeten the breath, the keep teeth white”. The addition of tooth whitening is perhaps the most surprising of the factors that this gum promised. It would be years and years before people were worried about white teeth, so this product was very far ahead of its day.

Dentyne gum was given its name because it was meant to combine the words dental and hygiene. Many people pronounce the word “dentine” due to this statement about the reasons for the name. This is not considered to be incorrect, so many people continue to call the product by this name to this day. 

The claims for dental health and well-being were probably exaggerated with the original product. There was sugar in the recipe, which is, of course, bad for teeth. However, compared to some other candy products that have been made over the years and other sugary chewing gums, this product might still have been better for your teeth than other choices. Candy and gum are not necessarily related at all to oral health and hygiene, and Dentyne gum has had to walk a careful line to continue to make these claims in a market where consumers know that gum is not really that great for your teeth.

Dentyne is one of the first products to be sold in stick form, but the early gum product was made in the chicle format, which was more like small square little blocks of gum.

The brand was sold to the American Chicle Company in 1916. It was made by this company until the 1930s, when the Adams Gum Company made the product rather than the other parts of the American Chicle Company. The brand then passed to Warner-Lambert, which would eventually merge with Pfizer in 2000. Cadbury then purchased the brand after this. It is surprising that a product that has been sold so many times has not been altered in the way that it was made, and the flavor of the gum has not been changed either. This means that the Dentyne gum that you try today will be pretty much exactly like the original product.

The original gum product was cinnamon-flavored. There was sugar in the gum, but this was removed in 2006 due to pressure that the gum market to start making healthier products. When the cinnamon version was relaunched in 2019, the sugar was removed from this product as well. There are various versions of the product today, all of which are made without unhealthy sugars. This gum product was made to keep teeth healthy, and now that we know that sugar is bad for teeth, the brand was wise to remove sugar from their products.

Livery

The original Dentyne gum product was sold in chiclet-style little squares, so the wrappers were more square in shape and had a card with the gum squares in it tucked inside. These wrappers were mostly red with white lettering. Over time, the different varieties of the gum plus changes made to modernize the wrappers and the stick-style varieties have made the array of different liveries for this product wide. You can still get square and chewy Dentyne gum at most places, so you will see the classic styling alongside newer and more sleek packaging in many stores.

The livery has always been simple and colorful without being distracting, and the reserved nature of the lettering and the promises about the product are unique for gum products that are sold today. You can tell right away that this is a classic gum product, and the packaging alone is enough to evoke an image of an older movie or even your imagination about products that might be old enough that you were not around for their very first sales.

This is a really classic product that has enjoyed years of sales, and the classic wrappers and the true-to-the-original styling of the livery fit in perfectly with the message and the styling of the entire brand. This is an original and classic gum product, and you will be able to tell this right away when you pick it up off the shelf at your local grocery store. The retro feeling of the packaging is really fun and very welcome in a world full of colorful and crazy marketing ploys.

Logo

Varieties

Dentyne Classic

This is the original cinnamon product that was relaunched without sugar in the recipe in 2019.

Dentyne Ice

This is a sugar-free gum that comes with various “intense” flavors. There are nine flavors, Peppermint, Arctic Chill, Spearmint, Shiver Mint, Vanilla Frost, Cool Frost, Wild Winter, Intense, and Mint Medley. There are also Dentyne Ice mints that are sold as a separate product.

In Southeast Asian markets, there are some other flavors as well. These are pelleted gum products. The flavors include Mentholyptus, Midnight Mint, and Cherry.

Dentyne Fire

Dentyne Fire is basically a spicy cinnamon-flavored gum that does not have any sugar in it. This is not the same product as the Dentyne Fire Mint product that is also sold by the company.

Dentyne Pure

Dentyne Pure neutralizes bad breath, and it is intended to be used almost entirely as a breath mint and not for chewing enjoyment.

Dentyne Tango

Dentyne Tango comes in Mixed Berry flavor, and it is fruity in flavor and not minty.

Dentyne Shine

This new product is sold in Canada, and it is basically the whitening product in the lineup. This is a lot like Trident White Whitening Gum, and if you love this product, you will like this gum as well.

Ingredients

From the regular Dentyne Ice variety:

• Sorbitol
• Gum Base
• Maltitol
• Natural And Artificial Flavor
• Mannitol
• Less Than 2% Of Acacia, Acesulfame Potassium, Aspartame, BHT (to Maintain Freshness), Candelilla Wax, Glycerin, Soy Lecithin, Sucralose, Titanium Dioxide (Color)

The gum wrappers warn that there is soy in these products as well as phenylalanine and phenylketonurics as well. This is common for some gum products, but it is always good to know that these ingredients exist in the sugar-free gum that you are chewing. Sugar-free products cannot be enjoyed by everyone due to sensitivities to items like these ingredients.

Nutrition

Serving Size:	1 piece (1.5g)	% Daily Value*
Amount Per Serving
Calories from Fat	0
Calories	3
Total Fat	0g	0%
Total Carbohydrates	1g	0%
Sugars	0g
Protein	0g

• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000-calorie diet.

Pictures

Commercials:

Older ads were more focused on the good breath aspect of chewing this gum, while newer ads take this a step further and show people kissing or meeting in clubs. This gum has always featured models and actors with really good teeth as well since the gum has always been associated with tooth whitening ever since the first ads and slogans were made. 

Many people still think that this gum is somehow actually whitening and improving the health of their teeth despite the fact that gum products are not allowed to make these claims. The success of this advertising ploy by Dentyne gum has been long-lasting, and most older adults will tell you that they always believed that this was the main benefit of chewing this gum. While it is true that these products will give you fresher smelling breath, it has not been proven that the gum will whiten teeth or make them healthier.

Consumers must always be cautious about these kinds of promises, much like the promises made by various cereal brands to help people to have better heart health or to lower cholesterol. Gums, candies, and cereals are not medicines, and Dentyne gum cannot replace your trips to the dentist.

Dentyne ad from the 70s:

Vintage older Dentyne gum ad that is really quite odd:

Brush your teeth with Dentyne ad:

Newer Dentyne gum commercial: