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Whenever i eat certain sweet fruits, such as apples, tangerines, pears and fruits alike, my gums get this indescribable feeling. It's like a tickly feeling, but in a painful way, kind of like somebody scratching a chalkboard. Anyone know why this happens?
I get this with quite a few fruits too, like nectarines, peaches, bananas, and apples as well. For me it's an allergy thing, and it seems it might be like that for you as well. It's called oral allergy syndrome, and your body detects remnants of pollen on or in the fruit. I'm not actually allergic to the fruit, but birch pollen. Take some allergy meds one day and see if your reaction has improved. For me I find that it helps.
Interesting that you mention apples and pears. Unlike citrus fruit (whose acid content is mainly citric acid), apples and pears contain mainly malic acid (and some other organic acids).
After apples, then blackberries, bananas and lychees probably have the highest level of malic acid. If you get a reaction with them but no reaction with strawberries (low levels of malic acid), then it could be a malic acid thing.
If it's happening with all fruit then it's just an acid thing in general, rather than a specific organic acid. While fruit is very good for you, remember it's not good for teeth and gums.
It's never strawberries, or any berries for that matter. I'm also usually fine with most citrus fruits. But mangos also do it too
I had to go and check because I didn't know the answer for mangoes (although it seems like it should be high in malic acid). Turns out that it is, yeah.
One thing that's only just occurred to me is that toothpaste is an alkali (for obvious reasons; to counteract acidity and erosion). When an alkali and an acid react there's usually a bubbling, fizzing, effervescing effect because most often one of the products of the reaction is a gas. Thinking about the structure of malic acid, it's pretty much guaranteed to be carbon dioxide.
I think that's what's happening. The remnants of your toothpaste are undergoing a chemical reaction with fruit acid. Nothing much to worry about. :)
Oh my goodness. This happens to me as well. Wow. I never thought about asking it here. Thank you for posting this question. I'm just going to patiently wait here til someone answers. This happens to me too, and a lot.