Chewy pencil toppers for adults?

December 9, 2014 6:15 AM

My SO has the endearing habit of constantly chewing on the tops of pens and pencils. Even the really nice ones! I thought I would try to get him a set of chewy things you put over writing utensils, but the ones I found online seem to be bad quality or are overtly aimed towards kids. He rarely uses regular wooden pencils, so the ones built to fit precisely over them might not work either. Are there any other objects that could serve a similar purpose that are appropriate for adults? ++ if shippable through Amazon Prime.

I've searched through the archives, but the questions are mostly about children with biting habits, or chewlery or something. That's not really what I'm looking for.

posted by leedly to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

Chewable pencil toppers on Amazon, 5-star reviews.

Scented pencil toppers in mint, orange or chocolate.
posted by rada at 6:21 AM on December 9, 2014

Response by poster: Just to clarify, I've seen both of these before, and my issues are:

1) bright yellow trains and stars seem very kid-like to me
2) they're $7.99 for two, plus shipping is $7.49. I don't really want to pay $15 for two pencil toppers!

So maybe I should have added... cheapish.
posted by leedly at 6:31 AM on December 9, 2014

Would something like this work?
posted by goggie at 6:43 AM on December 9, 2014

There is this as well. They're not cheap but look to be durable. You could try googling "sensory and pencil" to see if there are other ones that fit the bill.
posted by goggie at 6:46 AM on December 9, 2014

I chew pen tops sometimes. It's because I need something idle to do while my brain is crunching. I don't know why.

However, I have largely replaced those habits with other fiddly habits. Check out https://www.etsy.com/market/fiddle_toy for effort free bike-chain-on-key-ring fidgets, (I recommend getting at least 4 chain links because 3 is boring), spinning a dice ring (This one is fun because it is potentially practical in any situation you could need a dice for), or learning to spin your pen.

However, all of these are addictive just like chewing a pen, so don't recommend something and then get annoyed by it later.

Also, as someone in this position, if he didn't reach out to you with the request, I highly recommend you be extra careful in approaching this subject because these outlets are easy to justify and hard to change.
posted by bbqturtle at 6:48 AM on December 9, 2014

Just to clarify, I think chewing pens fills a need to have some form of stimulation which is why I think it is easy for those with pen chewing habits to replace the pen chewing with these other sources of stimulation.
posted by bbqturtle at 6:50 AM on December 9, 2014

My kids use these. I don't think he'd want to take this to his office or whatever but it might be good to use at home.
posted by dawkins_7 at 8:53 AM on December 9, 2014

These are good quality erasers.
posted by JimN2TAW at 10:52 AM on December 9, 2014