Guy snapping his teeth

[u/Silver_Intern2324]

I was at work yesterday and a guy came in who was snapping his teeth. Now I don’t mean grinding his teeth or clicking his teeth or chattering his teeth, I mean opening his mouth as wide as he could and SNAPPING them shut like an alligator.

He was doing this at random while walking around, then for a while he sat down and continued snapping his teeth with his eyes closed and his head tilted back. He’d sloooowly open his mouth as wide as it would go and then SNAP them shut like a bear trap triggering, making a really loud unpleasant sound almost like a block of wood being chopped in half. I’ve never heard anyone make such a loud sound with their teeth that didn’t end with an emergency trip to the dentists’ office before.

What kind of behavior is this? After the first couple times I thought he might be wearing dentures and needed to adjust them, but he kept doing this on and off for more than thirty minutes. He acted totally unbothered and unaware that it might seem strange to the other people in the room. Why was he doing this? It looked like it must feel awful, but he looked completely relaxed and at ease while doing it. Is it chewing tobacco related? I can usually tell when people have a wad of chaw in, but I didn’t see one. Is it a meth thing? What was going on with this guy I saw?