Mewing is a face muscle exercise that leads to a more defined face. It’s named after Dr John Mew, a dentist who first introduced the technique in the 1970s. Although often seen as outrageous as well as innovative, mewing earned its reputation as an efficient practice.

Unlike tedious cosmetic surgeries, you can get a defined jawline by regularly practicing mewing. Still, “can mewing ruin your face?” is one of the most frequent questions we get asked by those looking into the benefits of mewing. Long story short, mewing correctly is indeed pivotal to getting the best results (the secret lies in the proper tongue posture), but mewing incorrectly will not ruin your face.

To help you avoid any mewing issues and preserve the symmetry of your face, here is a detailed mewing guide featuring tips on correct tongue placement and a comparison of hard mewing vs soft mewing.

Can Mewing Be as Harmful as It is Effective?

Correct mewing can make an effect on changing your face shape – in a positive sense and a negative one. Through certain irregular habits – like improper chewing and biting – the jaw structure and facial anatomy may become distorted or dislocated.

For example, constant mouth breathing pulls the lower jaw back, causing the muscles to weaken. (-please provide proof or link to an authoritative source when giving medical statements as this one.) If not treated, this can lead to significant loss of jaw definition.

Although mewing is a corrective exercise, if it’s not done properly, you can end up with an asymmetrical face, crooked teeth, or irregular jaw motion. Mewing is not about the tongue position only, but also about swallowing and breathing right.

Can Mewing Make Your Face Asymmetrical or Symmetrical?

Facial asymmetries can come from various irregular habits, like sleeping with your mouth open, poor posture, and using your jaw muscles wrong. Correct mewing helps fix facial asymmetry, however, if you do it wrong, it can have impairing consequences. Especially if you plan on practicing mewing more than 3-4 hours a day, doing the exercise correctly will be pivotal.

How to Do Mewing Exercises Right?

Tongue posture plays the greatest role in doing this exercise correctly. You need to raise your tongue to touch the soft palate of your mouth – and keep the tip behind the upper teeth.

The tip of the tongue shouldn’t touch the teeth at all. What makes all the difference with this exercise is the root of the tongue. The backside of your tongue should also touch the roof of your mouth, or rather, lie flat against it.

Here’s how to do it step by step:

• Place the root – the middle part – of your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth.
• Keep the tip of the tongue behind the upper front teeth.
• Make sure the molar teeth are touching.
• The upper and lower jaw shouldn’t overlap. Instead, the upper must come a bit more forward than the lower jaw, without touching one another.

When done right and by the book, correct mewing will do wonders for correcting your facial asymmetry. It takes a few tries to learn how to mew correctly, but once you get the hang of it, your facial structure will retrieve its lost definition.

All in all, there are two ways you can get to a more defined face – by hard mewing or soft mewing.

Soft Mewing

Soft mewing refers to doing the exercise technique most of the time during the day. Basically, it’s all about being mindful. It’s important to readjust your tongue posture when you notice it slips away from the palate placement. Dr. Mike Mew suggests doing this conscious exercise for as long as you can take it. This will boost the effectiveness and ease you into doing the exercise by heart.

There are three ways to take your soft mewing practice to the next level:

• When swallowing – don’t disconnect the tongue from the palate but keep them in a mewing posture. Also, don’t add more pressure when swallowing to allow the tongue muscles to get used to the new habit.
• When chewing – adding pressure when chewing might show favorable results. But you should be mindful when mewing and chewing because you might misdirect the jaw to the side you chew more with. Make it your habit to chew with the same rhythm and intensity on both sides to avoid this pressure.
• When exercising – mewing while you work out is one of the best ways to get results faster. But it’s also a tricky exercise to do since some might find it to be overly demanding. Shortness of breath can happen when you work out, so forcing yourself to breathe through the nose can cause a slight jaw dislocation to one side.

Hard Mewing

Hard mewing refers to doing intense mewing exercises, so as to get results faster. Hard mewing includes pressing your tongue harder against the roof of your mouth until you feel slight discomfort in the neck and jawline. Just like with any other muscle exercise, you can get better results when increasing the exercise intensity or pressure.

Now, let’s jump into the side effects of doing these exercises.

Can Mewing Make Facial Asymmetry Worse?

In essence, mewing cannot worsen an existing facial asymmetry like, say, a wrong cosmetic surgery can. But doing the exercise wrong or using improper tongue posture might show asymmetry signs in the chin and jawline, as well as asymmetry in the lips (they might end up loose or too protruded).

Other Possible Side Effects of Mewing

Aside from the aforementioned, there can be two other side effects of improper mewing.

TMJ vs Mewing Wrong

Muscle pressure can easily result in muscle inflammation. Probably one of the most related problems with jaw muscle pressure is TMJ. The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is placed on each side of the jaw and connects the jawbone to the skull like a moving bridge.

TMJ problems, which are a kind of temporomandibular disorder (TMD), can cause discomfort in the jaw joint and incapacitate the muscles that govern proper jaw movement, among other issues.

Unfortunately, there are no reliable medical researches that mewing works well in TMJ treatments. Be that as it may, more and more orthodontists suggest mewing as a DIY therapy to reduce tension in the joint and relieve the pain when needed.

However, you should bear in mind that mewing to relieve TMJ stress might lead to making involuntary wrong movements to ease the pain. To avoid experimentation in this department, especially when it comes to the mobility of your jaw, it is best to consult a professional orthodontist who can recommend mewing if necessary. For more on this practice, read our detailed info on mewing with TMJ.

Psychological Distress

Another valuable side effect related to mewing is psychological distress. For many, the main concerns of doing mewing exercises wrong have to do with physical appeal and symmetry. However, practicing mewing the wrong way can also affect one’s psychological well-being.

According to patients who have practiced mewing, many complained and warned of becoming more obsessed with the tongue position and facial structure than they were before. Ultimately, this led them to become more self-obsessed and self-conscious. And eventually, many who took mewing too seriously found themselves overly worried about their appearance, and unhappy with the positive results they achieved.

If you feel like your mewing journey is too harsh on your emotional state, consult a professional to ease your mind and keep you on the right track.

Is There a Safe Way to Mew?

Apart from following your facial improvements with a qualified doctor, you can also ensure mewing success by following the recommendation of our Mewing app. With it, you won’t have to struggle and overthink whether you’re doing it right or not since the app guides you from start to finish and ensures you are doing everything mindfully and slowly.

Check out the video below to learn more:

A safe way to mew would be to take caution as you do the exercise, especially if you are a beginner. If you don’t trust yourself to get this right alone, you can always resort to useful resources or professionals for more guidance.

Mewing should not be taken for granted as it can seriously alter the appearance of your face when done right – or when done wrong. To ensure fabulous results, resort to our guide on how to mew correctly and take baby steps until you feel comfortable doing the exercise on your own.

The Verdict

Human faces are made of muscles that need to work in synchronization like every other muscle system. When one or more facial muscles stop performing their job as intended, mewing can come to the rescue and offer a way to correct this malfunction. Soft mewing is a great way to maintain the habit day in and day out.

At the same time, hard mewing is where the biggest effects and changes will happen. Hard mewing implies adding excessive pressure to the tongue that pushes the palate to stretch the jawline and neck muscles. But, so long as you take proper care when exercising and avoid forcing your face to do unnatural movements, your mewing experience should be satisfying and efficient.

To make sure you don’t fall into a wrongful mewing practice, resort to our app, or this guide and take baby steps to build strength in your face.