Mewing 101: What It Is, Does It Work, How to Do It

You can go running to improve your heart muscles, you can do pushups to grow your pecs, but can you work out your facial muscles?

And if you can, would it make your facial structure more attractive like regular exercises do for the rest of your body?

Well, it turns out you can, and it’s called mewing.

🔎 Everyone leads a busy life, so here’s a quick breakdown of what you’ll find in this comprehensive guide to mewing.

• 📝 A simple mewing definition: for those wondering how does mewing work or needing a quick intro into an actual mewing meaning, we’ve got you covered.
• 💡 Who invented mewing? We take a brief walk through mewing’s history and introduce you to the godfather of the practice itself, Dr John Mew and his son, Dr Mike Mew.
• 📖 An introduction to mewing technique: our step-by-step support guides are designed to help you start practicing mewing so you can improve your jawline and facial structure today!
• 💪 What does mewing help with? With before and after photos and detailed breakdowns of how mewing works to improve jaw posture, mouth shape, face shape, teeth alignment and much, much more, you’re not going to want to miss this section!

Seem interesting?

Let’s get into it!

What is Mewing?

Mewing is the practice of proper tongue posture and is a growing movement within the health and wellness fields.

Through conscious (and then unconscious) change to one’s tongue placement against the roof of the mouth, mewing aims to improve the symmetry of the face, the strength of one’s jawline, and reduce various other health conditions too.

Mewing is not a new trend (although it is gaining traction on social media) and is simply an existing form of corrective treatment that improves many cosmetic concerns naturally.

It has long been considered a solution to invasive oral and maxillofacial surgery by father-and-son orthotropics founders, John Mew and Mike Mew respectively.

Many people are surprised to find out that not resting your tongue on the roof of your mouth is actually an abnormal tongue position, which can result in poorer oral health, incorrect facial posture, and weaker facial structures, such as an undefined jaw and crooked teeth.

What Does Mewing Do?

Mewing—social media’s alternative to orthognathic surgery and other advice diagnosis or treatment is picking up steam in internet communities and among wellness professionals.

That’s because the evidence from thousands of people online is starting to show that mewing works wonders.

From giving you a more defined jawline and attractive face shape to improving breathing, teeth alignment, and reducing pain, the support for the mew movement has many orthodontists wondering if this could be a breakthrough within the orthodontic world.

The History of Mewing

Let’s wind back the clock.

In the 1970s, a British orthodontist by the name of Dr John Mew had already begun to investigate the effects of proper facial and oral posture on his children and on his patients.

He used palate expanders as opposed to more traditional braces and orthodontic techniques, sometimes receiving criticism from the orthodontics community.

After the success he witnessed with dozens of his own patients and especially with his middle child, Mike, Dr John Mew felt he had enough evidence to introduce the concept of ‘orthotropic treatment’ to his fellow orthodontists.

In 1981, Mew published his theory in the British Dental Journal, stating that he believed the way we use our tongue is pivotal in causing facial malfunctions and deformities and can, therefore, be used as an alternative to orthognathic surgery.

Although he was elaborating on Melvin Moss’s widely accepted functional matrix theory (1962), which hypothesized that our facial bones, particularly our teeth and jaws, grew and evolved optimally when used correctly, Dr John Mew was met with an icy silence from the orthodontics industry.

Undeterred and determined to prove his hypothesis, Mew went on to study the positive effects of proper tongue position within his orthodontics practice and began the orthotropics journey that would later evolve into the mewing method.

Today, his son Mike Mew continues the revolutionary work of his father, who unfortunately has since had his dental license revoked by the general dental council in Britain.

These orthodontists failed to accept his claim that orthotropics could be an alternative to orthognathic surgery and wanted to see more peer-reviewed studies that backed his claims.

Whether it’s a question of money or pride, the orthodontic community ostracized the Mews and continued to claim that their groundbreaking findings were moving against the ‘correct’ medical advice diagnosis or treatment styles at the time.

Human Jaws Are Getting Smaller

Scientific findings show us that our ancestors both, distant and closer in history had larger skulls and stronger jaws.

Many theories and findings as to why this might have long been argued, but the consensus is similar—we’re living far different lifestyles to our ancestors and our physical health and wellness are comparably worse in many areas.

One such area, according to the Mews, is that people today have a much smaller jaw in comparison to our ancestors.

John and Mike believe that many factors have led to poorer jaw development and health, such as allergies or obesity that have led people to mouth-breath more. Or processed foods that are so soft and easy to chew it’s led to a less defined jawline.

Many orthodontists and scientists alike hold these views although they are yet to be proven and set in stone.

What’s undeniable, however, is that a smaller jaw leads to crowding of the teeth, and therefore pain, crooked teeth, and other related medical concerns.

The Mews believe that in the long run, this also contributes to a less attractive face and that practicing a good resting tongue posture could improve one’s jaw and facial health and wellness, as well as jaw and facial attractiveness!

But the health benefits don’t stop there. According to the Mews, they also believe that the mewing technique exercises can also help combat sleep apnea, instill better body shape and improve one’s respiratory system.

Reasons to Start Mewing

There are so many reasons to begin your mewing practice today, and the evidence is starting to pile up online. Not only could mewing help prevent invasive oral and maxillofacial surgery, but it’s also something you can do for your health—for free, anytime!

If you find yourself with any of the below complications, then you’ve got an incredibly solid reason to start mewing.

• ✅ You have a weak jawline
• ✅ You want to have a more attractive face shape
• ✅ You constantly catch yourself breathing out of your mouth
• ✅ You want a defined jaw and stronger cheekbones
• ✅ You want better facial symmetry
• ✅ You have breathing problems
• ✅ You suffer from sleep apnea
• ✅ You have problems swallowing
• ✅ You have an underbite, overbite, crossbite or open bite
• ✅ You want to naturally improve your posture
• ✅ You have nasal congestion
• ✅ You want to seem more confident
• ✅ You want to improve your speech impediment
• ✅ You want an alternative orthodontic treatment to oral and maxillofacial surgery

Pretty big list right?

That’s because the health benefits of just getting your tongue placement and position correct are incredible!

Is Mewing Legitimate – Does it Work?

As with all groundbreaking and innovative ideas, sometimes science can take time to catch up.

What’s clear to see though, is that thousands and thousands of proponents of the practice are reaping the health benefits of mewing exercises already, despite there being no peer-reviewed studies from medical professionals on mewing as of yet (you’ll see some incredible before and after photos later in this guide!).

Although the idea of mewing exercises as a comprehensive treatment and alternative to orthognathic surgery continues to divide the orthodontics community, the medical community seems to have come to a general consensus on the impact of tongue and jaw posture on oral health.

According to Urie K Lee in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Mew’s theory does generate plausible conclusions that need to be medically reviewed and investigated so that more scientific evidence can be gathered, particularly in regards to the ability mewing has as an orthodontic tooth movement tool.

One of the reasons John Mew actually had his dental license revoked was that he was too bullish on orthotropics in the absence of medically reviewed evidence that supported his claims.

Having already seen the incredible health benefits orthotropics had on his children and patients, however, he was willing to go against the general dental council at his own risk and become an ostracised British orthodontist championing what he believed in.

How to Do Mewing – Mewing Technique

Although we all naturally wish mewing could be as easy as chewing gum, there are some things you need to learn in order to perfect your mewing technique and get the most out of the exercises.

The best way to learn is to take a few minutes to read our in-depth tutorial on how to do mewing correctly and to watch our super helpful videos online!

Trust us, you’ll be mewing perfectly in no time!

IMPORTANT! Make Mewing a Habit

We all know the best results from mewing come to those who do it every day.

Just like if you’re trying to build muscle in the gym, or learn a new language or skill, making sure mewing becomes one of your daily habits is the fast track to success.

If only there was something that could help you make mewing a habit…

Well, you’re in luck. At Mewing.coach, we believe everyone should be able to learn how to mew affordably and easily, which is why we’ve created some super helpful media for you guys over on our website.

With our app, you’ll get daily notifications to help keep you on top of your mewing practice, as well as give you motivation, useful tips, and in-depth tutorials that’ll perfect your technique.

1. Lips Position

Seal your lips and mouth together. This shouldn’t feel forced or stressful, they should just be closed tightly. Your lips should not appear pursed—imagine the purse your grandma collects coins in, or when someone’s frowning slightly—avoid this.

Don’t pout either, as chicks do on Instagram. Just simply close your lips tightly and relax your jaw.

2. Proper Tongue Posture

This right here is the key to mewing, so take the time to make sure you get it right guys! Lift your tongue to the roof of your mouth and ensure that the tip of your tongue is slightly behind your teeth. It should not be touching your teeth!

Easy?

This is where it gets a little harder. You need to make sure that the back part of your tongue—sometimes called the ‘root of the tongue’, is also lightly pressing against the roof of the mouth.

Don’t stress if this feels a little unnatural and you can’t keep it in this position continuously, just focus on getting the tip of your tongue to the roof of the mouth for now. But remember that as you practice mewing, you want to get your whole tongue posture correct!

3. Mewing Teeth Position

Your front teeth shouldn’t be touching (like you were checking in the mirror for any food), but they should be resting just over your bottom teeth with your back teeth touching lightly. If it’s naturally more comfortable to have your back teeth slightly apart, that’s okay too!

Your bottom teeth should be just behind your top teeth in a very small overbite. If you’re struggling to get this shape now, don’t stress! It takes time. Overbites, underbites or braces may make it difficult until you get used to it.

4. Body Position

It might seem like your mom’s told you a million times, but we’re telling you again! Stand up straight, shoulders back, and try to focus on getting your body position right. This movement is just as important as any other part of mewing, and will really help you claim ownership over this practice.

Think of mewing like cooking. To get the results you want (a delicious meal), you must ensure you get all the ingredients right.

Cooking up burgers? Sure the meat patty’s nice on its own, but it’s not really a burger is it? It’s the same with mewing. You can have the perfect tongue position on the roof of your mouth and get your teeth placement right, but without a great body position, you’re not going to create the best cosmetic or health results for yourself.

5. Proper Chewing While Mewing

Next up—never, ever chew with your mouth open while mewing. This should already be ingrained in your head as proper manners anyway, but it’s especially important to remember while you practice mewing. If you chew with your mouth open, you’re less likely to grow the correct muscles and may end up with bloated cheeks or another undesired face shape.

A great tip to help you achieve this is to chew slowly and focus on the movement. Take your time! Enjoy the food, but keep your mouth shut and your tongue posture correct and engaged for maximum benefits.

6. How to Swallow While Mewing

The most important thing to remember when you practice mewing is how to swallow correctly. Swallowing correctly will naturally improve the benefits you get from mewing because it generates lots of force against your upper palate.

To test it out, begin with your back teeth touching gently and gather some spit in your mouth. With the tip of your tongue pressed into the upper palate, focus on swallowing hard without moving your cheeks and lips. Your tongue should be doing all the heavy lifting.

If you’re feeling a bit confused, watch our video tutorials and take the time to get this step right. It’s like the gym. If you’re not doing pull-ups with the best technique, you’re missing out on most of the gains.

7. Breathing While Mewing

Much like all the other steps, breathing is absolutely crucial to get right when you mew. Luckily, it’s not that hard, and it might just require some focus initially. If you always catch yourself breathing through your mouth, now’s the time to stop.

Breathing while mewing has to be through the nose, otherwise, you won’t see the health benefits of orthotropics. So close that jaw of yours, make sure your teeth alignment is on point, get your tongue to the roof of your mouth and focus on your nose breathing technique!

There is peer-reviewed medical and scientific evidence that indicates breathing through your nose is better for your health too. That’s because our noses are lined with cilia—which are responsible for filtering out close to 25 billion foreign particles that try to enter our body every day.

How Long Does It Take for Mewing to Work

As we are all unique, advice diagnosis or treatment for varying medical concerns will be different for all of us—mewing is no exception. There is strong corroborating evidence, however, that in children who mew, positive benefits can be seen within 24 hours.

For older people, the effects of mewing may take longer than in children, but can still often be seen relatively quickly, particularly in the jaw and jawline.

How Long Should You Do Mewing a Day

Orthodontists and proponents of Dr Mew’s treatment regimen recommend doing mewing for at least 30 minutes of mewing exercises each day. Eventually, mewing will become less of an ‘exercise’ you do, and more of a state of just ‘being’.

Once you’ve made it a habit to reset your tongue posture into the correct position, you may technically be mewing 24/7…and that’s when you’ll get incredible results!

The Most Common Mewing Mistakes

Sometimes, poor information on social media can lead to people mewing incorrectly. Here are some of the more common mewing mistakes that you should look to avoid.

• ❌Trying to mew while chewing and talking
• ❌Keeping your mouth too far open
• ❌Listening to proponents of mewing that don’t know what they’re doing
• ❌Holding your cheeks between your teeth whilst mewing
• ❌Mewing too hard and for too long when just starting out
• ❌Expecting to have a chiseled jawline and hunter eyes after one day
• ❌Clenching your jaw too hard
• ❌Incorrect tongue placement

We recommend watching our media content at Mewing.coach and the mewing tutorial videos below if you’re worried that you are making any of these common mistakes!

Before and After – The Benefits of Mewing

With so many benefits being experienced by thousands of those mewing around the world, you may need to see it with your own eyes to believe it. Below are some real-life photos of men, women, girls and boys who have reaped the benefits of mewing in more ways than one. Take a look at these incredible before and after mewing results here.

Mewing for Your Face

One of the biggest drawcards of mewing is that it can help you achieve a more symmetrical face. As you’ll see below, there are some incredible changes in these people’s facial shapes and structure just from making mewing a habit!

1. Jaw, Jawline

One of mewing’s core principles and Mike Mew’s central claim is that the technique has shown evidence of helping to strengthen jaws, resulting in a more attractive jawline. If you’re looking to improve your jawline, then working on your mewing technique could be a great way to do this.

Thousands of people have also shown support on social media for mewing, claiming that the technique has helped them reduce jaw-related pain by improving their jaw posture.

2. Chin

Want a stronger and sexier chin? Many claims that mewing, through building up the jaw muscles and jawline, has helped in the development of a strong and pronounced chin.

3. Double chin

The cosmetic benefits of resting your tongue on the roof of your mouth don’t stop at giving you a stronger jawline.

Mewing’s actually been shown to help reduce double chin. By engaging lower jaw muscles, you straighten other facial muscles which can help achieve a more chiseled look.

4. Receding chin

Receding chins, double chins and weak chins…what do they all have in common? An underdeveloped jaw.

Many online are starting to support and accept that by focusing on mewing as a treatment, one can improve many cosmetic aspects of their jawline without surgery and a receding chin is no exception.

5. Cheekbones

If you haven’t reviewed the awesome before and after photos of people’s cheekbones after mew treatment, then we highly recommend you go do that now because the results speak for themselves! Much like every other part of the body, the face, jaw, tongue, eyes and cheekbones are all closely related and intertwined and can have a great cosmetic impact when worked on.

You don’t get toned and beautiful arm muscles by resting all the time, you have to induce movement and workout. Well, it’s the same for cheekbones development. You have to work to get the desired shape you want!

6. Eyes

When you mew, you help move your midface up. Most people notice over time that they get deeper-set eyes and occasionally develop a hooded brow too. Mewing can also give the impression of altering the tilt of the eyes by growing and sharpening the cheekbones around them.

However, eyes are the hardest thing to change on your body, so many people accept that mewing will have less of an impact on their eye shape.

7. Hunter eyes

Hunter eyes are often deemed aesthetically appealing on both men and women due to their piercing and striking shape. As mewing adjusts jaw alignment and works to carve out cheekbones over time, hunter’s eyes are often a related byproduct of this facial movement.

Although it is accepted within the mewing community that hunter’s eyes are one of the last things you will develop from the treatment. Children may see greater instances of hunter’s eyes if they adjust tongue placement from an early age.

8. Nose

Mewing—social media’s alternative to orthognathic surgery is also making waves as a less intrusive nose treatment. For those not wanting to have surgery, mewing has thousands of corroborating reports stating that it can help fix crooked noses, make noses smaller, straighten noses and in some cases, even reshape your nose completely!

Don’t believe us? Check out these before and after photos!

9. Lips

Mewing is a great alternative to surgery for those wanting to enhance their lips. It’s non-intrusive and can be done for free every day.

Check out these inspiring before and after photos of mewing proponents who’ve adjusted the size, shape and fullness of their lips with great mewing technique.

10. Bimaxillary protrusion

As bimaxillary protrusion is a bite condition characterized by teeth shape and placement, mewing has been anecdotally shown to improve this issue through gradual jaw and teeth realignment. Many claim it to be an excellent alternative to surgery or more serious medical procedures.

11. May Help TMJ

Mewing’s tongue posturing technique has shown promising corroborating evidence from people who have imbalances in their TMJ joint. With mewing, patients have been able to adjust their jaws and reduce pain, speech impediments and airway issues.

12. Face Asymmetry

One of mewing’s core use cases according to its famous orthodontist founder Mike Mew, is that it has an overwhelming ability to improve one’s face symmetry, therefore making them more attractive.

Mewing can be a powerful tool to help you adjust and improve your face shape!

Mewing and your Mouth

Perhaps one of the greatest impacts British orthodontist Mike Mew’s treatment can be seen inside your mouth.

1. Straighten Teeth & Teeth Crowding

As crooked teeth and teeth crowding stem from improper oral structure, the medical advice from orthodontist Dr Mew would be to commit to the practice of mewing for up to 30 minutes a day.

As mewing works to make the jaw and jawline larger and more pronounced, teeth are given room to straighten and crowding is often reduced without invasive medical procedures.

2. Overbite/Underbite/Crossbite/Openbite

As mentioned above, studies show that the act of mewing strengthens, widens and adjusts your jaw, which is the solution for all incorrect bite postures as the root problem of these is jaw alignment.

3. Bruxism, Teeth Grinding & Tongue Chewing

Bruxism, teeth grinding and tongue chewing, whether while awake or in an unconscious sleep state, are common problems that many mewing enthusiasts have seen great improvements in.

By strengthening your jaw, facial and tongue muscles via mewing, one is less likely to mew in their sleep, and more likely to notice when they are doing these behaviors whilst awake.

Mewing for Your Sleep

Although some sleep issues originate from medical issues that cannot be fixed by mewing, there are many that can as seen in studies that show a positive correlation between mewing and snoring reduction!

Snoring & Sleep Apnea

Besides losing excess weight, sleeping on your side, and avoiding alcohol and cigarettes, mewing is one of the most effective pieces of medical advice an orthodontist can give you to combat snoring and sleep apnea.

As mewing bolsters your jaw, encourages you to breathe mindfully through your nose and corrects your tongue placement, reducing sleep apnea symptoms is often one of the mewing community’s biggest drawcards.

Mewing and Your Posture

Less commonly known and appreciated is how mewing can help you improve your general posture. It’s even been shown to help increase strength and flexion in the knee joint.

Body & Hunchback Posture

Because your jawline and how you carry your head is central to your posture, mewing can most certainly have a big impact. By being mindful and training your tongue to return to it’s rightful posture every day, you will also train your mind to correct your main body posture too.

Mewing and Age – How Old is Too Old?

Like with most things in life, starting earlier will often lead to more drastic results. Your body both physically and mentally is more plastic and malleable when you are younger.

This is why children are able to pick up multiple languages spoken by their parents or family members so easily and be bilingual by the time they can speak.

• A good example of this would be if you started to learn guitar when you were 5 years old, you might be a prodigy by now!
• A poor example of this would be if you started smoking cigarettes at 5 years old, you might have cancer by now.

The good news with mewing, and with any other positive or meaningful thing you’d like to try in life, is that it’s never too late!

As we’ve seen in the inspiring before and after photos throughout this ultimate mewing guide, impressive results can be achieved in such a short time, irrespective of age!

Can Mewing Be Harmful – Are There Any Risks?

Mewing when done responsibly has very little to no known medical risks. Experts and enthusiasts alike are waiting for the orthodontist community to catch up and start studying the awesome impacts of mewing in a medically reviewed and secure environment.

There’s still so much to be learned about mewing, and the medical community is perhaps only a few years away from discovering these things!

Other Face Shaping Exercises and Treatments

Working hand-in-hand with mewing are many face-shaping exercises and treatments that can accelerate the positive benefits of the practice.

With dozens of facial exercises to be learned and done on a daily basis, we’re still discovering innovative ways to slim, tone and shape our faces.

Remember, mewing should be used to make you feel more confident, and to improve your health within the limits of your control. It’s important to know that you are beautiful just the way you are and to always look after yourself!