What IS Mewing?

Correcting oral posture

You probably already know about body posture, which affects the position we hold our head, shoulders, and back in. Oral posture on the other hand, refers to the position of the tongue, lips and teeth. As could happen with body posture, this correct oral posture usually is not kept by most of people.

Sometimes, allergies causes the nose became stuffy and obstructed and this forces people to separate their lips, and open their mouth, otherwise it could be impossible to breathe. This poor oral posture causes to develop flat cheeks, a receded chin, crooked teeth, a weak jawline and a slight hook in the nose.

Mewing is a disciplined oral posture technique that improves your facial structure meaning your jawline by altering your tongue’s resting position so that it rests on the roof of your mouth with your teeth closed and together and your lips close and together as well, while breathing through your nose. It also involves chewing and swallowing your food the right way, so it's a form of myo-functional therapy.

Dr. Mike Mew is an orthodontist based in London pioneering non-mainstream approaches to correcting the causes of crooked teeth, sleep apnea, and TMD (temporomandibular disorders) as well as improving facial. His father, Dr. Jhon Mew, developed in 1966 the called Ortrhothopic treatment.

Simply put, orthotropics is a method for achieving proper development of the face. The general goal of orthotropics is to guide the upper and lower jaws to grow forward – without surgery.

While traditional orthodontics only tries to fix the teeth, orthotropic fixes overall aspect of the craniofacial structure and body posture by applying mewing technique.

So how is it possible to fix such problems by mewing?

It’s plausible that having the tongue pressing up and forward on the maxilla for 8 hours a day and hopefully while you’re sleeping, over a few years, can make noticeable changes in the structure of the face.  Another effect of having the tongue on the roof of the mouth is that - especially when young - it widens the dental arch, which helps to have straight teeth.

Picture by Rodolfo Clix on Pexels

The upper arch should form like this, thanks to the tongue pressing against the teeth, preventing the pressure of the cheeks from pushing them in. But if the tongue isn’t holding the teeth in place, the teeth can get crowded inwards.

The development of the facial skeleton is not fixed. The bones of the skull are held together by fibrous joints called sutures. The maxilla, the bone of the upper mouth, is connected to the cranium and face by several sutures. And these sutures are not completely fused together.

It is understood that after birth, the sutures of the skull "fuse" together by age 2 or so. One study found that complete closure of certain sutures does not occur until as late as 70 years old.

New bone can still be made at the sutures - even in adults. In fact, the positioning of bones of the skull can be useful information in forensics and archeology.

There is scientific evidence which suggests that you can influence your craniofacial structure and its functions. Prevention in children is orthotropic’s main goal. Change can also be achieved in adults, although by using palatal appliances.

Orthotropics and its principles are extensively discussed on the Orthotropics’ Youtube channel by Doctors Mike and John Mew.

You can also find several videos on Youtube by people who show their improvements in their facial structure.

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Thank you for reading!  I’m not a native English speaker so I hope I haven’t made too many errors. I’ll appreciate any suggestions.