Okay. There are a few videos to consider here; there is the article here as well. Then I will offer my own insight, information.

/community/guide-to-proper-tongue-posture-mewing/

Now that isn’t as much focused on what you’re interested in. 

For the video on your question. Orthotropics Youtube has the videos called Mew push swallow. Suction hold. And what is the tongue sweep. I like those videos. 

Now on Tuesday an orthotropic specialist explained the swallow as, I’m trying to relay her words:

for food/etc

take your tongue and sorta scoop up everything.

Raise it to the roof of your mouth. Press upwards against the palate.

Keep the whole of the tong engaged. Thatposterior third is important!

and while keeping the whole tongue lifted.. draw your tongue back towards your airway whilst pressing upwards still. 

Mans then you’ll use the throat mechanism to finish that up. 

Now it was said that a good exercise to train this action was with peanut butter. Or something tough and sticky? Peanut butter is reasonable.

Put peanut butter on your palate. Then work on draggin that peanut butter towards the back of your mouth, until you hear a pop. Keeping the whole tongue engaged! Drag it against the palate  apply upward force and get it to pop.

for the swallow mechanism, trying to swallow with water is explained in the videos and I recommend that 

That’s what I have to offer right now  

Re your other concern of the mandible.

IIRC Dr. Mew has mentioned at times that he’ll correct someone’s teeth.. only to result in a class 3. At which point effort needs to be made to maintain the maxilla whilst reducing that mandibular position.  

My inference is that there’s not quite a way to prevent the mandibular upswing, and it’s sometrinng which must be corrected if applicable. 

My most creative solution to prevent the mandible from swinging forward with the maxilla would’ve also counteracted the maxilla/palate expansion in the first place.. So i wouldn’t quite recommend it.

i invite you to ask for clarification.

Best wishes to you

This is Part 1 of the swallowing video Gregory mentioned:

https://youtu.be/gcI8CvoFxfQ

I'm not sure I understand your concern about your mandible "overgrowing" your maxilla. Do you mean that you have an underbite with the lower incisors more forward than the upper incisors, or do you mean that your lower arch is wider than your upper arch? Maintaining occlusion with the maxilla as you expand it should be the only trigger for your mandible to expand. So if the intermolar width of your mandible is already wider than the intermolar width of you maxilla, then the maxilla should catch up to the mandible, and the mandible would only grow once you start to expand the maxilla beyond the current width of the mandible.

Thank you so much, Gregory and Apollo. I have bookmarked the videos and will watch them and practice when I have some time at home.

Your explanations were very helpful.

Re the mandible overgrowth. I actually have a cross bite. I forgot to mention that. So the right side particularly of my mandible is wide and long, and the muscle is big. In an Xray you can see that the TM joint is actually worn down.

So I am hoping that one of the benefits of the DNA device and these exercises is to correct the cross bite. I don't mind the mandible coming forward, but I just don't want it to be longer or wider than it is.

One last question:

Does anyone know what the relationship of the frontal bone is with the maxilla? I am hoping my frontal bone will correct itself as well, as the growth there is actually very recent, within the last few years (you can see the difference in X-rays)

Thanks so much for the information and advice. I will study the links.

For the proper swallow technique, I actually think it has more to do with the jaw and throat muscles than with just the tongue. Mew calls it a 'push swallow' but I don't think that this is right, or at least isn't the whole picture. If you watch his videos, a lot of his swallows seem really unnatural and forced, and they are also really LOUD. It seems incorrect.

I do something different which I call a 'clench swallow' where I lightly clench my teeth together which naturally brings my tongue up, and then I just relax my throat muscles and the swallow happens naturally. After the swallow my tongue naturally pushes up with good force against the roof of my mouth, which is the proper mewing resting position as well. Not suction. You want to envision the tongue slowly moving the face upward over time, not bringing it down. You should almost feel like your face and skull can rest on your tongue.

There is a chance you can't get your posterior part of your tongue up to experience this feeling. If not just keep trying and eventually your body will adapt and allow it to happen.

Also my technique may only work for me due to my anatomy. Experiment and see what feels right for you.

Allixa, your explanation of the push swallow vs relaxed swallow was exactly what I was wondering. I had a chance to watch the videos. The push swallow makes sense but doesn't seem natural, you are correct. Although maybe it corrects the structural issues more quickly. I can't get the back of my tongue on the palate without blocking my airway, so I will need to work towards all of these techniques. I hope the DNA appliance will help me.

I watched on video where John Mew was explaining that one should make a deep "NNNNN" sound, which helps.

I went ahead and watched the video again too so that we can speak the same language here.

I definitely do activate my swallow by pushing up with my tongue, and with decent force, but at the same time I do clench down a bit with my jaw. I find that clenching down with my jaw while pushing up with my tongue makes the swallow very effortless. It's one fluid motion. Something like clench+push, then relax the throat muscles to swallow. I think this is the missing piece to Mew's technique, because if you watch his latest videos he definitely strains a lot to swallow these days. He's probably trying too hard to use the tongue only.

If your maxilla is very recessed and you can't get the posterior part of your tongue up, it might help to actually not worry about putting the tip of your tongue on the spot, and instead to drop the tip down so that you can push your tongue forward a bit more. So this means that the tip of your tongue might actually be touching the backs of your bottom teeth. Try this out and it might help you get more of your tongue up onto your palate. It would just be temporary until your body changes and you can fit your tongue more properly on your palate.

Here's a gif of someone doing the clench swallow I talk about:

The technique is not perfect - I see some lip movement there. But it's pretty good. Notice the masseter muscles flaring as well.

Your explanation and gif of the clench technique helps. The gif especially helped impress upon how fluid the mechanism is.

When done right It does seem natural. 

Fair assessment of the effort Mew puts in his swallows at times. 

I have some concerns with the effect of the clenching force this swallow pattern encourages.

With what I hear about clenching, with my own past concerns with bruxism, TMJ and other related issues... well after long term use of this pattern Maybe that is a side-effect and that is what I’m hesitant about.

On the one hand maybe that swallow helps with some masseter toning, when not actively chewing?

but maybe it can exacerbate imbalances if some improperly?

i am undecided.

i know for me, I’m so focused on the upward force against the palate and that motion that I do clench harder to compensate for the action. That is my malfunction, but nevertheless it id a factor for me.

Worthwhile exploring

These replies are very helpful. After reading them, I feel like my instincts have been pretty good about my tongue exercising. I am coming to understand for myself, that there are two ways to approach the swallowing mechanism. One is to have all of the face relaxed and only have the throat moving, which is the Mona Lisa swallow, I guess. The other is to swallow more consciously, like a muscle building exercise, where the back of the tongue is thrust up onto the roof, and maybe the jaw clench added as well. For me, I would like to have the Mona Lisa swallow happen naturally, but consciously do the tongue exercises through the day. I don't have the room in my palate to include my whole tongue, so I actually do a nose breathing exercise where I will hold my breath and push up with the back of my tongue  and slide it forward, ignoring the front part of the tongue, which is what I think you were mentioning, Allixa.  When I do that slide motion forward, there is a place in the middle of my palate where I always hear pops on my right side, both in the ear and I think in the bones, too. So I feel like that is a good place to start. Thanks for helping me figure it out.