I'm barely 18, and found this forum and mewing a little more than a day ago. I had bracers as a child, and as long as I can remember my lower jaw and tongue have hung open.

I apologise for my bad terminology.

The problems I think I have

When I bit my teeth together naturally my lower row of teeth were a few millimeters behind my front row of teeth. Occasionally, when I moved my jaw from side to side, there would be this soft clicking sensation. This would occur for periods of a few hours about once every week. My teeth were too close together to allow my tongue to fit completely on the top of my mouth, so I have to curl it when mewing. When I put my teeth together there is a noticeable gap between my bottom and top front teeth (jaw pointing diagonally downwards?)

What changed

Yesterday I started mewing. In particular, I moved my lower jaw forward a few millimeters, closed my mouth and put my tongue at the roof, applying soft pressure. I additionally bought some soft chewing gum, which I chewed throughout the day. I woke up the next day with no noticeable changed at all (which is what was expecting, since I've been told this would take years). I had been unsuccessful in mewing overnight, as my mouth hung open in the morning.

As I was eating my lunch today, 6 hours later from waking up, I noticed my jaw had the familiar feeling of not being able to move all the way to the left side without there being a soft click. Except, it was no longer a soft click but a hard barrier. I physically could not move my jaw past that point.

I also noticed that when I bit down naturally, my teeth had moved forward several millimeters, in almost the position I wanted. I was physically unable to move it back to the position it was at this morning.

My questions

I'm very worried about not being able to move my jaw completely to the side. After looking around on the internet, I read that the clicking I experienced is a sign of TMD. I imagine me chewing gum and eating lunch perhaps worsened the previously barely noticeable TMD, if that is what I have.

The fact that my lower jaw has successfully pushed itself forward to align with my upper teeth is a great result, but I'm shocked by how quickly that occured. Since everyone has claimed this to be a process over the course of years, I just want to verify that I'm not doing something wrong that will destroy my face. Is this not actually a sign of development, but TMD locking my jaw forward?