Chewing is chewing. Mewing is mewing. Two different things. But both are important and will help you get changes.

When I hear the word mewing I think of proper oral posture: lips together, teeth together, with as much of the tongue as possible up onto the roof of the mouth - basically the tropic premise which is mewing in a nutshell.

However, if you want changes as an adult it goes beyond that. You can't just mew passively and expect large changes, you have to use your tongue to make things happen. You have to use the back and middle of your tongue to push up against your palate, you have to use the front of your tongue to push forwards against the palate, and you have to use the sides of your tongue to expand the palate, and with force. That's what I mean by 'mewing hard'. This is what really drives the proper changes. When you mew properly, and don't strain yourself or injure yourself by doing things wrong, you will feel good pressure in your midface, near your eyes, behind your nose, in your palate, etc. You should feel changes happening. That's what real adult mewing is all about.

As for chewing, that's important too. It helps to build facial muscles and bone, and helps the tongue get stronger too. There are a few ways to chew. You can chew gum of various strengths, crunchy foods which incorporate the tongue and simulate actual chewing more properly, two pieces of gum at once (one on each side), etc. But the most important distinction is the idea of either doing closed mouth or open mouth chewing. You should experiment with both to see how they feel. It's my opinion that open mouth chewing leads to better facial muscle balance (no hypertrophy) and better bone moving potential as well.

I don't get this about open mouth chewing.

The goal is to train the lips to seal at rest and especially at night.

Open mouth chewing seems to go against this. Basically only train the jaw but ignore the lip seal? The lip seal is part of proper posture. Undertraining it by practicing open mouth chewing seems counterintuitive. Enlighten me on this 

I think having a closed mouth when idle has little to do with the lips and more to do with jaw strength. If you keep your teeth together you'll probably struggle trying to keep your lips apart. I don't think I've seen someone who has had their mouth open despite having their jaw closed.

Working the lips too much can lead to imbalance and swelling. They tend to get larger and not proportional to each other. Great lips are pretty much 1-1 in size.

This thread talks about it quite a bit and I share my experience there

So what if you are like me and have a bad bite? Wouldn't keeping teeth together (like molars touching) just reinforce the bad bite and prevent outward expansion?

I have read that teeth should be kept apart. I have mild bruxism (or so I have been told by dentist) so keeping my teeth together would seem to wear them down.

Wouldn't keeping teeth slightly apart still work the muscles? It's not as if you relax the mandible to do this. You still use muscle control to hold it in place.

Lip seal would ideally be accomplished by negative suction from the tongue not from pressing them together. That would cause swelling. But I wasn't suggesting that. 

Posted by: Meltcel

So what if you are like me and have a bad bite? Wouldn't keeping teeth together (like molars touching) just reinforce the bad bite and prevent outward expansion?

I have read that teeth should be kept apart. I have mild bruxism (or so I have been told by dentist) so keeping my teeth together would seem to wear them down.

Wouldn't keeping teeth slightly apart still work the muscles? It's not as if you relax the mandible to do this. You still use muscle control to hold it in place.

 

Lip seal would ideally be accomplished by negative suction from the tongue not from pressing them together. That would cause swelling. But I wasn't suggesting that. 

What's your bite like now? What's wrong with it?

Keeping the teeth together doesn't mean that you have to clench down with a bunch of strength, they should just be resting against each other at the very least. Where did you read that they should be kept apart, because I read that same thing on some normal orthodontist/dentist site and I immediately wrote it off because they get so much wrong. Keeping the teeth apart = open mouth posture = face drops down over time. The lower jaw and lower teeth help support and push up the face bones over time. And keeping the teeth resting together helps make the jawbone bigger and more dense as well. The tongue isn't supposed to do all the work.

Do your lips seal on their own? Explain what you mean by tongue suction allowing the lips to seal.

Lips together, teeth together, tongue on the roof of your mouth. The force from your mandible is a huge part of raising your face up. 

I clench until I can feel all my teeth come into contact. As far as I can tell you have to clench pretty hard to cause damage and you don't need to go nearly that far. That being said I don't think you want just your front teeth coming into contact; That is likely insufficient force. I believe that when your side teeth and molars make solid contact, these forces transfer into your skull/midface and likely aid in expanding your cheekbones/palate/providing proper head support etc amongst likely many other good things. 

Dr. Mew has spoken a lot about how the tongue and jaw are "antagonistic forces" or something to that nature. Despite pushing in different directions they work in tandem to maintain proper facial structure.

@Allixa I wouldn't be surprised if these orthodontic bastards spread counter-productive information and narrative so they can maintain their client base. Mike and John have mentioned how Big Ortho have tried to dismiss/discredit them as hacks. #orthoconspiracy

So you basically push you tongue against the palate to feel it in the cheeks? And masseters as antagonists right? I think its working because after 20 minutes im sore in my cheeks/palate/teeth ;) Its easier to swallow from this position aswell. How do you strengthen your tongue to hold the posture overnight?

Posted by: Adam

So you basically push you tongue against the palate to feel it in the cheeks? And masseters as antagonists right? I think its working because after 20 minutes im sore in my cheeks/palate/teeth ;) Its easier to swallow from this position aswell. How do you strengthen your tongue to hold the posture overnight?

Yes that sounds about right. Just make sure to use as much of the back of your tongue as possible.

Holding the posture overnight is tough. In order to pull that off there are some things that really help like sleeping on the back or sleeping while doing a chin tuck. Other users have stated that taping their mouths shut at night helps too. I think if you try some of these strategies while also just being patient and letting your muscles get stronger over time you will start to be able to mew overnight.

Posted by: krollic

 

@Allixa I wouldn't be surprised if these orthodontic bastards spread counter-productive information and narrative so they can maintain their client base. Mike and John have mentioned how Big Ortho have tried to dismiss/discredit them as hacks. #orthoconspiracy 

 Yes that doesn't sound too far fetched. That's why I'm very glad someone like Mew exists. Imagine where we would be if he didn't spread his info online.