i’ve become aware of how to properly swallow and chew but my dilemma is regarding chewing gum. A lot of sites say the buccinator muscles are used as an assistance muscle when chewing and other websites say they’re not used in mastication. I have strong masseters from chewing but my main goal is to atrophy my chubby cheeks . Would you guys recommend me to stop chewing gum completely or potentially increase the amount of gum I’m chewing?
Masseters are often responsible for bloating the cheeks.
@auxiliarus Doubtful. I have almost habitually forced myself to engage my jaw more over the years and it -- if anything -- makes the cheeks look more hollow in my case since the muscle kind of stretches out the skin laterally and/or inwards and creates a tent or hammock-like pull between the cheekbones and ramus, driving a concave area.
If the jaw/masseters are making you look bloated it just means the entire foundation is flawed AKA you are probably bloat-bound regardless -- the jaw muscles in isolation should not be a direct factor. Also, not sure if this post has some "continuity error" or such as it mentions buccinators activated with chewing, but then mentions reducing chubby cheeks by way of chewing -- so it's hard to draw a line with past, present; correlation, causation or etc.
** The face pulling "bag method" -- /community/community/main-forum/face-pulling/#post-3902 **
** Keengo Chin Tuck method w/force (WIP)-- /community/community/main-forum/chin-tuck-with-added-force-chin-tuck-2-0-new-theory-inside/ **
@auxiliarus Doubtful. I have almost habitually forced myself to engage my jaw more over the years and it -- if anything -- makes the cheeks look more hollow in my case since the muscle kind of stretches out the skin laterally and/or inwards and creates a tent or hammock-like pull between the cheekbones and ramus, driving a concave area.
If the jaw/masseters are making you look bloated it just means the entire foundation is flawed AKA you are probably bloat-bound regardless -- the jaw muscles in isolation should not be a direct factor. Also, not sure if this post has some "continuity error" or such as it mentions buccinators activated with chewing, but then mentions reducing chubby cheeks by way of chewing -- so it's hard to draw a line with past, present; correlation, causation or etc.
The whole buccinator idea is bs.
And sure, if your insertions are good, with low body-fat, then masseter hypertrophy can look good. Either way masseter clenching over long periods of time will cause facial shortening.