If anyone is thinking of quitting retainer wear for mewing be careful. I had braces and extractions as a kid and wore a retainer for 12 years, I heard about mewing and thought I would just do that to improve but my face and jaws ended up relapseing and my face got longer and the soft tissue even changed because it was causing me to use my muscles differently, however not a good different. I don't think I was mewing correctly all the time because it is really hard to do in a narrow palate, it takes constant training. My inter molar width is around 30mm. My cross bite had come back and my jaws felt terrible so I tried to get expansion but no professionals would do that so I ended up with Invisalign to fix the relapse and I try to mew with that but it is quite a process and you don't want to pay for braces again so think it through before committing. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
How long did you mew for?
Did you have upper or lower retainers?
Did you strengthen your jaw muscles so you could hold your teeth together 24/7?
I took the retainers out and mewed for three years, they were the hawley type retainers. I did chew gum and that helped but it was hard to mew and I wasn't able to do it enough to keep the old position of my teeth let alone make positive change so they ended up relapsing and once that happened it was even harder to keep the tongue to the roof of the mouth because of a posterior and anterior cross bite and misalignment. Now I'm just working on correct posture even though I have Invisalign.
So you didnt mew and strengthen your muscles before dropping the retainer? You tried to do it after? Is that correct?
Correct, I was trying it a little before dropping the retainers but not as much because I was trying to research if the retainers hinder progress which some say it does.
Yes you are right, retainers hinder progress, because they hold teeth in place (they are made for that).
I think lack of developement in facial muscles can be part of the problem, and you cant make up for that in short period of time. Like going to the gym, real muscle growth is quite slow. Stronger muscles make it easier to mew. I actually has been mewing and chewing in retainer for some time before I decided to go all in. Still, It's to early to tell if it worked (tho i had little orthodontic work done, so probably not much of a problem). I would continue to mew and OMC while wearing invisalign if i was you. And really think about the process - like jamo said in succes stories - mind muscle connection.
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