The mandible, or lower jaw, can make a face appear more symmetrical and defined. A smaller jawbone makes a person have a short and disproportionate appearance. So, how can you increase your mandible size?
You can increase your mandible size by “mewing” and chewing more to make your jaw muscles larger. You can also increase your mandible size quickly by getting dermal fillers or jaw implants.
But why does having a more prominent, more chiseled jaw matter?
Why a Stronger, Larger Jaw Is Attractive
Women are naturally more attracted to men who have larger jaws (Little et al., 2011).
Prominent jaws are often considered a more masculine feature. It can signal that a person has high testosterone levels and is sexually mature.
A larger mandible size can also make a face look more balanced. Facial symmetry is often more attractive because it shows that a person has good genes (Jones et al., 2003).
So how can you increase your jaw size to make it more prominent? Here is what you need to know.
How You Can Increase Your Jaw Size
There are five things that you can try to increase your mandible size, which are:
- Mewing
- Chewing
- Dermal Fillers
- Jaw Implants
Mewing
Mewing is a technique where you adjust your tongue position. You correct your tongue posture with this technique so that it goes back to its natural resting position. Mewing is known to enhance your facial features, particularly your jawline. It can make it look more chiseled and prominent.
To learn how to do the mewing technique properly, see our guide.
For most people, mewing seems strange. Why would changing your tongue posture change your facial structure? For one thing, bad tongue posture can cause mouth breathing. Mouth breathing can create a convex facial profile, lip incompetency, and lower incisors that tip forward (Basheer et al., 2014).
The tongue and jaw posture followed in the mewing technique encourages you to breathe from your nose. You can enhance your facial features by mewing since it helps you stop mouth breathing and instead forces your mandible to remodel to its proper configuration.
Click here to see a list of studies that back up the scientific principles of mewing.
Bones are malleable, even when you are an adult. Take a look at the photo below. In the picture, the woman’s jaw jutted outwards as she aged.
People in their 20s have also seen significant changes in their facial appearance after mewing technique for several years.
Click here to see mewing progress photos.
There is not as much hard evidence that it works for people above 30 years old because mewing is still a new concept. However, if it can work for someone in their 20s, it should work on older people. Old people’s bones change all the time, especially after they have a stroke and lose the ability to contract certain muscles.
Chewing
Your mandible muscles are like any other muscle in your body. The more you use them, the larger they will become.
A study was done comparing the diets and mandibles of the Point Hope and Arikara American Indian Populations from the 1600s-1700s. They based their research on their skulls and the diets they had. The Point Hope population had a “hard diet,” which includes tough dried meat. The Arikara population had a “soft diet,” which included light hunting and farming.
The children from both populations had similar jaw sizes. However, the Point Hope population had larger jaws in adulthood compared to the Arikara population. Researchers believed the Point Hope population had more massive mandibles because they chewed more and used more energy to chew (Ruff et al., 2011).
However, adopting a “harder” diet may not be accessible in our current society. Luckily, you can opt to chew gum instead. You can try Falim gum because it is hard and has no sugar. Ideally, you should chew gum as much as possible. However, you should be careful not to overwork your jaw.
Think about it like going to the gym. You can chew gum for an hour with a few breaks, then let your jaw rest until the next day. You can work your jaw muscles until you can chew for a few hours a day.
You do not have to worry about losing your jaw muscles easily. We need to eat to survive, which means we will be using our jaw muscles every day. Chewing gum simply gives your jaw muscles an extra workout to encourage growth.
Dermal Fillers
You can use dermal fillers to reshape your jaw and chin. It is a non-surgical and non-invasive procedure that can instantly add more volume and shape to your mandible. Most dermal fillers are gel made from safe materials like hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is naturally present in everyone’s body, so it is perfectly safe to use.
To perform the procedure, a surgeon will either inject or apply an anesthetic to numb the targeted area. Your surgeon may do this 15-20 minutes before injecting the dermal filler. Your surgeon will then inject the filler in specific locations on your face. Your surgeon will also massage it to make sure the material is smooth.
Depending on what you want, most dermal filler procedures take 20-60 minutes to complete. Most dermal fillers can last for 6-12 months. However, it can vary based on how your body metabolizes the material.
Therefore, you need to get dermal fillers again if you want to maintain your look. If you want a permanent solution to increase your mandible size, then you need jaw implants.
Jaw Implants
You can get implants to increase your mandible size and make it stronger. Jaw implants can also add more balance, creating a symmetrical face.
Implants add volume and definition, which makes the jaw more prominent. It also adds balance to the lower and upper face.
You are usually given an IV sedative and local anesthesia if you get jaw implant surgery. That way, you will stay relaxed and pain-free during the procedure. Your surgeon will create small incisions inside your mouth. Your surgeon will then use those incisions to insert the implants into the targeted areas.
Your surgeon may use dissolvable sutures to close your incisions. Your surgeon may also apply bandages as needed to manage any postoperative oozing and bleeding. Most jaw implant surgeries take around 1-2 hours to complete. But it can vary based on your specific case and your desired results.
You may have mild-to-moderate pain, swelling, and bleeding for 1-3 weeks after the surgery. Your doctor may give you medication and tips to help you manage those postoperative symptoms. You may be told to avoid any strenuous exercise until you fully recover. You may also be told to sleep on your back to avoid adding pressure on your jaw.
Jaw implants are ideal for patients who want a very defined and prominent jaw. That is because the implants are harder than the gel in dermal fillers. Dermal fillers can increase your mandible size. However, since the gel is naturally soft, it may not give you very sharp features. Therefore, getting jaw implants would be better if you want a sharp, chiseled, and larger jaw shape.
However, there is more to a good jaw than just sheer size. Click here to learn more about jawline aesthetics.
