At this point, you probably know that mewing can take a long time. Months and years if you’re older. This leads us to the question: can mewing be reversed? Or, can you mew for the opposite reasons, such as making your face look longer?
You can reverse mew by having bad oral posture. However, you should really rethink the desire to reverse mew as there are almost no situations where you’d really want to. Even if you want a longer face, reverse mewing will make you look worse.
Because mewing is largely for aesthetics, most people who mew just do it for the face: a better jawline, a prominent chin, hollowed-out cheekbones, and more. But what if you want to do the opposite? What if you want to mouth-breathe to make your face look longer? Well, the answer to that is up to you.
Generally, though, mewing is made to solve facial form and function problems. So doing the opposite is not likely to do you any favors. Unless your desired result is a longer face, then it should be possible. Remember that each facial structure is different, and the effects of reverse mewing for you could be different than for others.
Reverse Mewing
If you are here, you probably already know the benefits of mewing and how to do it. You know that it is mostly about proper tongue and mouth posture. Reverse mewing would just be not doing any of those. Regular people who don’t mew are likely to be doing it already anyway.
Mouth breathing is a common manifestation of improper oral posture. It gives you a longer face and a recessed chin. It’s not an ideal look at all. It can make a face look unattractive and imbalanced.
What if after mewing for a long time you think your features are now too sharp and want to soften them a bit? In that case, maybe you could reverse mew to achieve the desired results. However, that would be unlearning all the good habits you’ve worked so hard to build up. Mewing is all about habit building and consistency, so you should think twice about breaking it all down.
It is also quite possible that you mewed incorrectly, and now your face is odd-looking. In that situation, you should look deeper into what went wrong and try to correct it. Mewing improperly could have bad consequences for your face. But in general, any asymmetries should eventually work themselves out the longer you stick to proper mewing.
Something to also consider is your age. Remember that mewing does not ‘change’ your face per se. It only guides facial growth and allows your face to achieve maximum potential. With mewing, you will be achieving a look had you practiced proper oral posture the whole time.
You already know that mewing is more effective in younger people. Their facial structures are much more malleable, and they still have a lot of growing to do. In older people above 25, it gets more difficult. Changes will not manifest immediately, and any visible differences will take at least a year to achieve.
If you mewed consistently and now you’re at an older age for mewing, reverse mewing might not work. Because mewing is just guiding the facial growth, it will be difficult to change how your face grows when it’s changing very little. This change is why the effects of mewing will probably last a while.
So, consider this. You’re already in your mid-20s, and you’ve been mewing for the past two years or so. You’ve seen great results, but now you want to tone it down a bit. Like with mewing, any changes will not be easy when you’re already that old. Don’t expect reverse mewing to give you life-altering changes then.
The main thing reverse mewing will accomplish is lower your hyoid/tongue position to give you more turkey neck and a worse-looking jawline. The bone changes from reverse mewing will be minimal unless you do it for years.
Is Reverse Mewing Desirable?
Long faces and recessed chins are difficult to view as ideal. It would depend a lot on the results you want to achieve for yourself.
But reverse mewing may not be the answer to your problems. If you think your face is shorter than it should be and want to make it look better, reverse mewing could not help you. Take a look at this particular example. Reverse mewing did not make the young man’s moon face better, mewing did.
Source: Reddit
Don’t consider reverse mewing an ideal option. Mewing could achieve many of the things you want for your face. And you won’t even have to sacrifice any of the health benefits that come with it.
Having an elongated face is not a look that the public goes for today; it probably was never that great at any point in time. You would benefit more from a face that is sharper and more prominent.
Reverse mewing won’t merely stretch your face vertically. When you elongate the face from reverse mewing, you lengthen your midface and mandible while your forehead stays the same. This will mess up your facial harmony.
Effects on Your Health
Even though mewing improves the face, it also has a lot of health benefits. Breathing through your nose will help you breathe better and more efficiently. Additionally, mewing reduces the risks of certain issues like TMJ or sleep apnea. For a more detailed list of mewing’s health benefits, take a look at our other article here.
If you do choose to reverse mew, you are willingly putting your body in an unnatural state. Don’t forget that mewing and all the good things that come with it is how your body is supposed to function in the first place. Humans aren’t supposed to breathe through their mouths 24/7 or have forward head posture. Mouth breathing, for example, is reserved for high-stress situations or people with sinus problems.
Once you get the hang of mewing, you start reaping the benefits that come with it, and doing the opposite of that may not be the best idea.
Mewing was originally a solution to dental problems. Taking this perspective into consideration, we can assume that mewing is meant to be done forever and can only help. Many studies are indicating the connection between bad oral habits and malocclusions.
This study by Grippaudo et al. (2016), for example, concluded that there is a significance between bad oral habits and good craniofacial growth. These bad habits also correlated with overbites, which is never a good thing.
Before you decide to reverse mew, consider all the health benefits you are giving up.
Conclusion
At present, there is still a large hole in research concerning mewing, even more so for its opposite. We don’t know exactly how long the effects of mewing last or if they wear off over time. Many of the mewing results found online are recent. It will take years before we get to see any substantial proof of whether mewing effects last a long time.
All we can do is draw conclusions based on the information we already know. In that line of thought, reverse mewing cannot be categorized as factually possible or impossible yet. But from what we understand of mewing, it seems likely. Again, the results of reverse mewing are dependent on many factors.
Much like mewing, reverse mewing or mouth-breathing banks on growth to change the facial appearance. Over time, or once you get older, this is much more difficult to achieve.
The bottom line is that, yes, the opposite of mewing is possible. Theoretically, however, you will find very few sources on the topic because the opposite of a chiseled face is not ideal. Many who want to know about reversing the effects of mewing did it incorrectly.
To avoid making mistakes that will be difficult to undo, research mewing carefully, and make sure you are doing it right. Mewing in itself should give you the great results you need without you needing to undo anything.
