Mewing is known to be a process that takes time for results to manifest. Many users have given up because they don’t seem to be seeing results. Other times, they give up because mewing is too challenging to keep up with. It took me a whole year before mewing became a subconscious habit that I no longer had to think about.
Mewing gets easier with time. However, that requires using proper mewing technique every day, 24/7. Mewing has to become second nature. Eventually, you will not even have to think about mewing.
Mewing is tough, especially when you are still new to it. The goal of mewing is to break down habits that have already formed. And that is not always the easiest thing to do. To learn to mew means unlearning many bad postural habits you have learned over the years.
Starting with Good Mewing Technique
Every beginner in the mewing world was once confused about whether or not they were doing it right. It sounds easy enough to place your tongue at the roof of the mouth, but people often forget the basics.
- Start by having good back and body posture. Make sure your spine is straight, and your chin is slightly tucked in. Adjust your neck to ensure that it’s also straight.
- The front of the tongue is right behind the front teeth at the incisive papilla. The back of the tongue by the wisdom teeth is fully up and engaged.
- Seal your lips. Not having your lips closed at all times is a dealbreaker. Locking your lips is very important as it ensures you are breathing through your mouth.
- Chew your food very well. Properly chewing your food ensures that you are putting your muscles to good use. Also, you should start swallowing your food without using the lip muscles.
Also, make sure that your upper and lower teeth are in slight contact with each other. You should not be clenching them too tight otherwise, you might develop jaw problems.
These are just the basics, but there’s much more to it than that. For more info, visit our Ultimate Mewing Guide.
Common Mistakes
To understand how mewing will get better over time, we have to analyze some common mistakes. These mistakes could mean a lot when trying to get results with mewing.
Pressure
Time is also a significant factor for mewing. Some mewers will often apply way too much pressure on the roof of the mouth as if this can fasten the results. But the thing with mewing is that it will take time, not force. No amount of pressure in a single day can make drastic changes to your facial structure. The results in mewing are achieved with duration, not force.
Improper Body Posture
Though mewing’s basis is good oral posture, it is also affected by body posture. When the body is not in an ideal posture or a forward head posture, this affects the jaw’s movement and will make it more difficult to mew. Less force gets placed on the upper palate.
Forgetting the Back Third
This is a mistake that nearly all people who have tried mewing will tell you to watch out for. It keeps cropping up in forums and discussions. Even so, not engaging the back third remains one of the most common mistakes and challenging aspects of mewing. The reason for this is that it is generally a bit difficult to accomplish.
Inconsistency
Perhaps the greatest mistake you could make in mewing is not to do it consistently. Mewing should be done 24/7 at all hours of the day to be effective. You should mew when you are in the shower, and mew while you are asleep.
You need to do it consistently without stopping to see results. Even though it might be uncomfortable at first, it’s worth it. After all, you are only doing what your body is designed to do.
These are only a few of the mistakes you could be doing with mewing. For a more comprehensive and detailed list, check out our other article here.
Tips to Make Mewing Easier
Mewing will be the most difficult when you are just starting. This is the time in which you should work on getting used to it. You can do several things to help you with this. Virtually every tip to improve mewing habits will also make mewing easier. Meanwhile, take a look at some of our suggestions:
Set Constant Reminders
Setting up reminders can help you consistently mew. Set up alarms every hour or so to remind yourself. Of course, don’t do this where alarms can bother other people. You can send yourself a scheduled text or just find a periodic reminder app.
Reminders can slowly help you build up the habit of constant mewing.
Do It With Someone Else
You might have a friend, whether online or in real life, who is also interested in mewing. Doing it with someone and watching each other’s progress can be helpful as well. When you are held accountable to someone else, it can really help solidify your habit.
Create Personal Triggers
Another tip to help you build a habit is creating triggers. For example, when you wake up, train yourself to think about mewing as the first thing you do. Or when you see a cup of coffee, relate it to mewing. When you get an email or a text, relate it to mewing. Mew every time you walk through a door. There are a lot of options.
Get Inspired and Motivated
Finally, joining groups and forums where other people share their results is a great option. You can stay motivated when you take a look at how far other people have come with mewing. Spend at least a few minutes a day doing this.
Mewing Not Possible
If you have a lot of trouble mewing or cannot mew, it might be something else. Your palate could be too small, or you might have other complications that make it more difficult to mew. Some people who have deep overbites cannot close their mouths properly, and cannot mew.
If your palate is too small, you should consider getting it expanded. Some devices can do that for you. Look into getting a Maxillary Skeletal Expander or an MSE. These are appliances that screw on to the roof of your mouth. The goal of this process is to expand the upper jaw.
MSE is a type of MARPE or Mini-implant Rapid Palatal Expander. These appliances can take anywhere from 4-6 months to fully take effect. It expands the midpalatal suture in your upper jaw. Fair warning though, it can be pretty painful and possibly contribute to asymmetries. It literally splits your skull in half. It will result in a gap in your front teeth that braces will fix. However, it’s one of the only ways to get true expansion of the maxillary bone.
Personal Anecdotes
Youtuber AstroSky has been mewing for a couple of years, and he is one of the best representations of good mewing results. He mentions that one way to get good tongue posture is to make sure that you keep doing it over and over again. It eventually became more natural as he ingrained in his mind the idea that he will never give up on good tongue posture. He adds that developing good tongue posture pushes you beyond your genetic limitations.
Another Youtuber, Tina Tomato, has taken photos showing her mewing progress for over a year. She states that at the beginning of her mewing journey, she was unconsciously pushing on the front teeth using the tip of her tongue. She only realized that this was wrong a couple of months in.
Tina realized that her tongue should be pushed slightly back so that it doesn’t make too much contact with the front teeth. She managed to nail down the correct tongue posture, which proved to be very difficult at the start. Her mewing journey became a lot easier when she incorporated exercise into her routine. Having good posture from working out helped her ensure her whole body gave the right amount of support to her neck and head.
Conclusion
If you feel discomfort, this is normal at the beginning. However, you should not feel pain, and the discomfort should eventually go away. If your palate is too small or you’re too recessed to mew, that’s a separate issue, and you might need medical intervention such as palatal expansion before you’re able to mew properly.
Mewing is not easy. And no one ever tells you it is. If you ask those who started mewing a couple of years back, they will tell you that it takes a lot of time to get used to it. It will be rare for someone to tell you that it was comfortable from the very beginning. But the key to achieving great results is constant perseverance and dedication. Eventually, mewing will get easier as you get used to exercising proper oral posture.
Remember, mewing is a process that you should be doing anyway. The improper oral posture that you’ve had all your life contributes to facial deficiencies, such as a recessed chin or a long face. Over time, mewing will get easier. But it’s not an easy process to maintain. Keep in mind our habit-building tips and create your own as well.
