The Internet has no dearth of healthcare regimens that claim to work wonders if you invest your time and effort in doing them. From 5-minute beauty routines to Vogue magazine’s peek into the skin and healthcare practices of celebrities, there are a plethora of beauty and healthcare regimens you can follow. However, facial restructuring techniques, known as mewing, as a part of a non-surgical improvement of jawlines, are not often involved.
Recently, the mewing craze has taken the Internet by storm. Hoards of YouTube videos, mewling challenges, and their “before-and-after” results have surfaced on the Internet, making mewing a viral Internet beauty craze. While mewing is not backed by any solid scientific research, it claims to alleviate pain in the jaw, correct impediments in speech, and give you a defining jawline on top of it. However, the practice is not scientifically accepted and you are better off having a medical consultation for mouth and jaw issues.
But before you get caught up in the mewing fanaticism, let’s see what it is all about!
Mewing before we knew it
Mewing is a technique for facial restructuring that consists of exercises that are focused on the placement of the tongue inside the mouth, also known as the maxilla. The consistent practice of placing the tip of the tongue on the maxilla is supposed to result in evident structural changes in face shape.
Named after Dr. John Mew, a British orthodontist, and his son Dr. Mike Mew, mewing has become a DIY treatment for the restructuring of the face and jaw to gain desired facial features. However, mewing, as we know it today, is not an entirely new technique for alleviating pain from issues related to the jaw. Tongue alignments are recommended by various orthodontists for jaw restructuring without surgery.
Despite impressive results and feedback on YouTube, mewing comes with various limitations. Practitioners of mewing also believe that the technique is not meant to be used as a corrective measure for the structure of your face. While it does not directly impact the structure of your face, the lack of exercise may transform your jawline to look worse over time. Arguably, the practice is best suited for children to practice as a remedy for speech issues.
Another reason for the disapproval of mewing as a nonsurgical remedy for medical issues involves the apprehension that patients might use such hypothetical DIY techniques where serious consideration for orthodontic work is required.
Before and after results of mewing
There is a lot said about the efficiency of mewing as a DIY treatment, with the before and after pictures on YouTube being a testimony. But you must remember to take what you see on the Internet with a pinch of salt. The before and after pictures are only anecdotal evidence of the efficiency of regular mewing. The difference in the pictures may be due to the angle from which the picture is taken and the lighting. Therefore, anything that is not clinically backed must not be relied on in its entirety.
How to mew
It requires you to keep your mouth closed with your teeth gently touching. Relax your tongue and place it against the back of the mouth using a little bit of effort. When you do this, you must be able to feel some pressure throughout your jaw. Eventually, it will require much less effort for you to relax your tongue and stick it to the roof of your mouth much easier. To obtain defining results, it must be done all the time, even as you drink liquids.
Like every other DIY technique, mewing seems a bit too good to be true. Unlike what YouTube videos tell you, it takes more than a year for it to have an impact. So if you are someone who has an abundance of patience, you may choose to try it.
Takeaway
Although the practice of mewing is not dangerous, the DIY technique is not backed by any clinical research. Whether or not it works well to shape your jawline is not known. Therefore, it is recommended that you rely on medically proven treatments in consultation with your doctor for jawline pain or cosmetic concerns.
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