Table of Contents
What Is Mewing And Orthotropics?
If you've never heard of Mewing, it's a concept named after Mike Mew and John Mew that stands for the proper way to posture yourself while you breathe, swallow, chew, and essentially anything that has to do with your face.
Mike Mew and John Mew are Orthodontists who have a different perspective on how teeth develop malocclusion.
This perspective revolves around the theory that a lack of proper posture, as well as mouth breathing will eventually lead to spacing issues in the teeth and poor facial development
This perspective has been dubbed “Orthotropics.”
What Causes An Ugly Face To Develop?
According to Mike and John Mew, genetically, humans are not supposed to have any malocclusion.
If you look at skulls from way back in the day when we ate harder foods, supposedly they had perfect teeth.
They propose that most individuals are eating softer food now in a standard Western diet, not chewing adequately to develop the surrounding jaw muscles, and also not breathing through the nose with their mouth closed, with their tongue sitting somewhere other than at the top of the roof of the mouth (where it should be).
And the result of this is the lengthening of the mid face, a recession of the jaw, an overall inhibited airway, and a degradation of facial aesthetics caused by the lack of supporting proper forward Maxilla/jaw growth
Basically, by not breathing through your nose with your mouth closed, and not maintaining a resting position with your tongue on the roof of your mouth, you will allow gravity to drag your face downwards.
This creates a very poor jawline and contributes to Sleep Apnea and other circulation issues.
Mouth Breathing Vs Nasal Breathing
This was a very informative video on not only the potential structural degradation that can occur from mouth breathing, but the health consequences that could stem from it as well.
This video, along with the Orthotropics channel’s videos, are what pushed me over the edge to really start taking this seriously.
The most compelling study mentioned in the video for me was the one that detailed how monkeys essentially totally destroyed their facial structure by manually impeding their nasal passages and forcing them to breathe through their mouths.
Many of the stories of Mike and John’s clients are incredibly unsettling as well (if you’re a mouth breather).
E.G. one child who supposedly couldn’t breathe through his nose anymore after he got a pet he was allergic to completely ruined his facial aesthetics within a few years.
The kid was literally unrecognizable afterwards.
This is supposedly entirely due to incorrect tongue posture and mouth breathing.
In contrast, some of the before and after pictures of patients who adopted Mewing and Orthotropics to improve their facial structure exhibit just as extraordinary results when proper tongue posture and nasal breathing is maintained for several years.
In the study “Influence of Mouth Breathing on the Dentofacial Growth of Children: A Cephalometric Study” it was concluded that “all subjects with mouth-breathing habit exhibited significant lower incisor proclination, lip incompetency and convex facial profile. The presence of adenoids accentuated the facial convexity and mentolabial sulcus depth.
A multidisciplinary team should work to have early diagnosis and appropriate treatment, preventing the consequent disorders of chronic mouth breathing. Because upper airway obstruction is an obstacle to normal dentofacial development, mouth breathing children deserve prompt attention before growth has proceeded irreversibly. The early recognition of such facial patterns may be utilized to identify those breathing compromised individuals who are likely to develop such types of malocclusions.
Hence, a joint effort by pedodontist, orthodontist, otorhinolaryngologist and pediatrician is thus required for reducing continuing detrimental effects of breathing impairments on facial characteristics.”
My Perspective On Mewing
A few guys messaged me about Mewing on Instagram.
At first I kind of just wrote it off because it seemed like one of those anti-PUA forum kind of concepts.
When I was really active on the Good Looking Loser forums I would see someone new get kicked off the forum almost on a monthly basis because they would be posting pictures of themselves, or examples of others with poor facial structure, and Photoshop them into good looking faces to show what a big difference it is just by altering bone structure a bit.
It wasn’t a productive use of time on what I would argue is the most action-oriented forum for guys getting their sex lives in check, which is what led to swift thread locks or perma-bans if the user didn’t show any active interest in improving their lives, and instead just wanted to talk theory about why women are attracted or aren’t attracted to certain faces.
Mewing was never discussed though; it was just a lot of theory about facial structure being thrown around by virgins who jumped on the board to rant about their disdain for their faces.
In hindsight, I’m surprised the concept wasn’t brought up at least once in any of those threads, as it seems to be pretty popular now, and is mostly why I finally started paying attention to it.
I started to watch some of Mike Mew’s videos.
He presents a logical science-based perspective of the progression of breathing issues, malocclusion, and overall structural deficiencies in the face, which is what kept me hooked into learning more about this concept.
After watching a few of his videos, the first thing that got my interest was the discussion of reversing Sleep Apnea, because I have severe obstructive Sleep Apnea. He also started to delve into mouth breathing and malocclusion, which also raised some red flags for me.
I found this all really interesting because I've been a mouth breather my entire life. This is partially because I have a deviated septum from elbows to the face in basketball games, and my tonsils and adenoids apparently are inhibiting my circulation as well to compound the breathing difficulties stemming from the inhibition of my nasal passage.
When I was younger I had an x-ray done to actually see where my jaw line sits because one of the first “fixes” for Sleep Apnea that your doctor will tell you about is getting a surgery to move your jaw forward, or using a mouthpiece to push the lower jaw forward, as some people have jaws recessed into their neck that partially blocks their airway.
That x-ray revealed that I didn't have any inhibition of my airway in that area.
After watching some of Mike Mew’s videos, I started to think that the x-ray results (which showed I’m perfectly fine) are not indicative of what's actually going on.
One important thing I’ve noticed when I'm sleeping is that when I'm sitting upright if I fall asleep (e.g. if I fall asleep on the couch watching TV or on the computer), I don't apnea whatsoever, but when I'm lying on my back (how I normally sleep) I apnea like crazy, hundreds of times per night without my CPAP machine.
I’ve realized that I’m essentially inhibiting my own airway as my throat and tongue sink back and inhibit my air way, forcing me to open my mouth and mouth breathe all night long.
I obviously do not maintain any form of proper tongue posture, as my tongue is literally falling into the back of my mouth and exacerbating my sleep apnea due to gravity.
P.S. most body builders that have a decent amount of muscle, or mass in general (fat) have some degree of sleep apnea. If you are a bodybuilder, I highly recommend you get a sleep study done to see if you have sleep apnea, how bad it is (if you have it), and address it immediately with a CPAP machine if you do have it because it's a major health concern that you might not be aware of.
Will Adults Still Get Results From Mewing?
Mike Mew fully got my attention when he said that if you consciously focus on keeping your mouth shut, keeping your tongue at the roof of your mouth, breathing through your nose and adopting proper swallowing technique that your facial structure can start remodelling in a more favorable way that actually clears up your airway to a significant extent, and improve sleep apnea.
His experience is mostly with children, as their facial structure is far more malleable than an adult they experience the best results from these lifestyle changes, however, he is starting to branch out into treating adults, and is pretty convinced that adults can still improve their structure as well, just to a lesser and/or slower extent than children.
Taking into account the blatant evidence of structural regression in full grown adults who experience muscular atrophy in the face (e.g. Stephen Hawking), it would only seem logical that the opposite would apply for adults who adopt proper tongue posture and stick to it for a long period of time.
There are several anecdotal cases logged on YouTube and in online forums of individuals in their twenties consistently Mewing and seeing great results, which is promising for those of us who are just learning about this and aren't prepubescent.
My Facial Structure And Sleep Apnea
One thing I've always noticed is that when I’m really lean I have a pretty sharp angular good looking face from the front, but my side profile is pretty poor still.
If I'm not really sticking my head out (which is not proper posture), it kind of just sinks into my neck.
(~8% body fat, but purposely jutting my head out hard to create more separation from my neck)
This is exactly what Mike Mew claims will happen to your profile if you mouth breathe.
I'm going to try and adopt proper tongue posture and breathe through my nose only from now on, even if that means I have to get a deviated septum surgery and get my tonsils and adenoids removed.
I've always written facial structure off as a genetic thing, whereby fat loss was the only thing you could really do to improve your features (which is still the best and fastest way to do that by the way).
I just never thought it could contribute to your airway improving just by the way your posture yourself.
This is something I'm going to actually take pretty seriously, as there is too much logic piling up for me to ignore it, even if it seems a bit farfetched.
The main issue that arises for me off the bat is I have such an inhibited airway that I can't just tape my mouth shut to force nasal breathing when I sleep because I'll probably die to be honest.
So, for now, I'm going to try doing it for 16-17 hours throughout the day, and then when I'm sleeping I'm going to prop my head up on pillows to try and have better posture while I'm sleeping to encourage nasal breathing and proper tongue posture.
I’ll need to slowly transition into forcing myself to Mew in my sleep too, as I have severe obstructive sleep apnea and just completely blocking my mouth and forcing nasal breathing likely won’t have a good outcome if I go from 0-100 right away.
I have a big face mask for my CPAP machine that I use over my face to help me breathe while I'm sleeping.
This is essentially just my introduction to what may very well be a life-long Mewing log.
If this can cure my sleep apnea that'd be pretty insane, and I'm sure a lot of other guys would want to know about this if it actually works.
If you can completely reverse sleep apnea issues by just fixing the way you are postured and the way you're breathing, that would be amazing in itself, and then obviously a side benefit would be improved facial aesthetics too.
My Malocclusion
Another interesting tidbit regarding mouth breathing leading to malocclusion is that I’ve actually noticed that the right tooth of my two front teeth has started to seemingly jut forward in the past year.
I had an appliance when I was a kid, and afterwards I was given a retainer to wear for the rest of my life to keep my teeth from going back to the way they were pre-appliance.
I haven't worn that retainer for a decade probably, and I've started to notice lately that the tooth I mentioned seems to be sort of moving.
I actually thought at first that I had chipped down my left front tooth as it appeared smaller than my right front tooth, but then after looking closer I actually realized that the front right tooth is starting to jut out, essentially out-angling my front left tooth and appearing longer/bigger.
I don't think I’m just seeing things either.
I think this is actually slowly happening and I think it could be directly caused by lack of proper tongue posture throughout my life and malocclusion starting to occur without the proper support of the roof of my mouth, keeping my mouth shut and breathing through my nose.
Does Mewing Actually Work?
This might all seem ridiculous, and maybe it is, who really knows.
However, there are a lot of anecdotal cases of people who have really improved themselves by doing this.
The only difference I have to make in my life is breathing through my nose as opposed to my mouth pretty much, which I don’t see as a huge inconvenience so I'm just going to start doing it and see what happens.
Mewing On Steroids And GH
I'm probably the only person who's doing this who is injecting themselves with exogenous androgens, or using synthetic GH or growth hormone secretagogues like Ibutamoren.
TRT keeps my total testosterone level around 1,100 – 1,200 nanograms per deciliter, which no natural human can achieve at my level of body fat (barring extreme genetic outliers).
Most guys have levels closer to 600 ng/dL.
The average is getting worse and worse all the time so maybe even that number is too generous.
The tongue is also a muscle so it's going to hyper respond in me who has a significantly higher testosterone level than most other guys trying this.
By that I mean the force it can exert upwards and outward to encourage forward jaw development (as opposed to downward) is greater than that of a natural non-enhanced person.
I'm going to be interested to see if that makes a difference on how quick I get results or how drastic they are.
I also intermittently use MK-677 or small doses of GH to support increased hair density, which has blatantly shown to change bone structure even in full grown adults.
Granted, this is usually in the context of GH being used in mega-doses, which leads to Acromegaly and will hinder facial aesthetics, and using the baby dosages I use on and off will likely not make a difference at all, but we shall see.
Obviously Mike Mew can't just shoot a patient up with Testosterone or GH to see what happens, so hopefully my log can provide some useful information he can draw off of.
All muscle will hyper-respond in my body due to my borderline supraphysiological hormone profile, and I may have a bit more leeway than the average adult when it comes to cranial remodelling from enhanced GH/IGF-1 levels coupled with the increased level of muscular force my tongue can exert.
Anyways, I will keep you guys posted on my Mewing experience.
It will probably be pretty infrequent because it's going to be a slow process (if it works at all).
But, if it helps improve my sleep apnea and helps me breathe better that's going to be a huge win.
My Mewing Goals
- Improve overall circulation
- Eliminate incidence of apneas during sleep (I've been using a CPAP machine with a full face mask for 6 years now to accomplish this, but I've never tried physical intervention via tongue posture or angling my body differently during sleep)
- Improve facial structure
Do I think Mewing is actually going to make a significant difference for me long-term?
I have no idea, and it probably seems ridiculous to most people, but it comes at no additional time investment on my behalf so I don't see this as an inconvenience whatsoever.
If it works, then great, if it doesn't, it didn't cost me anything.
Sleep Apnea is a self-imposed physical inhibition of your own air way (unless it's caused via your brain and lack of/dysfunctional electrical signalling), and I already know for a fact that if I could improve my nasal circulation to encourage nasal breathing, as well as keep my head propped up as opposed to completely flat, I could mitigate Sleep Apnea entirely, however, it remains to be seen if Mewing long-term will eventually allow me to do so comfortably while I am asleep.
Surgical intervention will only be taken if it is determined that my nasal passage could have a significantly improved amount of circulation via fixing my deviated septum, and/or removing my tonsils and adenoids, as those are things Mewing obviously can't address, and would inhibit me from comfortably Mewing in the first place, especially while I'm asleep.
This is the beginning of what will likely be a very long log assessing this.
If you have any experience Mewing and have experienced positive results in your circulation, or Sleep Apnea specifically, your experience would be welcomed and much appreciated in the comments section below.
Fat Loss Disclaimer
My results shown in this article’s thumbnail are entirely from fat loss (20%+ → 6% body fat).
I was mouth breathing the entire time during that period with improper tongue posture (and still have been right up until this article).
I'm approximately 10% body fat right now.
When it comes to facial aesthetics, fat loss is the fastest and most important thing you can do to achieve an aesthetic face.
Celebrity Face Transformations
Even if you have Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer facial structure, you will still look like crap if you are holding too much fat.
Go look at pictures of them recently and compare it to their faces in their primes.
This was the result of fat gain.
Tom Cruise is a perfect example of someone who has maintained very good body composition his entire life, and as expected, his facial aesthetics are not significantly worse than in his prime 20-30 years ago, with the exception of skin aging obviously which is inevitable.
Keanu Reeves is another good example.
Staying lean is the number one most important thing you can do, and perhaps Mewing too (I'll let you know in a year or two).
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