Tongue Chewing

Tongue chewing is an exercise to strengthen your tongue by chewing gum with your tongue instead of your teeth. A stronger tongue makes it easier to mew, which improves facial appearance by moving the midface up and forward.

Dr Mike Mew popularized the idea of tongue chewing to improve facial appearance with a Youtube video in 2017. In the video, he mentions that his upper arch widened slightly after 40-minutes of intensive tongue chewing. If you are looking for the a hard gum for tongue chewing, try the mewing gum.

How do you perform tongue chewing?

1. Roll the gum into a ball on the roof of your mouth
2. Use your tongue to squeeze flatten then gum on your palate
3. Repeat three times to build up tongue strength

Additionally, Dr Mew provides the following tips:

• spread the gum as wide and thin as possible
• engage the back of the tongue
• avoid clenching your teeth
• make it a habit by praciticing during your commute

Does it work to improve appearance?

There is both anecdotal evidence and  peer-reviewed articles that show that say yes.

Peer-reviewed articles

Laís et al. show that adult females (age 20-45) with weak tongues have a higher rate of detofacial deformities. Most notably, a weaker tongue is correlated with a retruded jaw. A quote from the paper is that “tongue pressure values in women presented with class II malocclusion were lower than the average tongue pressure of women with proper occlusion”

Min-Ho et al. showed that patients with healthy occlusions and craniofacial development have greater lip closing strength. A quote from the paper is that “the opposing forces or pressures from the tongue and lips should be major determinants of the dental equilibrium in the anterior segment of the arch”

Tongue Chewing Results

We compiled a list of people that achieved results online. These are unrelated to the results from our mewing device.

• Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNocCJNicrc&t=140s
• Age: 24 years old
• Protocol:
  • Chewing gum while driving
  • Expanding gum on the roof of the mouth for long period of time

• Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNocCJNicrc&t=140s
• Age: 27 years old
• Protocol:
  • Chewing a pack of gum for 30 days
  • Monitoring effects every week

• Source: https://youtu.be/JYXlTOnV5bI
• Age: 26 years old
• Protocol:
  • Chewing gum for 3 weeks

• Source: https://spartanhealth.io/blogs/how-to-look-better-looksmaxxing/chewing-gum-for-jawline
• Age: 23 years old
• Protocol:
  • Chew all day, known as competitive eater

• Source: https://spartanhealth.io/blogs/how-to-look-better-looksmaxxing/chewing-gum-for-jawline
• Age: unknown
• Protocol:
  • Chewing hard gum for 1 month

Is Tongue Chewing safe?

The main risk comes from clenching the teeth when trying to strengthen the jaw. To remain safe, ensure that your teeth are in a “butterfly touch” as you press the tongue on your palate.