Does Mewing Actually Work? What’s Real, What’s Not, and How Long It Takes
Does mewing work? Not for reshaping your jaw. No controlled study has ever tested mewing, and the American Association of Orthodontists says there's no research showing it changes the jawline or improves oral health.
What is real: tongue posture matters while the face is still growing, and supervised tongue exercises can help with some diagnosed conditions. That's a long way from a sharper jaw in a few months.
If you're new to the technique, start with what mewing is and how people do it. This page is about results — what the evidence says, why some people swear it worked, how long it would take, and why it can hurt or make breathing feel hard.
Most people mew for one reason: a more defined jawline in photos. Before you spend months on it, it helps to know where you're starting — an AI attractiveness test scores your jawline alongside your other features.
Is Mewing Real? What the Research Shows
Mewing is real as a habit — resting your tongue flat on the roof of your mouth — but its main promise isn't backed by evidence. No clinical trial has shown that mewing changes jaw bone, face shape, or tooth alignment in healthy people. The support for it comes from personal stories and before-and-after photos.
No Study Has Tested Mewing
Oral surgeons reviewed the claims. A 2019 commentary in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery looked at what mewing promises — a sharper jawline, a better profile, straighter teeth, help with sleep apnea — and found none of it rests on sound scientific evidence.
Orthodontists agree. The American Association of Orthodontists says facial structure comes from genetics, bone growth, and muscle development, so changing where your tongue rests isn't enough to remodel the jaw.
So was mewing debunked? More precisely, it was never proven. Nobody has run a trial that shows it works, and orthodontists warn that doing it wrong carries real risks.
The Part That's Real: Tongue Posture
The idea behind mewing isn't made up. Tongue posture does play a role in how the face develops, especially while it's still growing, which is why orthodontists pay attention to it.
There's also solid evidence for myofunctional therapy — guided exercises for the tongue, lips, and throat. A 2015 meta-analysis in Sleep found it cut sleep apnea events by about 50% in adults and 62% in children.
The catch: that's a supervised treatment for people with a diagnosis, measured on breathing during sleep. It says nothing about jawlines.
What Dentists Think of Mewing
Most dentists and orthodontists don't recommend mewing to change your face. They agree that tongue posture matters, especially in kids, but treat it as one part of a supervised plan — not a DIY replacement for braces or jaw surgery.
Why Mewing Seems to Work for Some People
When mewing seems to work, something else is usually doing the job. The most common reasons a jawline looks sharper after months of mewing have nothing to do with tongue pressure on bone:
Your face is still growing. The lower jaw keeps growing through the late teens (more on that below). A 15-year-old who mews for two years will look different at 17 either way.
You lost weight. Less fat under the chin and along the jaw makes the jawline more visible.
Your posture changed. Holding your head up with the neck straight tightens the area under the chin — but only while you hold it.
The photo changed. Camera angle, distance, and lighting can make the same jaw look sharp or soft.
You're mewing in the "after" photo. Tongue up and lips sealed pulls the under-chin area tighter for as long as you hold it.
This is also why a top answer in a popular r/orthotropics thread says mewing "works if you're still growing" — growth is the one factor that really changes bone. Before-and-after photos usually mix several of these factors at once, so they can't show what mewing itself did.
How Long Does Mewing Take to Work?
There's no evidence-based timeline, because there's no evidence that mewing changes bone. Online claims range from a few months to two years, but none of them comes from a study. Anything you notice in the first weeks is a habit change, not a new jaw.
What can change fairly quickly:
Resting your tongue on the palate starts to feel automatic
You notice when you breathe through your mouth
You hold your head and neck differently
What won't change on any timeline: the shape of an adult jaw bone.
Why Isn't Mewing Working for Me?
Most likely because there's no bone effect to wait for. If you're past your growth years, your jaw is close to its final shape.
How defined your jaw looks depends more on body fat, the angle of your jaw, and how far your chin projects — the same traits a jawline rating looks at.
Does Mewing Work for Teens or Adults?
Mewing has no proven effect at any age. The difference is that teens' jaws are still growing on their own, so a sharper jaw at 16 or 17 can't be credited to mewing. In adults, jaw growth is mostly finished, which leaves even less for tongue posture to influence.
Teens: Your Jaw Is Still Growing
A study of girls aged 14 to 20 in the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics found the lower jaw kept growing significantly through both 14–16 and 16–20, about twice as fast in the earlier period.
A 3D imaging study of people aged 11 to 26 found that growth of the jaw joint seems to continue until at least 17–21 in males but stops before 17 in females.
If you wear braces, aligners, or a retainer, or already have a bite problem, skip DIY mewing and ask your orthodontist. The AAO warns that pressing the tongue too hard or unevenly can shift teeth.
Adults: Does Mewing Still Work After 18?
Eighteen isn't a cutoff for growth. A study of 829 CT scans found the bone of the jaw joint finishes maturing around 22 in women and 24 in men.
After that, there's no evidence that tongue pressure reshapes the jaw. So the question "at what age does mewing stop working?" has no real answer — there's no age at which it has been shown to work.
Can Mewing Change Your Jawline or Face Shape?
No. Mewing doesn't change the bone that gives your jaw and face their shape. It can change how your profile looks in the moment, while you hold the posture.
Jawline
No lasting change to the jaw bone. A visible jawline mostly comes down to body fat, jaw angle, and chin projection. Jaw workouts don’t change that either: there’s no solid evidence that jawline exercises make the jaw sharper, beyond training neck and facial muscles.
Face Shape
No. Face shape is set by the bones of the skull and jaw, plus fat and muscle on top — tongue position doesn't reshape any of them in adults.
Overbite and Recessed Chin
Mewing can't fix an overbite or a recessed chin. The AAO lists bite problems, including overbite, among the risks of improper tongue pressure. If your bite or chin bothers you, a board-certified orthodontist can check what's causing it.
Double Chin
Mewing doesn't remove fat under the chin. The posture tightens the area only while you hold it — the mewing guide covers what it can and can't do here.
Does Hard Mewing Work?
No. Hard mewing — pushing your tongue into the palate as hard as you can — has no more evidence behind it than gentle mewing. Extra force doesn't reshape bone, but it does add risk: the AAO notes that excessive or uneven pressure can shift teeth, and improper tongue pressure can cause bite problems and jaw (TMJ) pain.
See the risks of mewing and who should skip it before you try any version.
Why Does Mewing Hurt or Make It Hard to Breathe?
Gentle mewing shouldn't hurt or block your breathing. If it does, the technique is usually off — too much force, a clenched jaw, or the tongue pushing in the wrong place.
Why Does Mewing Hurt?
Pain usually comes from:
Pushing the tongue up hard instead of resting it
Clenching or grinding your teeth
Pressing the tongue tip against your front teeth
The AAO lists jaw (TMJ) pain among the risks of improper tongue pressure. Stop if you get jaw pain, clicking, headaches, or sore teeth. If the pain doesn't go away, see a dentist.
Can't Breathe While Mewing?
Mewing assumes you breathe through your nose with your lips closed. If that feels like not getting enough air, don't force it:
Ease off the pressure — the tongue should rest, not push
Make sure the back of the tongue isn't pressing toward your throat
If you can't breathe comfortably through your nose even when relaxed, see a doctor — nasal blockage is a medical question, not a technique problem
The signs you're mewing wrong are worth checking too.
What Actually Changes How Your Jawline Looks
If the goal is a more defined jaw, these have a much clearer effect than mewing:
Body fat. Less fat under the chin and along the jaw is the biggest visible change for most people.
Facial hair and haircut. A beard can add shape along the jaw; a haircut changes the face's proportions.
Posture. Head up and neck straight, in daily life and in photos.
Orthodontics. For a real bite or jaw problem, an orthodontist can treat the cause.
These are the low-risk basics of looksmaxxing — the methods that work on how your face reads without promising to move bone.
FAQ
Was mewing debunked?
Mewing was never proven in the first place. There are no clinical trials showing it reshapes the jaw, and oral surgeons and orthodontists say the claims aren't supported by evidence.
How many hours a day should you mew?
Mewing fans aim to keep the tongue up all day, but no amount has been shown to change the jaw. The bigger risk is force, not time — hard pressure can shift teeth.
Who should not do mewing?
Kids and teens whose teeth are still developing, anyone with braces or aligners, people with jaw pain or a TMJ disorder, and anyone who can't breathe comfortably through their nose. The full list is in our mewing guide.
At what age is mewing most effective?
No age has been shown to work. Claims cluster around the teen years because that's when the jaw grows on its own.
Do doctors recommend mewing?
No. The American Association of Orthodontists and oral surgeons say there's no research supporting mewing for jawline or tooth changes and recommend seeing an orthodontist instead.
Sources
American Association of Orthodontists. Does Mewing Actually Reshape Your Jaw? 2025.
Lee UK, Graves LL, Friedlander AH. Mewing: Social Media's Alternative to Orthognathic Surgery? Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, 2019.
Camacho M, et al. Myofunctional Therapy to Treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Sleep, 2015.
Mandibular and maxillary facial growth in class 1 females 14, 16, and 20 years of age. American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, 1992.
Nota A, Caruso S, Ehsani S, Baldini A, Tecco S. Three-dimensional volumetric analysis of mandibular condyle changes in growing subjects. Cranio, 2020.
Seo YS, et al. Evaluation of Cortical Bone Formation on Mandibular Condyle in Asymptomatic Adolescents and Young Adults Using Cone-Beam Computed Tomography. Life, 2022.
