Jaw pain is one of the most common symptoms of mewing, an orthodontic technique that involves changing the position of the tongue, teeth, and jaw to improve facial aesthetics.
Fortunately, you can take a few simple steps to reduce or eliminate jaw pain while mewing.
In this article, we’ll explore how to stop jaw pain while mewing and provide actionable tips that can help you achieve the desired results with minimal discomfort.
What Is Mewing?
Mewing is an orthodontic technique that involves maintaining a specific posture for your mouth — essentially, an ideal tongue position that can help shape your jawline and facial structure.
To do this, you need to keep your tongue pressed against the roof of your mouth and your teeth together. This posture helps to strengthen the muscles in the chin, jaw, and neck and can even help with posture problems.
It also has other benefits, such as improved breathing, digestion, and facial symmetry. And best of all, it’s a relatively easy and cost-effective way to achieve the perfect jawline.
Causes of Jaw Pain While Mewing
While mewing can be a helpful dental technique for improving your smile, it may also cause pain in your jaw muscles. Jaw pain is often a symptom of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction.
This condition is triggered by stress and can be caused by several different factors, including over-clenching, grinding, misalignment of the jaw, and the use of excessive force when mewing. A few symptoms that may suggest jaw pain as a result of TMJ include:
- Pain in your jaw muscles that increases when you chew, swallow, yawn, or talk
- Sensitivity when chewing
- Jaw clicking or popping
- Ear pain
- Headaches
- Neck pain
- Jaw joint swelling
- Trouble opening your mouth
If you experience any of these symptoms while mewing, you may suffer from TMJ. While the condition itself is usually not serious, it can cause significant discomfort and may require the help of a dentist or doctor to correct it.
How to Reduce Jaw Pain While Mewing
The best way to prevent jaw pain while mewing is to take steps to reduce stress on the TMJ as you go about your daily life. Follow these steps to help mitigate jaw pain while mewing:
Avoid clenching, grinding, and over-use of the muscles in your jaw — Over-clenching and grinding can cause stress on the muscles of the jaw, leading to pain and discomfort in the TM-J joint. Avoiding these habits can help reduce TMJ pain and may even prevent pain from developing in the first place.
Use a soft-bite technique while mewing — A soft-bite technique involves using a relaxed, gentle bite while mewing to avoid over-using your jaw muscles. This can help prevent TMJ pain, discomfort, and symptoms like headaches.
Avoid applying excessive force when mewing — Applying too much force while mewing can cause TMJ pain and may even lead to TMJ dysfunction, especially in people who already have TMJ issues. Avoid applying too much force when mewing, we recommend to apply a gentle force throughout the day.
Tips for Preventing Jaw Pain
As we’ve discussed, a few steps can help protect your TMJ from pain while mewing. But what if you’ve already started to experience pain due to mewing?
If your TMJ pain is mild and occasional, you may be able to get by without any additional treatment. However, if you’re experiencing any more serious symptoms, you should visit your dentist or orthodontist as soon as possible.
If you’re experiencing TMJ pain due to mewing, these tips may help:
Take breaks while mewing — While breaks seem counterintuitive in terms of the effectiveness of mewing. They can actually aid in bringing in more progress. When you overwork your muscles and jaw, it becomes more difficult to mew consistently. This can lead to inconsistency which will hinder your progress. Allowing yourself, short breaks can be beneficial, allowing you to habitually mew instead of pushing through the pain.
Avoid excessive force when mewing — Many mewers make the mistake of applying too much force.
But the more force, the faster the results. Right?
No, excessive force doesn’t lead to faster results. Mewing with excessive force, also known as hard mewing, is extremely difficult to hold consistently. It’s an idealistic concept that doesn’t work in practice.
Not only that, but many people have experienced major pain and discomfort while hard mewing. This ranges from tongue, jaw, teeth, palate, and more. That being said, hard mewing is something that should be done in the later stages of mewing to avoid any facial damage.
Exercises to Reduce Jaw Pain
If you’re experiencing pain as a result of mewing, you may be able to reduce your symptoms by performing a few daily exercises.
These exercises can help reduce jaw pain, improve flexibility and mobility in your jaw, and reduce the risk of developing TMJ issues in the future.
Controlling Your Jaw — A great way to relieve jaw pain caused by TMJ issues is by learning how to control your jaw while you’re awake. This can help you learn how to use your jaw muscles correctly, reduce stress on the TMJ, and avoid future TMJ pain.
Stretching Your Jaw — Believe it or not, mewing actually engages the jaw a lot. This is why many beginners feel a lot of muscle soreness in their masseter, and temporalis muscles.
To avoid or lessen muscle soreness, employ jaw-stretching techniques. These can help relieve any discomfort, along with avoiding any future soreness.
When to See a Doctor for Jaw Pain
If you’re experiencing pain while mewing, you must visit your dentist as soon as possible. While TMJ pain is usually treatable, it can occasionally become more serious if left untreated.
This condition, called TMJ dysfunction, can cause significant pain, facial misalignment, and even headaches. If left untreated, TMJ dysfunction can lead to more serious health issues in the long run, so it’s important to take action as soon as you notice the symptoms.
If you’re experiencing TMJ pain, you must see a dentist as soon as possible. Your dentist may be able to help relieve your pain and may even recommend custom orthodontic treatment to correct your jaw misalignment.
Summary & Wrap-Up
Jaw pain, or TMJ, is a common problem many beginners face when mewing. While it can be uncomfortable, the pain subsides quickly as you progressively get used to the new oral posture.
Luckily, you can use these techniques to relieve the pain and stop it from happening again!