It’s not been long since the word mewing made its way into the popular conscience. Fun to say, but less comfortable in practice: it’s the act of placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth to mime a stronger jawline. And it was suddenly being seen in classrooms all over London, much to the lament of teachers.
And the pursuit of a sculpted lower face now seems to have spawned another more involved ritual: chewing very tough, ‘facial fitness’ or ‘training’ gum.
On TikTok, mewers and fans of the ‘towel technique’ (yes, literally biting down on a towel to train your jaw) are also shouting out the merits of these premium priced gums such as Jawliner to give them a visage to rival Timothée Chalamet’s, or indeed Kylie Jenner’s — though it’s mostly male faces you’ll see. They work out at around £0.38 per piece versus a regular gum at around £0.05 per piece.
Spend a few minutes in the merky world of #JawlineTok and you’ll soon be served a video of an American bro or an English guy in scrubs heralding the gum as helping you to look more chiselled if you masticate on it for around 15 minutes a day for an elongated period. Many of the videos claim to show jaw transformations from using the gum for as little as a month and some have in excess of 2.5 million views.
It’s the ultimate ick for anyone with misophonia; hearing the lip smacking while these guys show off a bulging masseter (that’s your jaw muscle, by the way). Though more worryingly, it’s part of a wider movement that originated in the incel community towards what’s known as looksmaxing, which as you’d expect, means partaking in techniques to maximise your looks.
There are videos explaining practices as simple as how to have cleaner teeth, better skin — the sort of stuff that is as old as time in the female beauty community. But of course the role models are gym-honed, floppy haired and stereotypically ‘hot’ boys. It’s all about telling guys they can pull more women if they just work harder on their looks and ‘level up’. A phrase which appears in the profiles of some of the guys pushing the practice telling them to subscribe to their channels.
But is it even possible to grow your jaw with gum? “The evidence on jaw-training products and exercising the jawline to effectively define the jawline is limited,” says Dr Leah Totton, an esteemed medical and cosmetic doctor and the founder of Dr Leah Cosmetic Skin Clinics. “While chewing does engage the jaw muscles (masseter and temporalis), these muscles primarily function for the act of chewing, not sculpting.”
Instead of a more chiselled profile, chewing tough gum could lead to a wider jaw. “While there is no strong scientific data to support the ability to define and sculpt a chiselled jawline with chewing, grinding teeth is proven to increase masseter muscle mass which can result in a wider set jaw,” explains Dr Leah.Founder of London’s FaceGym Inge Theron is seeing the desire for defined jaws grow first hand — 40% of their customer base are men and their sore jaw woes have led the practice to introduce a buccall (inner mouth) massage treatment. She calls hard gum a trend with “too few benefits and far too many side-effects.”
She thinks the before and after images online are likely using smoke and mirrors, or very good lighting to give the illusion of the gum’s impact. “We would suggest that chewing gum is not a much increased load or work for the masseter and temporalis muscle and unlikely to build the level of size and tone that they are demonstrating without having to be chewing an excessive amount of gum which has other downstream negative effects.”
It’s also possible that the look has been achieved with filler, as it’s a popular treatment which Dr Leah confirms “provides quicker and more noticeable results.” Or they may be doing a treatment such as EMS (electrical muscle stimulation) for muscle training, and RF (Radiofrequency) which Theron explains leads to “fat loss around the face which also helps to pronounce the jaw.”
Forceful mewing techniques could lead to jaw pain, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction
Plus, it’s important to be wary that the effort of all that chewing might just cause a literal headache. Within reason, tongue posture techniques and chewing gum are safe says Dr Leah, but she warns that “purposefully grinding teeth is certainly not recommended, and forceful mewing techniques could lead to jaw pain, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction.”
Dentist Dr Sam Jethwa explains that “the temporomandibular joint is on either side of our jaw and allows us to talk, swallow, chew and yawn. The motion of constantly chewing gum (especially firm gum) can strain these joints and cause them to become misaligned, leading to stiffness, jaw pain, facial pain and headaches.”
He adds that it might not be safe if you have fillings. And if they contain sweeteners such as sorbitol, they could be disruptive to your gut microbiome if consumed in high levels, or cause bloating, cramps and diarrhea. So it’s not a wise idea to be chewing this stuff for more than the recommended window each day, as some commenters on the posts are suggesting to do for discernible results.
Then there’s the concerning fact that many of those consuming the content are at an impressionable age — and have jaws aren’t even fully formed yet. “Jawline is from the shape of the mandible [jaw bone] which finishes growth age 18 – 20,” confirms Theron.
Of course, young men going to these lengths to create a stereotypically more masculine jaw is unsurprising given some of the toxic rhetoric around beauty standards. Dr Leah points to a perfect storm of factors perpetuating the look as desirable, with celebrity influence being “further amplified through the recent social media trend of ‘perfect facial proportions’, which includes a wide jaw for men with symmetrical features.” She refers to a grid-like filter placed over real people’s faces by creators to show where their features should be if they were anatomically deemed ‘perfect’.
Therefore “it’s important to remember that social media portrays a distorted reality. If your desire for a sculpted jawline stems from unrealistic online trends, prioritise your mental health and discuss your goals with a specialist doctor,” Dr Leah implores.In short, gnawing on rock hard gum is probably more likely to irritate classmates, fellow tube passengers and dentists than create a more sculpted look — not to mention hurt jaws and self esteem.