To ensure good oral posture for excellent facial development, strong jaw muscle is the key. Modern food has become very soft, chewing gum is a great way to compensate. I have found new chewing gum that is 100% tree sap that is tougher than Falim gum or any other gum I have found called Mastiha gum.
It’s an interesting product, crystals of Mastiha Tree sap that only grows in southern part of island of Chios in Greece. When you bite into it the crystal will shatter in the mouth but as you keep chewing it begins to mold together and turn into a tough gum that has a pleasant pine-like flavor. Some crystals turn into tougher gum and others are softer, but on average I have found this product to require much more mastication efforts than the Falim gum from Turkey.
When I first started chewing the Mastiha gum, I had to stop after 30 min because my jaws were aching, and this was after I’ve been chewing Falim gum for several months. Now after almost 2 month of Mastiha gum I have noticed increased muscle tone and better ability to keep the mouth shut (at rest & during sleep) which is critical. And my lower jaw is coming forwards more & beginning to appear more horizontal gradually, I can tell that this gum is making a difference.
Sometimes when I’m doing other tasks with this gum in the mouth constantly doing hard chewing but you sort of forget about it, when I take it out, I notice the burn in my whole mouth area, lower jaw & side cheekbones. Yea it will work out your face.
It’s sold at Amazon (store link) for $27.46 for 100G, and you can reuse the same gum over and over again if you wish. I have not been using it conservatively and still have plenty left after 2 months use, I think 1 purchase will last you a long time.
Other Healing Properties of Mastiha
Helps Oral Health: “increases gum circulation and induces greater salivation due to its particular taste & hardness leading to cleaner / fresher mouth.” Yea my mouth does feel cleaner after chewing this gum.
“Numerous research articles show mastiha gum’s natural ability to decrease harmful bacteria growth in the mouth.”
“chewing mastiha promotes mouth disinfection, strengthens the gums, & reduce plague”
I have found that chewing tough gum will also increase bone density in your jaw which was shown to me by CT Scan taken by my oral surgeon that told me bone graft will not be necessary for implants because I had “above average bone density”. Well we know that bone develops from stress put on it, as person that is bedridden or in outer space begin to experience bone loss.
Hard Chewing Effect on Bone
Also studies showed a professional tennis player had more bone mass and mineralization in the arm they held their racket with. Which makes logical sense.
So what is the consequence to someone’s face that chews hard everyday versus someone that’s on the standard soft modern diet?
Ever realize how much of our face is really designed as a chewing mechanism and just how much space the oral cavity takes up? & how much physical work its designed to do compared to most other body part?
Even if “growth” has “stopped”, the body never loses the ability to build & get stronger. If one increases mastication efforts it is logical and seems inevitable that it’s going to have an effect on your facial appearance, the bone structure underneath.
In this blog we explore what really causes crooked teeth, and what facial shape is most attractive
And in a nutshell, my research has led me to the understanding that the cause of crooked teeth & poor facial development is the disuse of our jaws due to modern soft foods.
& most optimal facial shape is short, square, wide face, which was possessed by our ancestors & what I feel to be most attractive faces that is only seen in the select few today even within those whom we consider to be “ideals” (models / actor&actresses)
The type of face that has 32 perfectly aligned teeth naturally & maximum airway space.
Most everyone in modern world is affect by the soft diet
The number is… 80% of population now require orthodontic treatment, we know accept braces as normal. But the unfortunate thing is that by the time the child gets braces, the damage has already taken place to their face which will not be reversed by straightening the teeth alone. So this shows that we now live in a world where most humans have faces that is not as good looking as their genetics intended.
Katy Perry showing off her imperfections, the crowded lower teeth, points to this reality of losing sight of our ideals. The face is undoubtedly lengthened, the eyes are not wide set like the model above, longer nose, flatter side cheeks, and lines under eyes are all signs of dystrophy.
Above shows a classic smile created by braces, of narrow anterior dental arch as the wires straightened the teeth by constricting them into alignment. Even one of world recognized beauty, Megan Fox is also affected by this modern condition.
Megan Fox High School Junior Year Picture with braces.
Normal person will look at above orthodontic result and view it as fantastic work, and convince us that orthodontic profession is invaluable to us & parents will believe it is the best thing to ensure that their child grows up with best self-esteem possible.
Yes I agree at glance, she appears to look better in the after photo on the surface level. Yet under the layers, we miss what’s really taking place.
The real problem is Cranial Dystrophy or maxilla dropping down & back instead of growing properly forwards. The damage to the face has already taken place by the time she got braces. The crooked teeth is like the last sign of Cranial Dystrophy when the jaw has fell down far enough that the teeth run out of space. But notice the asymmetry in the face, the droopy eye appearance especially in her left eye, uneven lower jaw. These things are not correct by our orthodontists.
As the maxilla falls down it doesn’t always fall down evenly, often times one side dystrophy more than the other, and I believe this is the cause of most asymmetry seen in the faces today.
This could be due to various reasons, such as posturing the tongue a certain improper way or chewing predominately on one side.
Although the difference in angles from before & after makes it harder to tell, is it possible that orthodontic work made her vertical growth worse? Studies show that most orthodontic treatment cause further vertical growth. Some signs could be that the lines under the eyes seem more prominent and nose is bigger? Sure she is older and smiling more, & I think her case is one of the good ones that the orthodontist picked, she most likely has more confidence after orthodontics so for most of us we still do not see any issue with kids getting braces.
Point is, if parent knew how to prevent cranial dystrophy in the first place, we may be looking at a much different child.
The true problem is kids needing orthodontics in the first place! (because by then it is in many ways too late)
And the key to preventing crooked teeth and promote good facial development is jaw usage.
One father after learning about this made his daughter chew gum atleast 1 hour per day everyday, by age 6 she had great facial development, Mike Mew diagnosed her as having excellent muscle tone with nice horizontal lower jaw with no need for intervention. The muscle rotated that whole mandible up and forwards.
The Long Term Consequences…
We can’t underestimate the power of consistent daily 1 hour of gum chewing can have to our faces. The consequence will be great for growing children because muscle is having influence on the direction of growth. & This is why many doctors say change is not possible in adults because there is no growth, but this is only half truth which is often times more dangerous than a lie.
Yes the big changes are only possible at younger ages, to show the clinician a result they can proudly hang up on the walls and show their colleagues. So treating adults that take longer to change may not show the satisfactory results for the doctor within the 2 year time frame that they have to treat the patient, and so the doctor might claim that change is not possible in adults! or after treatment we need to do jaw surgery… Not realizing that the jaw will continue to change overtime long after the 2 year treatment time depending on individual’s commitment to fix oral posture, function & chewing.
It just won’t be satisfactory to doctor’s egos because these results are done by the patient and long after the doctor stopped seeing them.
So pay no attention to doctors that say change is not possible as adults, because the process of bone remodeling doesn’t stop till the day you die.
Join my membership, To read more about in-depth process of adult bone remodeling, plus my before & after pictures included.
-CP
For the Tree Sap Gum from Greece
Interesting. Dr. Mew, did you have ever try increasing the amount of falim gum you chew? Like for example, from 2 pieces to 3 pieces? And did you try mixing it with cold water? I’m chewing 3.5 pieces now –> it gets kind of annoying, so this product may be better. I mix it with cold water every few minutes and it hardens the gum and makes the jaw burn much better. I’ve been noticing effect (any other people have been as well) only after two months (much larger massetar muscles).
Also, random question, but do you think over chewing hard things will lead to more likelihood of fracturing teeth?
No more need to do that with Falim gum as this mastiha gum stays hard the whole time you chew.
People fracture teeth on accidentally biting into hard things, biting on this gum is cushion which should cause fracture, instead it should make the teeth harder over time. Nutrition for strong teeth is important to prevent things like fracture, I recommend Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Calcium if you are worried about it. Oh btw, this is not Dr. Mew, but I am writing a book with him
Thanks for the response. One other question? How long did it take you for people to notice a change in your face? I’ve done falim-chewing for a little over 9 weeks and my mother and two people at work have noticed the change in my jaw (although it is all muscular changes).
changes are continuing with mastia gum hard to say how long it takes for people to notice
When i close my mouth, my left side feel more solid (for a lack of better words), as if that side makes better contact. My left side is my dominant chewing side. Do you think it’d be better to chew more on the right side to maybe even things out?
I had the same thing on my left side cause I chewed more on that side. yes I corrected this by beginning to chew on the right more. Now I am chewing evenly but you might want to start off just chewing on the other side for a while.
@ Terry
An alternative explanation: your left side feels more solid because your right molars are more “worn down”, and therefore contact each other at lower position compared to your left side. This is also why you prefer to chew with your left side.
Chewing more on your right side will increase the musculature somewhat and possibly raise the right side of maxilla slightly, but will not solve the underlying problem. In fact it may worsen it, as chewing more with the right side only grinds those molars down further, causing the right side to “sink” even more.
I doubt this problem relates to “musculature”. More likely it relates to teeth wear.
can you even prove that the teeth were “worn down”, you won’t find hardly anyone in modern population that wear down teeth as most of us still have the cusps of teeth. If you want to see true worn down teeth, look at an ancestor skull that have completely worn down the cusps and top of teeth is flat.
Then what is the cause of uneven bites? a lot of times its improperly posturing the tongue between the teeth.
Is it possibly to over-do the chewing and, if so, how long is too long per day?
its difficult to say how long one should chew & I believe it will vary depending on the person and where there starting out, its best to start out slowly, I try to get in at least 1-2 hours of gum chewing but some days more.
Great to know that! I also started using mastiha a few months ago. I try to wait about 2 minutes with the little crystals in the mouth to heat and than start to chew slowly to avoid breaking in a lot of small pieces before it comes a hard chewing gum. Also, I don’t swallow the substance liberated in the beginning because too much of it made my stomach hurt when I started. One problem I feel I may have developed now is that my back teeth were used much more than my front teeth and now I feel that when I close my mouth without gum or anything my back teeth doesn’t really touch each other naturally, only the frontal teeth that wasn’t stimulated. Is there something I could do to fix this? Thanks
I have not noticed this but the way to resolve this would be to keep teeth together at rest, so in your case your front teeth will be lightly help together because they touch before the back teeth, this posture will allow the front teeth to intrude while back teeth to extrude again so that all teeth meet together. Teeth is always trying to extrude and meet together in this way, it is our posture that determines our bite.
Hi CP,
I have a few questions about inter molar width. I know John Mew says that 42mm is ideal but what do you think is the inter molar width of the most attractive faces, the short and broad ones that you described above?
The wider the inter molar width means the more forward the face developed and less vertical, meaning that person will be attractive. More horizontal developed face means better cheekbones, nicer jawlines, more wide set eyes, etc all traits of attractive people so 42 mm is good modern ideal to shoot for. Apparently our ancient ancestors had 52 but I don’t think that exists today.
Are you sure 52mm is that rare? I recently read a guide on how to measure inter molar width (on a dental mould) and they said around 55mm was ideal today. Mine is around 52mm, unless I was measuring incorrectly, which I doubt with how many times I made sure to check. When starting my orthodontic process in 2007, I was due to wear an expander until being told I had plenty of room. I still have clear signs of dystrophy and a bit of an overjet years later despite decent palate size, is that an anomaly?
Running Zack please email me at smartcanuck99@gmail.com
I have information I need to share with you
Is there a “correct” way to chew? Is it strictly an up-down movement or can we go in circles? Thanks
our ancestors I’m sure chewed in many varying ways
Hey Claimingpower
I want to join your member club, but I don’t know how long I have to pay or if I can get out of the member club without any monthly conditions?
If I know that I can come out of it anytime, I will join immediately.
I need some serious help 😉
yea you’re free to cancel anytime
I’ve been chewing this gum for a few days, and i feel a lot of pressure in the temporalis muscle. However, I don’t feel anything in the masseter at all (no feeling in lower jaw even after 2hrs chewing). Is this normal?
also, is it possible to overtrain jaw muscles? do we need rest days as other muscle training exercises do? Thanks CP!
you’ll eventually begin to feel it, just keep going. I chew maybe 1-2 hours daily sometimes more, don’t think you need rest days as our ancestors were chewing heavy daily. But you could try it out if you wish or if its getting too sore. Again don’t over do it especially in the beginning.
I have just started my first session of gum chewing and am in pain after 3 minutes lol! I am looking forward to seeing what improvements I can gain from this. Is it important to alternate chewing the side, so the jaw development is symmetrical? Also the tongue is not supposed to be on the roof on the mouth for this, right. . .? Thanks in advance.
yea chew on both sides, and no tongue is not going to be on the roof while your chewing
What are your thoughts if someone already has vertical maxillary excess and tries to remodel this deformity by tongue posture/ Alf appliance/ chewing more?
its what we are all attempting to do, chances are if you found this blog, you had lengthening of the maxilla, I am seeing subtle results so far.
Thank you for the response. I read your blogs everyday. I have seen subtle results so far as well since April 2014 after expanding with a DNA appliance and proper oral posture. Now switched to ALF to let cranium “breathe” and let the tongue do most of the work. I’m hoping it’s just a bad downswing vs an actual lengthening of the bone?
Thank you for your response. I read your blogs everyday to stay motivated. I have seen subtle results as well since April 2014 doing expansion and proper oral posture. I’m hoping that this deformity is just a bad downswing vs actual lengthening of the maxilla and it can be remodeled over time?
The maxilla does lengthen but it is bone thus subject to change by our soft tissue, we are seeing how far we can go, nothing is for certain but subtle changes continues
In Greece. Just bought mastic gum. Thank you soooooo much for the recommendation. I chewed 2 pieces for an hour yesterday. No jaw ache but I did bite the insides of my cheeks a whole lot (have been doing that since I’ve been keeping my toungue up on the roof of my mouth). I will persevere! Thanks again.
After about 10 days of chewing Mastic, I never once got aching muscles, but I do now have overdeveloped muscles in my temples (particularly on one side). When I open my mouth it looks like a large golf ball!
I have a really bad overbite, not sure if the chewing is good, given that I’m clearly overusing the muscles to chew… I wish I could chew without activating my overbite, but I can’t.
When I sleep I engage my ‘overbite’ almost locking my jaws together, leaving little room for my tongue, and narrowing my airways. My nostrils have been blocking up since I’ve become peri-menopausal, resulting in a nightmare combination.
When I stick my lower jaw forward, beyond my upper teeth, my breathing improves. So I think if I can fix my overbite I can get some relief from my sleep apnea. Maybe. I have to try and find someone (not easy) in the country I live to help me. Not sure if possible, but at least I think I know now why I’m getting such bad apnea.
Same 🙁
Any help please ??????
My mastic gum arrive last night, I have been chewing for about half an hour and I can feel all my facial muscles working not just the masseter but the zygomaticus major and minor muscles, which I hope will affect the cheekbones.
I am making sure that I chew on my molars and premolar teeth.
My teeth feel super clean now.
Hi, hoping you can help me as I have been through so much pain with TMJ due to a premature birth of 24weeks and facial dystrophy due to mouth breathing etc because of this, then braces forced on me at 15, although no extractions.
At 21 years old, all four of my widsom teeth are now partially impacted. I have been doing correct tounge posture and swallow and had NCR sessions which have all helped for 9 months now, but the width of my jaw is still too small and narrow.
Have read this chewing blog over and over, and am wondering could it help me rotate my impacted widsom teeth over time to the correct growth etc and jaw space? The top two are horizontally growing into my cheek and bone and nerve and I desperately don’t want any of my widsom teeth removed as have learnt that’s one of the worst things you can do, death rates and permanant problems after extraction surgery being too high for my liking!
So is this possible and will I crack/fracture/wear down my other teeth? As desperately don’t want to do that either!!
Have ordered falim gum.
Hope you can help CP,
Ellie.
Uh oh.
I was chewing the Mastiha gum today, and my front tooth chipped…
I do use the back molars, but accidentally bit it once in the front…
and *crunch* it cracked.
So be very careful while chewing.
Not sure what to do now.
Seems like an enamel fracture.
Is it a good idea to go to the dentist and smooth the enamel?
Not sure if that is a good idea or not.
Can chewing the Mastic gum assist with regenerating periodontal bone?
I’ve been chewing for a few months now and I just started feeling pain in the right side of my jaw last night. I noticed the groove in front of my right ramus is less concave than the left. My bite cants down and to the left now too. What happened and will doing heavy chewing on the left fix it? Thanks.
What about this : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3183266/I-chewed-gum-seven-hours-day-need-operation-fix-jaw.html
When do you think that chewing gum is going to far (overtraining issues and side effects)?
be smart with it, no need for chewing that long
So I was looking at photographs of myself from a few years ago. I used to chew gum daily (and was unfortunately also a night-time clencher). My face was so much more attractive! I always had a strong jawline. Unfortunately I have quite severe TMJD (yes I even had it back then when my face looked a whole lot better). I’ve been wearing a “repositioning splint” only at night, and my jaw muscles have definitely weakened/atrophied. While it’s great I’m not clenching as much, it’s definitely taken a toll on my looks. It also forces my mouth slightly open and it’s quite uncomfortable to keep my mouth properly closed. I’m positive it had changed my tongue posture as well. I knew my face looked different now but I couldn’t quite work out what it was (obviously I’m a bit older but seems a drastic change). Thanks so much reading your website has given me more awareness!
It’s good to know there’s hope to get my face back to the way it was! I don’t feel as though I know myself when I look in the mirror anymore. Time to start chewing gum again!
Hi cp,
I’ve been practising correct oral posture and chewing gum for a while now, but all it seems to be doing for my jaw is making my jaw wider, and not making it protrude forward more.
I have a retruding chin, so how can I make my jaw protrude forwards more and not just become wider?
Please reply because I really want to know and thank you so much in advance.
By the way, I forgot to note that I don’t have any access to an orthotropist. So what can I do?
Thanks in advance.
Hi
Are you saying that the same mastiha piece that you chew on is reusable? how is this possible?
Thanks
Oh I am wondering the same thing… if you can make the maxilla go forward not just wider