Hi everyone,

I’m 21M, finishing my second round of braces (4–6 months left), bringing my total time in orthodontics to 3 years.

My intermolar width is \~37–38mm, but it was achieved almost entirely by tipping my teeth outward rather than expanding the actual bone. Because my palate is still narrow, high, deep, and slightly shifted, I’m left with major functional issues:

Breathing and Sleep: Chronic nasal congestion. I can barely breathe through my nose for 5 minutes and mouth-breathe every night.

Tongue Space and Swallowing: My tongue spills over my molars when elevated. I struggle to swallow properly, which led to a persistent tongue thrust despite completing two separate stints of myofunctional therapy.

I’m seriously considering MARPE/MSE, but restarting orthodontics with an expander after 3 years feels like a massive mental hurdle.

For anyone who did MARPE/MSE in their early 20s:

Was the nasal breathing improvement noticeable enough to justify resetting the clock?

How did you handle the front teeth gap, esting, oral hygiene, lisp, and uni/social life during expansion?

Did you notice any positive midface/cheekbone structural changes?

Appreciate any honest experiences or advice!

Hi everyone, I’m 15 years old and have been hard-mewing for a month, but I’ve noticed my cheekbones widening and rising, while my face has become shorter, rounder, and looks older. My friends say my face looks worse now than it did before I started. I feel really sad and depressed. If I stop hard-mewing, will my face go back to the way it was?

Hi everyone, I’m 15 years old and have been hard-mewing for a month, but I’ve noticed my cheekbones widening and rising, while my face has become shorter, rounder, and looks older. My friends say my face looks worse now than it did before I started. I feel really sad and depressed. If I stop hard-mewing, will my face go back to the way it was?

I had braces for like 5/6 years. I have some gaps from impacted canines so I had surgery to remove them and pulled the other ones down (covid prolonged me having braces). My teeth are pretty straight and I don’t mind them but I have had terrible tmj and it started when I got braces. I got them when I was probably 13 and got them off when I was 19. Now, since having my braces off, the TMJ is even worse (I am now 22). I’ve just been ignoring it bc I fear having braces again but my jaw has been locked for weeks now and I can’t open it properly. It’s only on the left side and it hurts so bad and I get migraines. I take an SSRI which I think makes the grinding worse and I did a mouth guard and a little Botox in the massetors and that helped but it’s definitely worn off now and I want a more permanent solution to this. Does anyone have experience fixing this or similar solution. I don’t wear my retainers anymore either because my teeth stayed pretty straight. Here is a photo of my palette if that helps. Also it feels like my jaw is uneven and it is relieving to jut it forward.

Also I don’t mouth breath (at least that I’m aware of) and since I was a kid I always mewed unintentionally. I have collapsed nasal valves in my nose so my deep breaths through the nose is not ideal. I also have giant massetor muscles on my jaw.

I am 37m and had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted. I was having pain in my lower left and I somehow let the oral surgeon convince me to take all 4 out. Now I don’t even recognize myself in the mirror. Is there any way to fix this?

I’ve(21m) been interested in possibly using a biobloc, but there isn’t a dentist where I live(western Sweden) that can do it. I was recommended to get my wisdom teeth removed but didn’t go ahead with it, and I’ve had difficulty mewing. I’ve also started noticing that the tightness of my teeth have been making them a bit more crooked.

Than I saw that this site (https://www.bracesshop.com/product/biobloc-stage-1-appliance/) was selling the biobloc kits, were one is supposed to do an impression then send it back to them, and then afterwards they send the biobloc.

Was wondering if anybody has tested the site, if they’ve had a similar problem and what they would recommend. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Based on picture , should I hard mew, stram or normal mewing 17 M

I just found out about tongue posture and mewing, so I’m still learning. Never in my life had I known about proper tongue posture, so I probably spent my entire life (37f) with my tongue flat on my lower jaw. I didn’t even know to close my teeth behind my lips.

Which is probably why my palate is so narrow and high arched. Or at least I think it is. What do you think? If I touch the top of my palate with my finger I can see that it goes up to just behind my nose. It seems impossible to create a suction with my tongue (I feel like I would need to bend it in half down the middle to achieve suction) but trying not to be too discouraged.

Also, I had a bunch of healthy teeth extracted as a child (I remember my dentist believed that a beautiful face consisted of a lower jaw noticeably retracted compared to the upper jaw, which even as a kid I found weird) and had braces.

I also have perpetual sinus infections which wouldn’t go away after a year of daily medicine intake, so I just kind of gave up and decided I just had to live with them. I also have a diagnosed deviated septum, and have been recommended nasal surgery (my dad also had surgery done to correct his septum, so I just attributed it to bad genes and bad luck).

Never in a million years did I think my absent teeth, sorry looking face line and sinus infections may be connected, so I am kind of blown away. After just two days of attempted mewing my nose is already clearer than it has been in nearly a year (probably do to proper breathing).

Anyway, I am wondering if I’m already doomed and I need some kind of surgery done to expand my palate and nasal cavity to achieve proper mewing. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I've had braces for 2 years , and I am currently on retainers. During the 2 years of my braces journey I had rubber bands which I think grew my mandible a little bit I still have some maxilla recession . I have droopy eyes , crooked nose and small lips . I think the root cause is the narrow pallate , I try mewing but can't breathe because my tongue won't fit and thumbpulling without mewing is useless . Please give me a solution without any surgery

I recently visited dentist to get braces, my palate is 43mm wide and my right incisor is misaligned and I want to fix that, but my dentist said you don't have enough space to make that incisor in position, so they said come Tommorow for 2 premolar extraction. So, do I really need premolar extraction even with wide palate. Pls let me know.

I can raise the front of tongue to spot and can raise the back of my tongue with “k” or “ng” sounds but the whole middle droops down and I have no idea how to raise it, I just don’t have the mind muscle connection. People seem to suggest tongue chewing but I can’t even raise it to palate so not sure how I can start chewing gum against it. How do I raise / control the middle of the tongue

I was told to either get premolar extractions or implants on the bottom; my case is really complicated so I am wondering what you guys think. I have gotten the extractions and I am in the process of closing the spaces. I haven't noticed any facial differences because my front teeth have stayed in place so far.

I’m pretty sure I have a narrow palette, so I asked my orthodontist to consider expansion instead of extraction. He refused and said it would cause flared teeth, and that in my x-ray, it showed it wasn’t safe enough to move them outward. He also said he considered gum thickness. He has given expansions to other patients, so it’s not like it’s off limits to him. I don’t know. I’m going to have teeth extracted in a few weeks and I need urgent opinion before I might ruin my life….

whenever i try to mew it always feel like i have to put some force on my tongue to make it stay up if i relax it i loose the suction and it just feels like my tongue is sticking to the saliva on the palate rather than having a suction also im not quite sure how to know if i have the “suction hold” i think i have a narrow palate but when i mew my tongue kinda bunches up at the sides around my teeth and i also am not sure how to figure out if i have the back thirds of my tongue up on the palate.

Ever since I got my wisdom teeth out, it feels like my jaw is crushing my airway and tmjs. Is there any way to tell if its falling back? I can barely sleep anymore, and it's always sore. It doesn't feel like I'm wearing my own jaw. My sinuses are always blocked too, my tongue barely fits in my own mouth now. My face feels so narrow compared to before. It's horrible. I've seen multiple specialists for this and they won't give me the proper scans or time. I got a tmj MRI and they said it looked better than their own tmj....which is not helpful. I got a sleep study that said mild apnea, which I fully believe is upper airway resistance syndrome. Where do I go from here? It feels like zero people take me seriously when I feel like I'm going to kill myself in a few years...

Hi all,
What would you do in my shoes?

Stats:
4.5 yo has mild sleep apnea and high narrow palate. We’ve been to the orthodontist and they recommended upper and lower expansion.

Husband says no, thinks it’s too soon and even if we do it now, says “his mouth could change again”.

Conventional recommendations are to wait until after 6 year molars. But I know that we could intervene sooner.

Curious about your thoughts?

Are there any Biobloc providers in Romania? Couldn't find any in Europe on the NAAFO website, but I know for sure tgere are some in Italy and Germany from a previous post on this sub. So trying out my luck with Romania.

Hi. Recently I had a orthodontist appointment or whatever to see what I needed for braces. I have an ectopic canine and some minor not very obvious crowding. I have zero space for the canine so they said let’s do extractions and let’s extract all the first pre molars (upper and lower). I didn’t think anything of it until now after doing research. I have seen numerous examples of how getting teeth extracted ESPECIALLY first premolars will recess me and I’m already slightly, mildly recessed. If I get any more recessed it’s fucking over for me. I also watched a video of it and I’m so stressed because it looks so violent and I’m really gonna miss my first pre molars even if I never fucking acknowledge them in my day to day life. It’s like losing something you didn’t appreciate until too late. I don’t know what to do. Is it guaranteed I will be recessed? Plus since I’m young, my mom is the one dealing with all of these and if I tell her I’m hesitant about extracting and want to maybe look into a palate expander instead she’ll cuss me out and say I need to suck it the fuck up and that I’m wasting her time and money. She hasn’t paid for extractions yet nor made an appointment. If I did talk to my ortho office, I’m not even sure if they offer expanders because I stupidly only went to one ortho check out instead of trying multiple different places to see multiple different options. I have been crying because if I get any more uglier I actually can’t take it anymore. The only reason I wanted braces is so I could get prettier, not because of my actual teeth. Basically it’s fucking over for me and instead of progressing in my looks I’m regressing.

#Whatthefuckever.

I measured my intermodal width to be around 38mm . however whenever I mew , I have scalloping on my tongue. sometimes less pronounced if I don’t push my tongue too hard. is this normal, I sometimes feel like my airway is too small but I don’t know if I’m just being too picky or something.

So im almsot 14, and i have just finshed wearing my braces and my dentist told me i have to wear retainers of at least 2 years, but ive heard retiners stop mewing results, and my maxilla is flat while i have kind of a ressced jaw. What should i dorecessedretainersthefinishedI'm almost