John Mew

John Mew (born in 1928) is a British orthodontist.

He is the founder of orthotropics and mewing.

Orthotropics is a form of oral posture training that claims to guide facial growth and is not supported by mainstream orthodontists.

Mew was educated at Rose Hill preparatory school in Tunbridge Wells (1935–1942) and then at Tonbridge School (1942–1945).

He subsequently graduated in dentistry at University College London (1948–1953), and then trained in orthognathic surgery at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead (1953–1956).

He has written two textbooks and published many articles internationally on this subject.

In 1958 John Mew put forward The Tropic Premise, which argued that malocclusion was a 'postural deformity', that overcrowded teeth were not necessarily inherited and that, consequently, malocclusion could be avoided with early intervention to correct oral posture and function.

As part of his search for an approach to orthodontics that did not cause facial retraction, John Mew visited Rolf Fränkel in East Germany in 1968, who introduced him to the work of Konstantin Buteyko.

Mew went on to develop the concept of facial growth guidance, which he called Orthotropics, and the Biobloc system of treatment, involving the use of a palate expanding appliance followed by a postural appliance.

John Mew's son Michael Mew (born in c. 1969) is also an orthodontist and has also practised and promoted the idea of orthotropics.

"Mewing" is a form of do-it-yourself oral posture training named after John Mew and his son Michael Mew (born c. 1969) and is described most simply by Mew as "stand up straight and shut your mouth".

He became president of the Southern Counties Branch of the British Dental Association in 1971.

He practiced Orthotropics for 30 years and was involved in founding the International Association of Facial Growth Guidance in 1987 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Mew has written several scientific papers and two textbooks about the Biobloc technique, the second of which has been translated into seven different languages.

He appealed against the then Minister of Health in the High Court in 1987 and Lord Justice Murray Stuart-Smith judged that "these very serious strictures were wholly unwarranted and perhaps go some way to justify the applicant's doubts as to the impartiality of the Dental Services Committee".

He found in favour of Mew and awarded costs.

He was honoured with life membership of the British Dental Association in 1999.

Orthotropics is Mew's orthodontic method claimed to be able to guide facial growth.

Mew's orthodontic methods have consisted of widening and advancing the upper jaw using palatal expanders, changing the patient's diet, and having the patient adopt a myofunctionally correct resting place for the tongue, where he argues it provides an outward force able to laterally expand the upper jaw in a growing child, and prevent downward and backward growth of the maxilla, gradually resulting in a 'natural' cure of the malocclusion.

The International Association of Facial Growth Guidance (IAFGG) is an organization of orthotropics which list 62 members on its website including Michael Mew.

The IAFGG runs the orthotropics.com website and the Orthotropics YouTube channel.

The site lists names but does not provide contact information for its listed members.

Mew believes that the etiology of malocclusion is environmental and that environment decides whether or not teeth are crooked.

In contrast, mainstream orthodontics attributes crooked teeth primarily to genetics.

Prominent scientists and researchers point out that hunter-gatherers and people today who had a traditional upbringing and diet, always had wide arches of 32 teeth without malocclusion.

Work by paleoanthropologists such as Daniel Lieberman and Peter Ungar independently corroborate Mew's theory that human jaws are growing more narrow and teeth are becoming more crowded due to lifestyle and not genetics.

Stanford University's Paul Ehrlich co-wrote the book Jaws, which outlines an epidemic of dysfunction and disease resulting from the shrinking jaws of post-Industrialized society.

Mew became concerned by the orthodontic outcomes of some of his patients.

He concluded that the mechanics of orthodontic treatment, while straightening the teeth, did not address the underlying cause of the dental overcrowding and, in some cases, caused facial damage.

He concluded that extractions, fixed appliances with elastics and retractive headgear could be harmful to facial growth.

Since around 2000, he has spent much of his time lecturing about his techniques.

Currently he is a professor of orthotropics at the London School of Facial Orthotropics.

Mew held a two-year visiting professorship at Victor Babeș University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Timișoara, Romania.

Mewing grew in popularity, was shared on social medias by influencers and received mainstream media coverage in 2019.

This coverage included many tabloid papers and an interview with John Mew’s son Michael on This Morning with Eamonn Holmes.

A noticeable role in the popularization of mewing was played by before-and-after photos published on Reddit (e.g., in its r/Mewing subreddit) which have spread to other social networks like TikTok and claim to prove the effectiveness of mewing.

In brief the principles are:

Although Mew's theory has some plausible conclusions, many orthodontists do not recommend mewing, as they believe mewing has insufficient backing evidence to be justified as a sound treatment and is not considered a viable alternative treatment to orthognathic surgery.

John Mew's views on the aetiology and best treatment process for malocclusion have met opposition from mainstream British orthodontists.

Mew was fined by the NHS for providing inappropriate treatment.